Sewitch Etcetera Corporation

By Serra Sewitch-Posey

I was 20 years old and on a Greyhound bus from Seattle to Denver, for no real reason other than I had taken a semester off from Chico State and wanted to head East for once. The drive took several days, and at one point during the trip we were stopped at some random town somewhere, it was night, and the interior lights went on. I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window across the aisle, and after so much time of being alone among strangers I was struck by the familiarity of my own face and overcome with an aching love for myself. I suddenly came to the realization that one day I would be gone from his earth and I missed myself fiercely, wishing that I could stay until I decided, on my own terms, when to go.

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Much of the conventional wisdom offered today about how to “engage” audiences, get your content read online, keep attention of conference attendees and not put people to sleep in a class centers around the “fact” that people have short attention spans.  A common limit is said to be seven minutes of content, with most advice centering around two to three minutes.  We’re supposed to take all the detail out of our slides and show pictures, telling stories, so that we don’t lose our listeners.

There is much to be said about making information more digestible and engaging.  Stories do capture our imagination and our interest more than dry theoretical expository.  We can take it too far, however.

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