"A picture is worth a thousand words" - a saying we all know. We use this to caption pictures of beauty. "This says it all" - "Can't add anything' - tags we might include after the proverb. But is a picture really worth a thousand words? I was driving from Longview to the coast today, and was the recipient of some fabulous views as the sun set amidst puffy white clouds and green hills. Honestly one of the most gorgeous sunsets I've seen. I snapped a few pictures, thinking about sending them to fellow enthusiasts, when this saying struck me. Could I describe the images I had seen in a thousand words? That's a little over a page of writing.
Perhaps in the days of paintings and perchance spreading into the early years of photographs, pictures were truly worth a thousand words. However, I no longer think they hold that value. Images, being pictures and videos, have taken such a dominant role in our culture that I think more people are prone to snap a picture (or several) with a tagline to describe something - especially over written forms of communication. I think we've lost the ability to verbalise sunsets and sorrows, a prodigal return, a moment of time, a wandering gaze. Pictures are no longer worth a thousand words. What do you think?
P.S. - 224 words...
Instead, pictures have replaced words, leaving us mute.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. As our culture moves more and more toward highly (or even purely) visual communication, the art of communicating in other forms is being lost. So we write! ;)