Fewer Words, More Pictures: Changing face of communication

I write for a living.

I am not an author, not even a dedicated blogger. This is only my second blog in all of 2014. But there is no denying that words earn me my livelihood. For almost a decade now, I have been writing about technological inventions. Through my writing, I try to persuade the Government why my clients' inventions are unique enough to merit a grant of a patent. Law school gives me opportunities to write about things other than patents. I get to write about complicated legal situations--sometimes hypothetical, sometimes real. I get to advocate why an investor purchasing the rights of someone else's life insurance policy at a discounted cash value is not necessarily a "shark." I get to write about the constitutional rights of an employee smoking herbal hallucinogens at work, citing First Amendment's religious protection grounds. My point is, words are my main mode of communication in my profession.

But I am noticing a changing trend in my personal communication. I am becoming lazier. That "a JPEG is worth 1024 Words" (Silicon valley version of the old adage) is proving true every time I upload a photo on Facebook with a rudimentary caption as my status update instead of bothering to 'write' about my status. And now I see myself doing that in my emails as well. Just this evening, my son's buddy came over for a sleepover. The two youngsters were having fun cooking their own dinner. I felt like sharing that with my friends--the parents of my son's buddy. Even a few months back, I would just write an email describing in words how much fun the kiddos are having in the kitchen. But what did I do this evening? I just took a picture with my iphone and instantly emailed that to my friends, barely adding any word. The act must have subconsciously troubled me enough to result in the birth of this blog post.

There is nothing wrong in using a picture to communicate. Visual mode is a very strong mode of communication. I am all for enhancing the effectiveness of sharing information when words are not enough. In fact I believe the optimum mix of words and graphics may be the most powerful mode of storytelling. An excellent example of that is an app like "Steller," which was judged as one of the top iphone apps of 2014. (See http://mashable.com/2014/12/08/apple-best-apps-of-2014/?utm_cid=mash-com-fb-main-link.)   But using pictures as an excuse to avoid having to use words? Is that a good thing? Perhaps not universally.

The Supreme Court of the United States still does not allow cameras during the oral arguments. (And hence memes like 'Dog Supreme Court' become wildly popular on the Internet.) The lack of visual access forces us to focus on the spoken words when we hear the audio-only versions of the arguments. To me, this enhances the 'purity' of my study of the argument, as I am not distracted by the body language of the judges and attorneys in the courtroom. But I know an equally strong case can be made for the benefits of multi-sensory (audio-visual) feed from a courtroom.

Going back to words versus pictures as the mode of communication, I strongly believe that the ubiquity of cell phone camera and the user friendliness of the technology of sharing photos have permanently shifted the paradigm of self-expression and communication. People are communicating more because they are no longer limited by their ability to express their thoughts in words. I am eagerly waiting to see how this changes the practice of law, which is still dominated by people with a gift of expressing their thoughts in words. If judiciary is more welcoming to the use of visual tools for legal communication, are we going to see people from more diverse backgrounds becoming lawyers? Are we going to see legal briefs that use fewer written words and more alternatives, like graphics or even multimedia? Faced with a page limit of five pages, a lawyer brilliantly used a cartoon to make a complex legal argument (http://www.abajournal.com/files/AppleAmicusBrief.pdf). I am sure we will see more of these path-breaking uses of communication modes challenging status quo in the legal field. Exciting times ahead!