Speed now & then (Space and time?)

[Liam Proven]

On 29 March 2018 at 21:35, Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> MP4s mean that now, not only does it take MUCH longer to create the
> document, we can now waste MUCH more of the reader's time!
> I find it very annoying that when GOOGLE'ing to find a simple answer, many
> of the first hits are YouTube.

I got a room full of very surprised looks a couple of years ago,
interviewing for a tech-writer position, when I said that I hated
online videos as instructions, finding them far too slow and
inefficient.

This concept shocked everyone in the room, AFAICT.

> Dancing kangaroos and yodelling jellyfish has let form triumph over content!
> When will we finally have smell-o-vision?

I used to think this of media such as Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest,
Instagram et al.

Then I realised something -- something connected with my career change
to tech writing.

A lot of people _can't_ express themselves in text. Some don't care
and let fly with all their spelling and grammatical errors,
mostly-missing-and-the-rest-incorrect punctuation etc.

At least 1 of my cousins is like that -- I can barely follow when this
woman (who is in her mid 50s) writes to me. It's barely English, with
no punctuation, no capitals, no sentences or paragraphs, just stream
of incoherent severely-misspelled consciousness.

I don't think she realises, and she can't help it.

I suspect many, of all ages, are like her.

And I further suspect that they can't easily consume text, either.
They can't read very fluidly.

Also see:

https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/11/16/20011116/

... and this from someone who I generally admire. He, as many do now,
see threading as an unnecessary, distracting technical frippery.

Astounding.

But for those who _do_ care about appearances but _can't_ write well
*and know it*, Snapchat etc. are a way out. You can "express yourself"
via pictures. You can take them yourself, use filters and so on to
tart them up a bit, and still communicate with a community of friends,
with no more writing than a few tags at a minimum.

If you can't even do that, Pinterest lets you do it _with someone
else's images_.

-- 
Liam Proven • Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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