Against Power Point

A newly formed Swiss political party is trying to save us all (or at least the Swiss) from boring power point presentations. The new Anti-Power Point Party wants to prohibit power point, claiming it would both save money (by their estimate €350bn) and help us to once again enjoy “real discussion about ideas as opposed to force-feeding an increasingly sleepy crowd with numerous graphs and bullet points projected onto the nearest wall.”

A part of me loves this idea as it does seem that all too often power points are used as a substitute for good oral presentations.

But, the rest of me is going back to finalizing my power points slides (with lots of bullet points) for class this week.

If the Anti-Power Point Party can get 10,000 signatures they will be on the ballot for the October parliamentary elections. Reportedly they have 300 signatures so far. See:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/aug/28/powerpoint-party-switzerland-ban

5 thoughts on “Against Power Point”

  1. Powerpoint may be a menace, but it is a weak and relatively insignificant latecomer when it comes to mechanisms for diluting thought and meaning.

    Printing presses are to blame! Damn that Guttenberg. Before his contraption enabled the mass production of drivel, anything written had to be copied by hand. Even accounting for their over-abundance of time in which to copy things, one did not see monks producing mass mailings or interminable treatments of unimportant topics. Back when words mattered … wait …

    The written word is to blame! We were all better off when we relied entirely on oral traditions to hand down wisdom from generation to generation. Bards or grandparents, around the campfire, weaving intricate stories with all-too-human characters struggling with life’s most important issues. No magazine articles, books, or other graffiti. The oral story captured more purely the human experience. Damn the pen and the paper. Damn the papyrus and the stone tablet. … wait …

    Words are to blame! We would be better off if we were not confined by the incurably imprecise words we choose to convey complex thoughts and emotions. Our ideal should be Cro-magnon humans, wordless, as if in a game of pre-historic charades, combining sounds and movement in an interpretive dance of meaning. There my friends, my fellow sufferers from the bastardization of true meaning by communicative means, there rests the answers to our problem. Damn words. … wait…

    Thoughts are to blame! If we could all just attain clear minds, free of the clutter of cognitive interference, well, now THAT would be nice…

  2. I think it would depend on the presenter and the presentation. I’ve seen some pretty boring presentations that had nothing to do with PowerPoint. I think PowerPoint can be an effective tool when used to enhance a presentation. Audiences in the technology age like to have media enhanced presentations to capture their interest.

    However, if the presenter is boring, the presentation may not be able to do much to enhance the delivery. The worst is when someone uses the slides as the entire presentation and merely reads off the slides. The slides can be used very effectively to present the material in a visual manner or present additional material that expands upon the topic being discussed.

  3. Thanks Jen, both for the help in fixing the link (I think it will work now!) and for the additional info.

  4. To the moderator (Cynthia) — to make that first link work, the close parenthesis at the end of the link needs to come off. Sorry about that! jen

  5. Edward Tufte wrote a great essay called The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint, arguing that the format of powerpoint (bullets, linear slides, etc.) distorted actual content too much (diluting complexity, flattening priority of points, etc.). His work on visual design in presentations is really terrific, and the powerpoint essay is at http://www.phil-fak.uni-duesseldorf.de/fileadmin/Redaktion/Institute/Kultur_und_Medien/Medien_und_Kulturwissenschaft/Dozenten/Szentivanyi/Computerspielanalyse_aus_kulturwissenschaftlicher_Sicht/tufte1.pdf)

    You can also read a response to Tufte, Slides Are Not All Evil, at http://mit.edu/5.95/readings/doumont-responds-to-tufte.pdf.

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