T
he big trend today is podcasting. Go out and download bytes of tutorials, sermons, training, seminars etc. and listen to them for hours on end. iTunes has a great interface for you to go out and collect all kinds of aural candy. There is an entire generation that is being brought up on this self serve bite sized informational media. I am part of this generation. It wasn’t available when i was a kid but I was around as an early adopter of this technology.
Now it’s time for a confession. I can’t handle podcasts. Go ahead, gasp, guffaw, point fingers and harass, I don’t even care. I have tried repeatedly to download interesting podcasts, and podcasts that other people claim to be great. To me it’s background noise and I get absolutely nothing out of them. Give me a written transcript of what that person said, and I will ingest and retain most of what is there. I just caught myself listening to a 20 minute podcast at the request of my boss and I could not repeat one single word of what was said.
Now, this doesn’t mean I can’t consume podcastable media, if there is a visual with the audio then I’m ok. If I’m watching some kind of tutorial then it’s fine. I just cannot be tasked with listening to someone talk while I’m doing something else. The comprehension part of my brain shuts off and I go on working on my task. It’s how I’m able to watch TV, listen to music and work on projects simultaneously.
I’m sure part of my abhorrence for this particular piece of media comes from editing podcasts for endless hours a day. I became so numb to listening to voice over work that I just learned to tune it out and focus on the task at hand, which was micromanaging a wave form and listening for vocal flubs. The other part comes out of growing up in church and listening to non-engaging sermons from bombastic orators and not being able to see over the pew.
Does any one else have this aural flippancy problem?
