Recently, I’ve noticed a resurgence of two “old school” technologies in my professional life. Have you?
Talk to me
Dictation is one of those. I have to actively suppress the image of a secretary taking down shorthand or a stenographer transcribing words in real time whenever I hit that mic button. (An image that renders itself in black-and-white, I might add.)
Many have had success using digital dictation software like Dragon Simply Speaking and others, however, my global nomadic moves have resulted in a blended accent that, until recently, never resulted in much success using dictation software.
Happily, Apple’s Siri has evolved to the point that talking to myself in now a productive exercise.
Is it the year of the podcast… again?
Another old-is-new-again technology is the podcast. I was an early podcast adopter more than a decade ago, but they dropped off my radar only to reappear over the past year or so. I can’t pinpoint a trigger, but the podcasts are back — and no, I haven’t listened to Serial although the New York Times’ “The Daily,” NPR’s “Up First,” and TED Radio were milestones in increasing and regularizing my podcast consumption.
And I’m not imagining that my personal experience is more than an anomaly. Marketers have noted this trend, dubbing 2017 the “year of the podcast,” which is what we were calling it in 2005! (Read Alphr’s take here.)
Thinking about the drivers behind my use highlighted these factors with compounding effects:
Podcast in your pocket
Mobile as the “first screen” with multiple podcast app options means my podcast — and all sorts of competing content — is with me wherever I am. That alone doesn’t explain why I’m choosing to listen rather than watch or read.
Pervasive access
Both improved connectivity, coverage and speeds make podcasts more accessible. (Does anyone remember that we originally listened to to them tethered to our PCs!)
The availability of mobile service underground in subways and trains is essential, though what the medium really needs is the emergence of what Adage has dubbed, the “Netflix of podcasts” aggregator service and they’re right.
The daily grind
For me, it’s commuting patterns that have opened up time for listening, with at least two hours spent traveling the 20 km between home and office (at times this can rise to more than three hours.)
As my commute involves 4 to 6 modes of transport each way (more on this in future), it’s particularly well suited to eyes up, listening while on the move. (The motorcycle portion of my commute, for example, generally requires hands on things other than my cellphone.)
Limits on the public sofa
While content consumption has bled and blended the private and public, I still prefer watching longer content like Netflix, in an environment where I can literally kick back and relax. Watching while hanging on to a pole in a crowded subway car with service announcements robs me of the full enjoyment. Short form news videos and short clips work but longer video content, does not.
Just like fashion, the old is new again. And in another cycle that has come full circle, the rebirth of podcasts as part of my media consumption has resulted in me listening to “the radio” again, streaming the BBC World Service, 94.7 Highveld Stereo and CBC Radio Canada. There’s something humanly comforting about listening to a global take on current events via my phone, that connects me to doing the same thing growing up, except then it was brought to our home via a bulky radio tuned into an AM station.
Photo: Rafael Calzadilla, Ondas Electromagnéticas
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