Did You Know We Appear To Have Lost All Critical Faculties?
OK, I admit it: I just don't get it. Did You Know, which is now in its 4th incarnation, has to be one of the worst videos of all time. All it does is present fact after fact (assuming they are facts), as if the facts in themselves are important.
Why, for example, do I need to know that more video has been uploaded in the last two months than if ABC, NBC and some other TV station whose logo I don't recognise had been airing new content continuously since 1948?
What does this fact even mean, except that millions of people now have the ability to upload videos to a website, where millions of people can watch them! I can see the point of saying that, but what's the point of making that comparison?
The facts are presented so rapidly, and some of the numbers are so large, that it's difficult to mentally process them, let alone evaluate them in terms of their potential impact. Imagine if reading was not your forté.
And that's the thing: it takes some doing to take a potentially really exciting medium like video, and reduce it to the equivalent of the worst kind of PowerPoint presentation. The only thing missing are the bullet points. Well, actually, they're not missing: they're just not visible as such.
This latest version has been produced in collaboration with The Economist apparently. When I read that I thought it might have been really beefed up. It turns out that the main change as far as I can tell is that some upbeat music has replaced the awful dirge that accompanied the earlier versions.
And yet this video or its predessors has 'gone viral'. It's shown in schools all over the place, where headteachers and principals, who one would have thought could exercise enough critical judgement to recognise an emperor with no clothes, say how fantastic it is.
Like I said at the start of this article, I just don't get it.
Anyway, here it is. Judge for yourself, and if you think I'm wrong, or you have found it useful in any way, please share your views via the comments section. Thanks.
Did You Know, reviews, video, video review in News & views 
Reader Comments (2)
Hi Terry,
Although I can see your point of view here, it would seem to me that the video serves the purpose of putting into context what many people may only be semi-aware of. Being on the front lines in technology, we are all too aware of the way things are going and when you immerse yourself in the culture you take it for granted. But not everyone is on the front lines.
In terms of the "facts" put forward, the video conveys the information in terms that, because of the size of the figures and the magnitude of the comparisons, get you thinking. For me, the stat regarding Youtube and the US TV Networks (the other one is CBS by the way) is staggering, even though the actual information itself is basically useless. It illustrates a power-shift.
The video may well ignite an interest in technology and the development of communications/media within those in whom it is not already present. For others, like myself, it may just be a reminder and a chance to take a brief step back :)
Thx, Ben. I suppose you're right, especially about the power-shift issue, and thank you for enlightening me about that logo.
But even so, I think you've actually reinforced what I've said. I can just about cope with the video because it's all fairly familiar stuff; but if it's all new to you, the huge and seemingly random numbers appear and disappear so fast that I defy anyone to fully take them in - and even if they could, what about exercising critical judgement?
I wonder if the idea is that people are meant to come away with a vague sense that something big is going on, but that were they to question any of the numbers or what I regard as spurious connections they would be regarded as people who just don't get it? Or am I being a little too cyncial here? ;-)