i've had the chance to indulge in video and audio AND also text on the internet this morning. it led me down a curious chain of thought:
information, being the most important thing of our universe (along with 150 other things), is containerised as heck!!!!
think about it. we only have so many senses, thus two factors that determine the shape of information are:
that's it. watch me plot it on a table:
| long (hours) | short (minutes) | tiny (seconds) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| text | book | blog post | tweet |
| audio | podcast | song (+voicemail) | sfx/ringtone |
| video | movie | youtube/tv | shorts/reels |
of course there are nuances - images exist and take on many forms (from memes to comic books); some types are more reinforced and more closely fit the definition of 'information'...
but these are genuine constraints. twitter enforces a limit on message length. tv episodes often run for 22 or 44 minutes to leave room for ad breaks. hell, the capacity of 78rpm records is what made pop songs roughly 3 minutes in length.
and i HATE containers!! WAITER!!! i want a 40 minute prog song and a 10 word blog post.
sometimes the container is inviting - 'try to make something of this shape!'. other times, i'm afraid to succumb to it - my site is my home, i want IT to fit my needs, not the opposite, and house this post, a 2 word post and a wall of text, equally well.
this part is a challenge i'm still figuring out