The internet is a'changin' AGAIN. It is even more visual, and less "wordy". Take this blogger dashboard - you have to figure out that the pencil is for writing a new post instead of WORDS saying "new post." On another site that I use, the pencil is for editing or changing. It didn't take long to figure this out. But I would speculate that there are rooms full of folk thinking up new ways to do the "old stuff" just so they have jobs. In my work as a contractor for the US Postal Service I have the same feeling - change is a "make work" option for many of the mid-level desk jockeys. It doesn't matter whether the change is needed, wanted, or just makes life more difficult out in the trenches where the mail is actually delivered! Change WILL happen.
Icons are physical items that have a special meaning, a special place or possibly remind us of something significant. The Eastern Orthodox branch of the Christian faith uses icons to focus attention on the thoughts and attitudes manifested by the person the icon resembles or represents. In newspapers the HEADLINE is the icon representing the story beneath it. If the headline was in large type it held more meaning, it made a larger impression, whether it truly represented the item in the report was often questionable. Let's face it visual cues can be misread, but a word aptly chosen leaves no room for mistaken motives, no room for compromise. It says what it says! Note the photos that lead all the headlines on the internet news sites now! If a picture is worth a thousand words, we don't even need to read the headline let alone the body of the news item? Oh, really?
What does the internet resemble? A bushel basket full of icons? What does "social media" represent in our time? Pablum as far as I can tell! Something to fill an empty stomach, something to fill an empty span of time, to amuse and entertain. Perhaps to "know" what is going on in the world without too much effort on our part, social media is certainly easier than walking to a friend's house and chatting on the porch as our ancestors did. Does skimming the headlines make you knowledgeable? Does anyone spell check what they write in response to "news items" and what makes them think that anyone CARES what they think or how obnoxious their remarks are? Does it really matter in those cases if you chose the wrong spelling of a word with two spellings, two meanings? The spelling of the word could change the entire response, no wonder people get upset! Spell checking is just good manners, like being kind to children and animals, saying "excuse me!" and "thank you!" and cleaning up your own messes!
I love the cute little icons dancing on the bottom of the internet forwards that I receive from friends, but does anyone really use them as a means of communication? I have had to try to "find" the icon on my dashboard / toolbar to cut and paste, to change colors, to change font, etc. by trial and error. I guess that I could take a class in keyboarding like my grand daughter is taking in High School. I used to type nearly 80 words a minute on an old manual typewriter! Not many choices and no spell check, no cut and paste; it took practice and skill.
So if I were an icon, what attitude would I want to represent? Is there an icon for gratitude? What emoticon would represent thankfulness? I am not sure that a smiley face would capture the depth of feeling, the scope of the emotion, the sheer size of an "attitude of gratitude." Perhaps a neon sign on Mount Baldy overlooking the LA basin, or a banner on the Golden Gate Bridge. Now that would be some icon!!
