Our Time is Precious: Why Constraints Create Innovations?

Image: Koko Pang

Travelling time is made "shorter", if not busier, with the help of smartphones and touchscreen tablets. This is because our habits have been changing rapidly ever since the smartphone wave. It virtually makes everything mobile. To illustrate, many of us might be one of those whose head faces down on the screen - facebooking, reading blogs, e-books, news, checking email or whatever - when travelling to and from work. And, when we are commuting, what we look for primarily, especially after long hours of work and school, is probably relaxation - something more entertaining that makes you laugh at it, feel better, or just distract yourself from the densely packed areas. 

What short travelling time implies

This trend might have virtually redefined the way we read in the context of new media. In Hong Kong, as overall travelling time is short because of its excellent public transport system (and that we need to drop off at interchange stations very often if we travel by MTR), Hongkongers usually find themselves more comfortable to read and create contents that are presented in a concise way. My observation is, people do make use of their travelling time to respond to friends' photos and statuses, or even upload photos and write about themselves, as this is something more inconvenient to do when they are at work or school. The common thing about these contents is that they all take little time to read. In other words, as smartphones penetrate, an instant reading culture is emerging far more quickly than most of us expect, which in part redefines the way we write in new media.

Moreover, with the constraint of smartphone screen size, it is generally more comfortable to read pictures than texts. Here my assumption is: more people own smartphones than tablets. If we read texts on a smartphone, even if we turn the phone horizontal, quite often we have to enlarge the texts, and keep scrolling left and right in order to see the missing parts. It is much friendlier to browse pictures, however, because switching to the right landscape accordingly would solve everything. And, given relaxation is among our primary reasons of engaging ourselves in new media, the form of contents, unlike traditional media, has to be tailor-made to suit the needs of new media audiences. 

What constraints mean

Positively, these constraints create innovative forms of new media writing. To me, 'innovative' could just mean something very different from its traditional format, or specifically, breaking the traditional norms. Today, new media writing means short, concise, catchy, and a good sense of humor. It is innovative in three ways: it allows unexpectedly close relationships between writers and readers, it is presented this way to fit into our fast-growing epidemic instant culture, and most importantly, it breaks the traditional hierarchy of texts and pictures.

Image: deewok

The whole thing happens probably because of the nature of 'participation' in Web 2.0, which completely turns passive participants (the role we play in traditional media) to more active content creators. One important prerequisite of participation is that we need to understand, or be interested in something before we could respond to it. This, to a large extent, redefines what new media writing is - be simple, concise, and plain. Since pictures, as compared to texts, are said to be something people find more comfortable to digest, the role that pictures play in new media is getting more prominent than the words. For example, most built-in and downloadable photo apps for smartphones, such as Instagram, allow users to instantly share their mobile snapshots online, to its own community and the popular social media platforms. This enables users to share with all their friends where they are, what they are doing or whatever they find interesting without delay. The function of short captions is just to extend the meaning of photos, or feelings they have towards them. The way meaning is created is therefore very different from that of traditional media, as in books, newspapers and magazines, it is always the nature and topic of text that defines the layout - the visual elements that supplement the text. In short, new media is innovative because it alters our styles of reading and writing.

In the next post, I will continue writing about why new media writing is an important topic that we should not miss out. Stay tuned!

By the way, Noc terms instant reading culture "micro-blogging". I think this is even more accurate. It is worth sparing a few more minutes to read his post, which would definitely extend your perspectives about the issue :)