You SEE what I mean!
The phenomenon has been before our eyes for decades, accelerated since the advent of the smartphone in 2007: our thinking is increasingly fed with PICTURES.
15 years ago, the telephone transmitted words and voices. Today, likes and emojis abound in our text messages and emails. Graphic facilitation fixes the collective memory in company seminars. Icons flourish in all signage, transport, public places, shops, media. We send a photo or a short video to express what we cannot say. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say.
However, some of the major themes of society are only evoked with words and too few images. It is as if the idea had difficulty becoming visible and tangible. Europe, for example, or the current pension reform. Such an important, complex subject, impacting on the whole nation, would have deserved a more visual educational communication. A special TV programme, a dedicated website, with photos, graphs, figures, coloured representations, percentages. Not hot news with three comparisons between football results and the weather. Not an explosive debate where everyone barks, cuts off the floor, insists, denies, contradicts by bombarding with figures and shock formulas. No, a real meeting to awaken and present. A structured moment of collective intelligence supervised by an energetic and warm specialist. As any company would do. Imagine when the Airbus staff explains to its customers the new technology on board its planes.
Over the years, government education has been limited to speeches, eternal debates, words without images. How can you share your vision without images?
Since the insane strikes of November 1995, 27 years have passed. What’s up today ?The same subject, the same misunderstandings, the same parades, the same days with tens of millions of euros spent. Meanwhile, some 2,000 kms away, in the din and chaos, a new Verdun. Just because we are developing artificial intelligence doesn’t mean we should give free rein to human stupidity. Do you see what I mean?
