Some say this is a “sound byte” society – that intellectually we exist on dehydrated bullion cubes – no hearty soups with real vegetables and meat.
And – these critics add that because we learn from dehydrated sound bites, our thinking (and conclusions) are equally dehydrated – lacking real heartiness.
Here is a little unscientific test of that criticism. What follows are two articles. The first is a dehydrated “sound bite” of the second – about 1/3 of the words.
If neither version does anything for you, then same on the writer for lousy thinking or writing or both.
Not a fair comparison in my view. The full version introduces a concept not in the sound bite version -- that being that the time is right for a new party based on the notion of statesmanship.
ReplyDeleteSometimes less is more. Who said "I would have written a shorter letter but I didn't have time".
The question is if you take out the meat and only leave the bun when you get to a sound bite, or can you boil a conversation down to the real essence.
Not all sound bites are bad, but many are. One size does not fit all.
I agree with Southern Smile......long is not always better. "Be brief, be BRIGHT, be gone." That's what I want my kids, my associates, and myself to strive for. It's got to be more than a sound byte, but I need to hold the attention span of the recipient of the information. The online attention span of today's generation is 90 seconds. I can say a lot in 90 seconds. And now, my 90 seconds is up!
ReplyDelete