Reading time (200 wpm): 2 minutes
There should be better ways to communicate with people of different beliefs and backgrounds. Many books, speeches, and videos only manage to speak to a small percentage of people out there, despite the quality of their content or their authors’ desire to reach as broad of an audience as possible. Previously, the limitations of these static and linear forms of media have been a necessary trade-off to create content that is easily reproducible and digestible. However, with digital tools that manage the presentation and linkage of information, that may no longer be the case.
What I envision are forms of media that are able to present different arguments with respect to the perspectives of a wide range of people. These media forms might be like the ideal restaurant, whose menu is able to satisfy the palate of most customers that walk in, compared to the one-trick pony of a street food stall. Or like a discussion you’re about to have with a stranger on a particular topic. Would your game plan for that conversation be to just disregard the other person’s responses and stick to an exact, pre-written script? No, you’re not some pre-recorded message. More likely your conversation would ebb and flow as the dialogue developed. In case I’m being unclear, here’s a limited but concrete example of this idea. Imagine something like a digital Choose Your Own Adventure Book. However, instead of supporting the reader’s autonomy in the context of a fictional scenario, however, it will be as they engage with a particular idea or argument.
A key component that would make this media more novel and worthwhile compared to the example given above (which might end up feeling more like interacting with an automated customer service chatbot) is that they also ought to be, to some extent, transparent and navigable. With this, the reader’s experience can be self-directed and more compelling. Ideas and concepts are signaled in advance, empowering the reader to skip over well-trodden arguments at will. Ultimately, the truly curious reader could also explore the experience of engaging with the idea as though they held a different set of views than their own.
I hope you now have a good idea of what I’m looking for, though this concept may not be as feasible or as effective as I imagine. If you know of anyone looking at this topic, I would truly appreciate it if you could let me know. I’d love to get in contact with them and assist them somehow. Thank you for your time.
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