TED take-down

Nathan blogs critically about some of the weaknesses of the TED Talks. He raises good points, as well as giving an example of how TED can figure as part of a larger and deeper ‘conversation’.


Must admit I’ve never gotten into the TED thing. Partly for the reasons Nathan articulates for me. Partly because I’m just not a visual person. Nathan writes at the end:



Another interesting thing about the popularity of TED, by the by, is that it (along with the rise of YouTube tutorial videos and vlogs) represents a movement back from a predominantly written culture to an oral/visual culture – if you’ve ever checked out the comments on YouTube you could say a pre-literate oral/visual culture. This has interesting implications for people whose job it is to communicate something to such a culture, and its possible this means being a bit more creative in how we present stuff, preferably without wiping out depth and complexity.



He’s right. And I find it a challenge. The internet photo and video stuff leaves me cold. So shallow and in the case of video - time consuming and dull. I don’t get the point of Instagram and I think most video content is scrappy. But he’s right: so much of the internet is visual. So I’m consciously seeking to understand and counteract my personal preference!






via Blog - Christian Reflections http://thegenevapush.com/blogs/xian_reflections/ted-take-down (NB: to comment go to thegenevapush.com/xian_reflections)