140-byte birdsong
February 21, 2010
It`s funny, but until fairly recently I had the impression that communication seemed to be moving toward visual media: YouTube, Skype.. what you saw & heard and not what you read. Now, ironically enough, most of us are madly scribbling away – blogs, tweets, mails – albeit in a short, byte-sized form. Distilling what you want to say in a few sentences is the challenge. The 21st century doesn’t have time to waste. Our attention span isn’t what it was, we’re constantly browsing – moving from one thing to the next. In fact, you’ve probably already started wondering when this post’s going to end. The new rules of engagement dictate that what you have to say should take up 140 characters/bytes or less. I suggest another rule: 140 seconds. The time it takes to read & process info., after that you switch off and move on. Err… are you still there?
