By Michael Harrison
Founder
TALKERS
We live in an increasingly noisy world. The accelerating advancement of media technology, with its accompanying “everybody is a star” syndrome, combine to make it increasingly difficult to get attention. By that, I mean real attention – the kind of attention that those in the professional media (and related) industries describe as “traction.”
Public conversation, as conducted in today’s media, has fallen victim to the noisy cocktail party syndrome. That’s what happens at social events, catering halls and froofy restaurants where the cruel combination of loud background music, echoey acoustics, and lots of small talk forces attendees to speak louder and louder and louder in order to be heard. The decibel count goes into hyper-inflation. People start screaming at each other saying nothing of consequence. Some folks deal with the inherent discomfort of this scenario by practicing the disingenuous (but extremely useful) art form of faking interest and understanding through confident smiling, eyebrow raising, nodding, grunting and saying innocuous phrases like “ha” and “there ya go” while others just keep on screaming.
Have you noticed how headlines – even when used by the editors of generally reliable platforms – have taken hyperbole to new lows of dishonest click bait in order to get attention? Beware of two such words that are being spewed through today’s media to cut through the noise only to create even more noise in the process. In the world of science, it’s “terrifying.” In the world of politics, it’s “bombshell.” These ratty words have infested our media sewers and should be avoided unless actually used in an honest and accurate manner.
Michael Harrison is publisher of TALKERS. He can be contacted directly via email at michael@talkers.com.