I first read the short, alarming sentence on my Apple Watch, one of those alerts that are usually about a Trump Tweet of the moment, or perhaps a terrorist attack somewhere.

This one had elements of two of the above: the irony of many Trumpian Tweets, and the sting of heavy artillery:

The thing you are doing now, reading prose on a screen, is going out of fashion.

All of this is happening as my Columbia course, Multiplatform Design & Storytelling, switch major gears into visual storytelling, which, of course, involves text and visual images.

According to the The New York Times: there will be less text and more audio and video. I am taking a deep breath and to make it easier for you, I am not going to give you the highlights in text. Let me just give you the beginning here, the link to the full piece here, and then let me use old fashioned cards for highlights.

We’re taking stock of the internet right now, with writers who cover the digital world cataloging some of the most consequential currents shaping it. If you probe those currents and look ahead to the coming year online, one truth becomes clear. The defining narrative of our online moment concerns the decline of text, and the exploding reach and power of audio and video.

And here are the numbers that provide the argument for the end of the text on screen thesis:

Society of News Design New York: Celebrating 40 years

The Society for News Design’s 40th Anniversary Workshop, Creative Conference and Awards Gala will be in New York City, March 22–24.

Workshop chair Tyson Evans, of The New York Times, and an army of volunteers are organizing three packed days of talks, training, networking and inspiration about the future (and past) of storytelling, visual journalism and news products across print and digital.

Speakers announced so far include Scott Stowell, proprietor of Open and winner of the National Design Award for Communication Design; Jennifer Daniel, of Google; John Maeda, of Automattic and visual journalists from The New York Times, Washington Post, Axios, Vice, ProPublica and more.

I am honored to be one of the speakers.

If you would like to attend what promises to be one of the best SND gatherings ever, please go here for more information:

https://nyc.snd.org