When was the last time you wrote a letter? Yes, with pen and paper? The last time I wrote one, was in high school. It was a love letter to my then girlfriend, and it was full of “I love you’s” and other young nonsense. That was fourteen years ago. Today, my penmanship is horrible and my spelling is corrected by my computer’s spell-check. Cursive writing seems like a foreign language. It’s not that I am lazy. I enjoy writing but I believe writing was created to enable people to communicate over long distances, in order to tell their stories. It was a necessary tool but one that I believe has now outlived its usefulness. Personally, I would be happy to see it go. Why? Because the future has arrived and the replacement is video!

We humans are mostly a visual species. We are voyeurs. We are curious. And this is very evident by the explosion on the Internet of YouTube-type websites. We love watching all types of videos – from the homemade, goofy, fun, creative type, across the wide spectrum to the professionally created, high budget, slick variety. We don’t expect broadcast quality on the Internet…yet! But we do expect to be engaged by a good story in some form or another, regardless of whether it is 15 seconds, or 90 minutes. The only text we really need to see is the title of the video. And if we enjoy foreign films, subtitles might be helpful. Although some countries, like France, dub everything, so they have eliminated the need for the use of text.
People want to either make a story or see a story. The reality is, people are not reading as much, and they are writing even less. User training manuals, six inch thick with glossy covers, are systematically filed away or tossed away, often without the spine being cracked a single time. We would rather see a person on a screen, inspiring us with their knowledge. Why? Because that tells us a story – about the speaker’s experience integrated with the content.

So, what we want is to see the message. We want to see a story. We want a visual user-training manual. We want to send and receive video business cards. We want to exchange video emails. We want video blog (vlog) discussions. Basically, we want video-everything!
This reduced dependence on the written word should not be viewed as a negative development. It should be seen as an exciting opportunity!

The world of commerce has observed this trend and it is jumping on the bandwagon. Advertising is growing and developing around video. And if you are a business, you will take notice and do something about it. You want your ad banner next to the funniest video on the net – the one that draws the voyeuristic crowds. But your ad is probably still in text form, and if you recall, we are reading less and viewing more. Some people may read them, but think about the possibilities when people actually view them! BMW made some great short films featuring their cars, as did Nissan when it launched the 350Z. G.E. has the “One Second Theater.” What do you have? Users are watching! And video will become the new calligraphy. I predict that within 500 years the art of writing will be an ancient art. Please take a moment of silence for this dying art, and then go watch something!