Shakespeare’s birthday was yesterday (or at least a lot of people celebrate it on 23 April) — so the quote “Brevity is the soul of wit” is the theme for this post.
With the cost and space limits on text messaging, the constraints of Twittering and other instant message services and the need to tame our email inboxes - we’re all learning to keep our briefs brief.
In the business world, people are asked to summarise what their company does and/or what they do in an “elevator speech” that their parents or grandparents could understand.
Now Flickr’s video feature is challenging us to whittle our digital storytelling down to size. The new video upload available from the popular photo sharing service allows for a maximum 90 seconds in which to tell a story or to share an event.
What do you think about the trend towards shorter,sharper communications in our everyday lives? Are nuance and warmth being sacrificed on the altar of efficiency? Or are we getting better at communicating the mundane?
2 Comments
Well I got thinking about their 90 second rule and decided how could they actually enforce it? Surely they can’t? So it must be based on file size. As my camera takes large files I had to use moviemaker to compress them so pushed the limit and easily uploaded a 3 minute video to Flickr. I’m sure I could have uploaded a lot longer :)
I think the issue is that detail, argument, subtlety and nuance are what gets left out. Not everything should be reduced to a ride in an elevator. Not everything is black and white. More than one opinion will require more than one elevator ride.
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