The Way of the Hybrid

Watching the Penn and Teller video in which random people were convinced, without lying, to sign a petition banning water, assured me that the majority of people today are incapable of processing complex thought when spoken to. Imagery rules in today’s society. Most people do not visualize problems as well when heard as opposed to when they are read or viewed. Don’t get me wrong, I do not think that written communication is actually superior to spoken communication. I find it ridiculous to claim that one is better than the other. Different situations always allow one to be more effective than the other. We often hear what we want to hear and take in little of what we don’t already comprehend. This creates a situation where peoples’ insecurities force them to be easily influenced. Oftentimes, this is exactly the goal of the speaker: to influence a person or group of people and persuade them to do something. If comprehension is the goal, I feel that written communication is the more effective method. In this era of fast information however, it is the merging of oration with visual aides that reigns superior.

In the Penn and Teller video, a woman walks around a rally where people are gathered to raise awareness of environmental issues. One by one, she asks people to sign a petition banning “dihydrogen monoxide,” a substance that can be found in food, pesticides, etc. and one by one, the people sign it. It is rather hilarious to watch, but could you honestly say you wouldn’t do the same thing?

The situation is a trick. It forces people to act without thinking. Our natural reaction is to sign the petition because we want to please those we think of as like-minded people. The question is: would such a petition receive a similar response if it were, say, hosted on a website devoted to improving the environment? Without actually testing it, it is impossible to know.

Documentaries have increased in popularity as people have lost interest in non-fiction literature. This is in part due to the fact that most people want the most relevant information in as quick a way as possible. Reading has essentially become work to the majority of people instead of entertainment. As we live in an era where information is always at our fingertips, it is not surprising that we shove away anything less convenient to us.

I see documentaries as an effective way of communication. We are compelled to watch them because it is convenient, and the combination of visuals with guiding narration makes them easy to follow.

We learn a surprising amount when we want to. The same way we get addicted to a TV show or a good book, we can also get addicted to a subject we’re passionate about. Once we have developed that passion, spending time learning about it becomes enjoyable and easy. I can only assume that earlier generations read more because it was the primary method of communication.

Written communication is still prevalent in today’s society. It is just changing dramatically in the wake of cell phone texting and blogs. These new forms of communication have turned what many considered a fine art into something much simpler. Popular journalism is transforming from delivering facts to sharing opinions. More specifically, people are choosing what to read based on the contingent they most closely identify with. Recent articles in the Washington Post give conflicting views as to the effect this is having on us. One, The End of Literacy? Don’t Stop Reading, by Howard Gardner, suggests that presentation of knowledge always changes, pessimists of this change will always exist, and we must accept the change as evolution of society.

A master of written Greek, Plato feared that written language would undermine human memory capacities (much in the same way that we now worry about similar side effects of "Googling"). But libraries made the world's knowledge available to anyone who could read. The 15th-century printing press disturbed those who wanted to protect and interpret the word of God, but the availability of Bibles in the vernacular allowed laypeople to take control of their spiritual lives and, if historians are correct, encouraged entrepreneurship in commerce and innovation in science. (Gardner)

Another article, The Dumbing of America, by Susan Jacoby, suggests the regression of society due to the decline in reading of books and proper literature. Raised by a writer and founding editor of her own literary magazine, I can’t help but at least see Jacoby’s point. I regularly edit papers that my friends write and spend surprising amounts of time fixing simple spelling and grammatical errors. We all make mistakes, but I feel it is somewhat pathetic given my friends are all college students and writing is an important aspect of success in the real world. Jacoby points to video as the main reason for the dumbing of our society.

Dumbness, to paraphrase the late senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, has been steadily defined downward for several decades, by a combination of heretofore irresistible forces. These include the triumph of video culture over print culture (and by video, I mean every form of digital media, as well as older electronic ones); a disjunction between Americans' rising level of formal education and their shaky grasp of basic geography, science and history; and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism.

First and foremost among the vectors of the new anti-intellectualism is video. The decline of book, newspaper and magazine reading is by now an old story. The drop-off is most pronounced among the young, but it continues to accelerate and afflict Americans of all ages and education levels. (Jacoby)

I hesitate to classify video simply as spoken communication for the simple reason that video incorporates visual aides as well. In today’s society, websites such as Youtube have become a hub for information sharing in the form of video. Video allows explanation that could never be done by simply talking or writing about something. Just this past summer, I took up an interest in playing the drums. Instructional videos on Youtube helped me quickly learn techniques and exercises that could have only been explained easier with the help of an actual instructor.

It is the merging of various types of communication which reign superior in today’s society. Written communication remains an effective way to share information with a literate audience, spoken communication dominates in the world of persuasion, but visuals improve comprehension no matter the level of intelligence of an audience.