I came to the conclusion (in about 1990) that text based communication was destroying the intricacies, nuances, and intimacy of verbal communication. There are non-verbal cues that lend a richness and meaning to verbal communication that cannot be achieved with emails, text messages, instant messaging, and most pertinently, blogging. I do not mean to belabor the virtues of oratory or rhetorical skill, but perhaps I should. Because we have many gifted writers here on Bloodhound Blog, our writing skills enable us to infuse our text with meaning and richness, humor, pith, sarcasm, and emotion. The use of visual images in the form of emoticons and jpg images has helped to facilitate some of the lost intricacies of speech. Is this enough? Maybe, but I think we could do better. Now on to the potentially stupid part.
Imagine that I have something that I want to say (verbally) on Bloodhound. I open up the link, I click a button that says “Post,” a window opens up, and the beautiful botton says, “Click Here When Your Camera is Ready.” So, I straighten my tie and hair, make sure my portliness is portrayed from just the right angle, and launch. . .my webcam. So there I am, in all my humanity, sitting in front of the camera, saying what I want to say. Now, if and when someone wants to comment on my blog post, they do the same thing. Click the link, and start recording their response. Oh the richness! The humanity! Now, I realize that there would need to be a few advances in technology to facilitate this, and perhaps some ungodly amount of bandwidth potential, but think of the coolness! One of the things that really fills me with trepidation and hope is actually meeting the people who write here. I have met a handfull personally, and I must say that this opens up a whole new dimension to my reality. It really lets me know a lot more about these people. Some things I would like to know, for example:
Is Kris really that pretty, or is that a high school photo?
Does our newest contributor really look that much like me, or is that just a photo trick?
Is Greg a nerd in real life, or does he just write like one?
Is Geno really a football player, or is that just some weird photo?
The list goes on and on. Inquiring minds want to now!
Allen
Jeff Brown says:
Allen — Kris is — Greg is, though he is far more the gentle poet than anyone realizes — and it does look like you have a twin working here. 🙂
I’m wondering when Greg’s gonna get us all together. 🙂 You have to think he’s working on it.
November 9, 2007 — 8:25 am
Brian Brady says:
Good point, Allen. I watch teenagers go ballistic when they received a text that was meant to say “I think you have a pretty smile”.
Text responsibly.
November 9, 2007 — 8:56 am
Greg Swann says:
> I’m wondering when Greg’s gonna get us all together. You have to think he’s working on it.
I think we’re waiting for some TV show that wants to put us all in one place. IOW, it’s not a lack of desire, it’s a lack of budget.
November 9, 2007 — 9:04 am
Brian Wilson says:
Allen, I don’t know if that would be stupid at all. In fact, I often find myself in the same boat as you, missing the nuances and otherwise unseen humor (facial expressions, personality ticks, etc.) of seeing people as they talk. This might not be far off, though, and I wonder if it would be successful since people are so used to text-based interaction.
Brian Wilson, Zolve.com
November 9, 2007 — 9:29 am
Kris Berg says:
(Blushing)
November 9, 2007 — 9:43 am
Jeff Brown says:
Greg — getting all of us in one place would be a coup — if only because of the logistics.
November 9, 2007 — 11:39 am
Brian Brady says:
How about a Bloodhound Real Estate Convention in Phx each year?
Some sessions at NoAmer Title, given by some hounds, over two days, capped off with a golf tournament at the Wigwam?
It’s not an awful idea
November 9, 2007 — 11:52 am
Dave says:
Unfortunately, the human mind can absorb printed text at a rate several times it absorb audio. I can read your post must faster than you can speak the words. If all blogs were video then I’d be able to keep up with only about 1/10 of the blogs I read now. Do you realy want to take the chance that you’l be in the 90% I delete?
November 9, 2007 — 1:52 pm
Dave says:
And I’m a lousy typist too -)
November 9, 2007 — 1:54 pm
Ken Smith says:
Dave good point, I actually try to avoid video as it’s just to slow for me.
But more important, it would be a real pain to have to be presentable every time I wanted to contribute. As a prime example I’m currently sick and wearing a sweatshirt, a ballcap, and pajama pants (yes it’s 4pm). If video was required I wouldn’t be catching up on posts like this one 😉 .
November 9, 2007 — 3:03 pm