-insert visual here-

I’m a visual communicator. Cameras are my eyes. I majored in cinema studies in college because seeing made more sense than reading, constructing made more sense that writing. More often than not, I’ll confirm the final thought of an email thread or Twitter conversation with an appropriate animated gif. It’s just how I roll.

Two weeks ago, I returned from a trip from Boston and ended up in a conversation with an Oberlin trustee. He asked me what I was doing in Boston — presenting, of course, on admissions, social media, and working with student content creators — and then asked me what the newest big thing in social media will be this year. (I’m pretty sure the exact phrasing was, “So, what’s the next Facebook?” but you all know how I feel about Facebook. I feel Not Great about Facebook.)

I responded that while I don’t know what the next big app-thing will be, I have a pretty good feeling that it’ll focus on visual communication: photos, gifs, videos, animations, selfies, emoji, memes, etc. Why? Because in a world where more and more communication happens online, in text form, we lose a lot of the open-to-interpretation parts of non-verbal communication. Visual communication gets a little bit closer to understanding and conveying our feelings without face-to-facing with our receiver, much less finding the words for it, words that limit us to our vocabulary, our language, our platforms. If a picture is worth a thousand words, an emoji is worth a half dozen smizes, an animated gif is worth 100 losses of eye contact, a meme is worth an uncomfortable weight shift or two, and a selfie is at least a gross of giggles.

This marks a shift in our understanding, but are we prepared? Two considerations:

• Do we possess the education to effectively translate visual communication to meaningful understanding?
• Are our digital spaces ready to make visual content accessible to everyone?

I am currently doubtful on both fronts, but these are things that we as technological developers and educators need be aware of as we make and teach our newest generations of communicators.