Storytelling: Gone or Just Transformed?

(Post originally appeared on Hill Holliday Blog)

In a November blog post, Ben Macintyre questions whether the Internet is killing storytelling. “The information we consume online comes ever faster, punchier and more fleetingly”. Our attention span has plummeted, and as a result, the narratives have been sacrificed for more condensed snippets of information.

We definitely have an attention deficit when it comes to online consumption, but it may not be necessarily negative, but rather a reflection of the way the world is evolving – for better or for worse. As technology has expanded (iPods, smart phones, the Wii, just to name a few), we have an increased amount of distractors that compete with our attention. For example, as you type the URL to the Apple website to finish your Christmas shopping, you see an email alert overlay in the bottom of your screen, then an IM pops up from your co-worker, and now your phone beeps with a new text, all while your Ipod blasts in your ear. Is it a wonder you got distracted from the website you initially attempted to visit?

There is no doubt that we have become a speed nation, working on more information in less time. I agree with Macintyre’s closing statement that the narrative is not dead, but disagree with the fact that narratives are “merely obscured by a blizzard of byte-sized information”. The byte size information is the story. For example, Maggie Foley, a Hill Holliday employee, lost her coat on a plane and tweeted her issue to an airline representative. Through a series of tweets, the issue was resolved. This is an excellent customer service story that helps distinguish the company as being customer-oriented, doing the dirty work to resolve the problem.

We are a society that is very focused on results and functionality. As we reflect on past ages where storytelling took on a very different form, there were fewer distractions and less tolerance for interruptions. Nowadays, people carry all sorts of functionality at their fingertips, and it has become socially acceptable to use these distractors around the clock. So can we pinpoint one specific reason why storytelling has transformed into this bite-sized portion of information? Is the reason solely on the Internet? I think it is a combination of the perfect storm: increased Internet technology, cell phone usage, MP3s, gaming, all wrapped up with human nature. We still are social creatures that thrive on communication, social interactions, and storytelling; the only difference is the way in which we tell these stories.

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