These days we seem to live in a very visual age where information is increasingly supplied in a graphic format consisting of drawings, photos or video.
Personally, I sometimes find pictures more difficult to quickly decode than words. You only have drive into some of the motorway service areas in the UK to be confronted by a barrage of clipart images purporting to make it easier for you to drive into the correct area.
For me, the interpretation of the drawings sometimes takes longer than a simple word would. Maybe it’s just me. I appreciate that a drawing takes away the need to understand language which can be helpful for overseas visitors, but if the pictures aren’t that good or accurate, they can be misunderstood or simply take longer to interpret!
In magic we have also gone very graphical. Nearly all instructions for marketed tricks now come in the form of an online video tutorial, whether the complexity of the handling requires it or not. It seems ludicrous to me to go to the trouble to produce a video when half a page of well written instructions would have explained everything the purchaser needs to know just as well, if not better!
Some magicians freely admit that they don’t read magic books any more. What a shame! The written word can create a richness of image in the reader’s mind that enables the person to interpret what they are reading in their own way rather than take the lazy route of just being spoon fed the video version that the producer commits to film. You get only his vision, not your own.
So given all this, it is perhaps a little surprising that audio media is making a bit of a comeback. Listening to talk radio could be viewed as the poor relation to online video or TV, yet millions of people still use the spoken word as a means of getting information and news.
Just look at the number of audio podcasts there are now, even in the magic world. My monthly podcast seems very popular, and there are many others which you can either listen to online or download to an mp3 player. I also provide audio book versions of some of my magic advice titles, as this enables people to assimilate advice and information while jogging, driving the car or working out in the gym.
And this is the point really, isn’t it? In order to read a book you need to sit down and give it your full attention. You can’t lift the words off the page any other way with a traditional book or e-book. Video also needs your full attention if it is to be anything other than background noise.
But audio information can be gleaned while you are doing something else, because the sound only takes up your ears and brain, not your eyes and hands. Most of us have busy lives and are probably trying to fit too many things into every day, so to be able to enjoy information in a way that allows us to multi task with other things, can be an attractive proposition.
If you have never tried a magic podcast, I recommend that you search one or two out and give them a listen. Some are better than others, but they all have the advantage that they will give your eyes a rest and allow your brain to relax a little while absorbing information.