Lou's Commentary

While preparing to teach an editorial seminar I read something written in 1990 by a very wise colleague in publishing.

“There’s no time for anything any more says more than we realize. We march in double, even triple time. We eat, pay attention, converse, even read on the run. Despite all the talk of quality time, there is no more children’s hour. The line between school and play has blurred for youngsters, as the line between work and recreation has blurred for adults.

Consider how often people do two or more things at once. Sony Walkman enables them to listen as they walk. Computers encourage work with travel. We have cordless phones, car radios and tv sets that allow us to watch two channels at once.

Not only have the times of day become blurred, but so have the stages of life. Today it is difficult to recognize when childhood ends and adulthood begins, when people are in their prime or really old.

There are good reasons to argue that most of this rush is due less to the pressure of life and labor than to our sources of information. The media are life’s metronome. It is the information flood that keeps us running -not to escape it, but to keep up with the many choices it offers.

The way readers read has been changed by much more than accelerated time, but rather by changes in the media, which constantly transform how our audience reads, watches and listens. The walls between the senses have melted. Reading, watching and listening used to be distinct functions. Modern technology has so improved and amplified communication that people have facts and ideas coming at them from all directions. It is as if all the containers were overfilled, and knowledge is spilling out of its compartments  and merging into a great pool of information and theory from which everybody can drink.”

Musings from someone ahead of his time. We miss you Jim Mann. RIP

media management monograph, nov/dec 1990