The New "Picture-Book" communication

[catherine]

I'm going to go into nostalgic old fogie mode for a second. I cannot believe how interest in the written word is devolving.

At Work: I used to always write 30-40 page reports in Word. Hardly ever a picture. They'd have bolding to emphasize implications of the analysis, or verbatim quotes by respondents, but those were the only elements that broke up the reading.

About 5-7 years ago, I was getting requests for fewer Word documents and more Powerpoint, which meant that the text had to be boiled down to bullet points. OK.

Then over the past two years or so, my clients have been asking me to try to come up with visual ways to do things. Luckily, that's a task I'm OK with, but it does add a layer to the process for me.

Well, my last instructions from my client were "I want the report VERY TIGHT." So, I edited the findings like mad.. and she still found sentences too long. And she told me to take out the quotes. And then she told me to boil it down still to 2-3 pages.

I was showing my DS's gf my Exit 9 website draft and she told me that it would be better if there were as many pictures and videos as possible because people won't want to read.

At Play: First there was the blogosphere, then there was Facebook, then there was Twitter and now there's Pinterest. That says it all.

I guess as someone who has enjoyed classics like Shakespeare and Dickens, and Tolstoy, and of course all the modern great works as well, where are these books going to go?? Who is going to want to read them??

I really think that that Fahrenheit 451 is now--but it's not the government burning books to the horror of the people--it's people who would never be horrified now to see that happening. They'll be junking books like scrap metal.

I remember when I was in 1st grade my father took me to the library for the first time and wouldn't let me take out any books with pictures in them. I'm sure he's turning over in his grave!

OK, old fogie moment over. Now to update my Pinterest boards and steal some Google images for my schizophrenia report.

[razz]

I share your thoughts. I read an essay in the local version of the weekend New York Times that longhand writing loss will impact so much and no one seems to care. How will we know a forgery from original, historical letters etc.
So the written word has broad implications. I think that we are feeding down to the level of mediocrity to be inclusive and the price is a loss all round of standards that inspire. lead, guide and show the way. :) Rant over!

[Gregg]

I think a lot of the consolidation movement is based in the constant striving to be more efficient. A picture is worth a thousand words, after all. But efficiency is often only a means to get to faster. I use and appreciate a lot of the new technologies, but have also (at least for now) reached the point where things are fast enough. We still have a lot of books. If I'm completely honest I have to say many of them may very rarely/never be opened again. It is tempting to totally declutter and pass them all along to someone else. One central purpose of holding on to them is so my kids will have grown up in a house with books and people who read them. Silly as that sounds, it is important to me because I still see value in the written word and still believe people with a command of it will have an advantage in life.

[mtnlaurel]

IKWUM MMWTV

(my own text language that has yet to find its' way onto Google for "I know what u mean, makes me want to vomit") :P

[JaneV2.0]

IKWUM MMWTV

(my own text language that has yet to find its' way onto Google for "I know what u mean, makes me want to vomit") :P

Haha! I translated that "I know what you mean, makes me watch TV."

My technical writing classes emphasized shorter paragraphs, more white space, and text geared to ninth-grade comprehension skills. I have to admit I'm visually oriented and love illustrations (though Power Point doesn't work very well for me), and I'm old enough to remember dense text with only the occasional engraving or photographs in "plates" in the middle of the book to break up the monotony. I prefer a middle ground between old school and graphic novels (OMG), but now that photographs and video are ubiquitous, I suspect that middle ground is shifting. Too bad, because the written word has its own beauty and gravitas that visuals can't replace.

[catherine]

Haha! I translated that "I know what you mean, makes me watch TV."

...I suspect that middle ground is shifting. Too bad, because the written word has its own beauty and gravitas that visuals can't replace.

That's great, both mtnlaurel and Jane! I guess my other question is about how critical thinking will change. When a thought is a picture or a sentence fragment, how will people learn to process thoughts? And how easy will it be for people to maintain concentration long enough to follow thoughts to meaningful conclusions? Even the rural farmers were entertained in the 19th century by hours and hours of debate, as in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Now I feel like a mere sound bite is the springboard to the insight--which is, of course, impossible.

And, Jane, yes--writing as an art form would be a terrible thing to lose. Perhaps it will just take a different form. I see a resurgence of writers/poets like Ogden Nash.


A Caution To Everybody

Consider the auk;
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly, and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct
Because he forgot how to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.

[JaneV2.0]

We thought in pictures before we invented language, didn't we? You could posit we're devolving, but Temple Grandin--famous for visual processing--might beg to differ.

[catherine]

Yes, I know, I have to see through my own prejudice here, I'm well aware. I guess it depends on what we consider the most effective symbols for communicating.

As for words helping to lead us to introspection, maybe we think too much, anyway.

[ApatheticNoMore]

At Play: First there was the blogosphere, then there was Facebook, then there was Twitter and now there's Pinterest. That says it all.

there are things each of the technologies is suited for. Twitter is great as a newsfeed. It really works great to link to news and commentary articles. I have seen unique political analysis broken down into long strings of tweets, it's not easy to follow at all, it's a pain, ocassionally it's worth it though, if you're following really interesting tweets (otherwise of course it's not). But as a personalized newsfeed, twitter is awesome.


I guess my other question is about how critical thinking will change. When a thought is a picture or a sentence fragment, how will people learn to process thoughts? And how easy will it be for people to maintain concentration long enough to follow thoughts to meaningful conclusions? Even the rural farmers were entertained in the 19th century by hours and hours of debate, as in the Lincoln-Douglas debates. Now I feel like a mere sound bite is the springboard to the insight--which is, of course, impossible.

you know why I won't click on videos? A.D.D. - well no actually I'm not medically diagnosed, I'm just using it as slang for "can't sit still for long", but I really DON'T have the patience for videos. Text I CAN SCAN quickly to get to the point, see if I want to go into more depth, video is hard to scan, I actually have to sit through the whole thing (just to maybe find out it's nothing of interest in the end)!!! Forget it! Text I can speed read over and get a quick big picture.

If you like long and verbose you'll also love my posts, try some for free on this message board ... >8)

[Gardenarian]

ANM, I never click on videos either.

Still pictures, I like. I think Pinterest is the best bookmarking tool around. Also, as a person who is primarily verbal, I enjoy creating Pinterest boards and seeing my ideas in pictures.

Long thick juicy novels, I love.
I also love picture books and as a librarian encourage all ages to read them. Some of the finest art around is in picture books.

My daughter loves audiobooks because they allow her to do two things at once - listen AND draw, knit, clean, do math.
Though the oral tradition is much older than books, I do feel she's losing something (reading teaches you grammar and spelling, as well as how to write) and the readers of the audiobooks add their own interpretation to the material.

[JaneV2.0]

...

Long thick juicy novels, I love.
I also love picture books and as a librarian encourage all ages to read them. Some of the finest art around is in picture books.
... .

Some of my favorite artists are illustrators: Charley Harper, B. Kliban, James Christensen...

On the other hand (and I admit I don't read much fiction), a long novel--especially if it's florid and verbose--usually makes me think "Get to the point, dammit!" Not always, though. I enjoyed Gone With the Wind as a kid, and later City of Joy (which reads like non-fiction, which probably explains why I liked it).

[JaneV2.0]

Here's a kid who's gone way beyond picture books to inventing a summarizing algorithm for news stories:
http://gadgets.ndtv.com/apps/news/he-has-millions-and-a-new-job-at-yahoo-soon-hell-be-18-346854


Loved this line:
Mr. D'Aloisio's father, a commodities trader, and his mother, a lawyer, had no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their son's fascination with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an app with what he calls an "automatic summarization algorithm," one that "can take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it." In other words, it tries to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation tl;dr: "too long, didn't read."

[Rosemary]

Like others above...
I never click on videos - takes too long to get the information I'm seeking.
My daughter loves audio books and is nearly always listening to a book while doing something in her room. I often check out books on CD from the library that I know she would be unlikely to read on her own and she is exposed to them this way.
We have a house full of books and each of us always has 2-3 books in progress, fiction and nonfiction.

I don't know that people are becoming text-adverse; it's my impression that there are just so many sources out there now, that the time spent on any one paper is reduced.