Facebook exec predicts the end of the written word as we all switch to video (1 Viewer)

[PayOrPlay]

Time to re-read Fahrenheit 451?

Facebook is predicting the end of the written word

Facebook is predicting the end of the written word on its platform.

In five years time Facebook “will be definitely mobile, it will be probably all video,” said Nicola Mendelsohn, who heads up Facebook’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, at a conference in London this morning. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, has already noted that video will be more and more important for the platform.

But Mendelsohn went further, suggesting that stats showed the written word becoming all but obsolete, replaced by moving images and speech. “The best way to tell stories in this world, where so much information is coming at us, actually is video,” Mendelsohn said. “It conveys so much more information in a much quicker period. So actually the trend helps us to digest much more information.”

Grunt, groan, sad face, sigh: Facebook exec says written word soon obsolete - Chicago Tribune

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg has reason to be enthusiastic about growing video on the site, providing monetary incentives for media companies to post live streams and clips. (Hint: Facebook is pushing autoplay video ads hard.) But video is only sometimes the most efficient way to convey information. . . . Sitting through a speech takes a lot longer than reading the prepared remarks. . . . Words scan faster than videos, at least for now. True, the Oxford Dictionaries Word of the Year for 2015 was not a word at all. It was the emoji formally known as "Face With Tears of Joy."

Facebook reportedly has been algorithmically favoring video posts of late, though the company says user preferences are driving the shift away from text. Whatever the cause, the numbers are dramatic. Mendelsohn said Facebook has gone from 1 billion daily video views to 8 billion in a year's time.
"I just think if we look already, we're seeing a year-on-year decline on text, we're seeing a massive increase, as I've said, on pictures and video," Mendelsohn said. "If I was having a bet, I would say: video, video, video."

 

[Meachemdat]

Sweet, I see Facebook is continuing it's strategy to make the world a dumber place.
Here's my prediction for our not so distant future:

 

[Sun Wukong]

Yeah, the chances of this happening are literally zero.

And sidenote: put no stock into futurist predictions by those in the tech industry. They usually have no idea what they're talking about, and are more often pushing pet projects under the guise of predicting technology (which is what FB is doing here. They're basically just pushing their video services). If they did, we would have all had flying cars, self-cleaning kitchens, and lunar homes by 1985.

And what's funny is, it's usually creative types, not techies, that do the best job of predicting what will come along. Popular Mechanics and their ilk bungled where we would be at by now on such a hilarious level we literally call it "retro future" as an aesthetic. But Star Trek accurately predicted a number of now-common technologies.

 

[SharonT]

What? I can read faster than I can listen. I hate watching videos with someone explaining something to me that I can skim/read faster.

 

[baddude25]

Idiocracy is here! It is the common mindset among most democrats

 

[redlandssaintsson]

They said the same thing when radio came along. And then when TV came along. And then when the internet came along...

 

[SystemShock]

Yeah, the chances of this happening are literally zero.

And sidenote: put no stock into futurist predictions by those in the tech industry. They usually have no idea what they're talking about, and are more often pushing pet projects under the guise of predicting technology (which is what FB is doing here. They're basically just pushing their video services). If they did, we would have all had flying cars, self-cleaning kitchens, and lunar homes by 1985.

And what's funny is, it's usually creative types, not techies, that do the best job of predicting what will come along. Popular Mechanics and their ilk bungled where we would be at by now on such a hilarious level we literally call it "retro future" as an aesthetic. But Star Trek accurately predicted a number of now-common technologies.

Executives in large tech firms aren't techies. They normally don't understand the tech they manage.

As for Star Trek, what technology did it accurately predict that's a common technology now?

 

[Sun Wukong]

Executives in large tech firms aren't techies. They normally don't understand the tech they manage.

As for Star Trek, what technology did it accurately predict that's a common technology now?

Doesn't really matter. Most actual tech people don't have a particularly good understanding of the place tech occupies in the real world, either. They exist in a bubble. It's why dorks like Robert Scoble evangelize things like Google Glass and talk about how they'll never take it off and it's going to change the world, and then it ends up a dead technology within two years. Tech people are notoriously terrible futurists. It's why we heard for years that wearables were the next big thing, and here we are with smart watches as a largely failed concept. Designers and engineers are very poor at accounting for the human element.

As to Star Trek:

Transparent aluminum, numerous telecom advances from bluetooth to wireless handheld communication devices, real-time computer aided translation of foreign languages, smartphones/tablets, real-time visual communication, etc.

And that's not even getting into somewhat more theoretical stuff like tractor beams (we can't move ships with them obviously, but MIT has effectively proven the concept to be sound by moving microscopic elements with light beams) and tricorders (there are early prototypes for handheld medical scanning devices being worked on at a couple of universities.)

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

actual writing? maybe
images/text on a page/screen? no way

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

As for Star Trek, what technology did it accurately predict that's a common technology now?

you haven't been on a transporter yet?
wow
it's pretty awesome

 

[BlackandGoldXLIV]

I'm not worried.

If the written word was really coming to an end, the hipsters would still keep it alive. Retro is always in.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

I'm not worried.

If the written word was really coming to an end, the hipsters would still keep it alive. Retro is always in.

 

[Zack Lee]

perhaps title should read "facebook exec predicts the end of written word as they all switch to advertisement"

I do not "follow" many people. I follow no more than a handful, mostly those who do not post all day long and usually post meaningful stuff. Admittedly I don't use facebook much at all but I would occasionally click to see what is up.

For the last month with the few people I follow I get about 3 ads in my news feed for every one persons post. I took it off of my phone and have a much better phone because of it. Has something changed or have I just now gotten the full gravity of their sucktitude?

 

[efil4stnias]

perhaps title should read "facebook exec predicts the end of written word as they all switch to advertisement"

YESSSSIR

here is me....on my horse named "Facebook Stock".

 

[Brad Mojo]

Video killed the written word star.