Cinerant

Listening vs. Seeing

I've always heard about how people who listened to the JFK/Nixon debates on the radio had a different impression of the two men compared to those who watched the debates on TV. While I understand the impact of those two media, I'd never really experientially encountered something that forced my hand, allowing me to realize how it actually worked.

Until last night. Being on the West Coast, the State of the Union (as is the same with apparently all Presidential broadcasts) is shown live. So I was on my way from work. No way I was going to be able to get there in time to see the whole thing, so I turned over to a talk/news radio station and listened to the President address the country.

And what a weird thing it was. Granted, I didn't hear the entire speech, just over half of it, but to me, it seemed like the rhythms were off, the punch wasn't there and it just sat there. But, I don't think that was the speech. I think that was me. My reaction was off. I couldn't make anything of it. I was less engaged. I was less interested. I was using fewer of my senses than normal when watching this annual affair, and as a result, I could've cared less. Even if I'd been home, I probably would've been surfing the Net, reading, cleaning, cooking, or doing something else with my eyes, but not being able to occassionally look at something (other than the highway). Says a lot about the power of the visual.

posted by cinegod @ 10:09 AM