I have a little chat with Steph yesterday in #joiito (and she encouraged me to blog this down).
Steph’s has an incredible blog which ranks among the “best of blogs” (together with Boing Boing and Slashdot). She writes like a poet, elaborate and beautiful. If you haven’t read her blog, you have no idea what you missing out.
There is just one problem: I can’t read her blog.
Actually I can, but it takes a lot of concentration and effort.
You see, I am a speed reader. I can consume 300 page book in one night. I can do that because I don’t read the complete sentence. My eye will glance through the pages, pick up important words and filter out the rest.
If you think this is bad, then wait till you see the Next Generation (N-Gen).
Notice how television advertisements or shows these days have lots of rapid flashing images? Just barely a decade or two ago, such technique is unthinkable. People prefer images which is slow and smooth. My mom often complains she get headache from television these days.
Yet kids these days have no problem with these flashing images. In fact, they not only love it, they could actually understand it. “hey, you saw that cool logo on the wall at the corner?” and I would go “huh? where?” while trying to decipher a scene which last no more then a second.
Ever see a kid doing instant messaging? Well, they don’t do one to one conversation anymore. They instant message with 8 to 12 friends at the same time! Now, how many adults could do that?
Notice how fast kids can read on the computer and type? Most adults I know still prefer to print out documents and read them. And just a couple of years ago, adults (I was a “kid” then) are amazed at how fast I can type on computer. Now I am amazed at how fast kids can type on their mobile phone!
We going to have a whole new generation who grows up with flashing images, multitasking instant messaging, speed readers because of information overflow, who has extremely short attention span.
Lets put our hand together for the N-Gen.
