Issue# 3. Powerpoint no more dangerous than slide projectors.

Anyone who has sat through a fifty slide pictorial tour of the vacation that a friend or relative has taken can testify that there are few engagements more boring then listening to: "Here I am at the beach." "Here I am leaving the beach, walking to the car." Powerpoint can make something utterly boring seem more acceptable by allowing users not only to condense information but to make it more visually appealing and understandable to the audience: through the use of charts, graphs, graphics, and sound. Elisabeth Bumiller may refer to Powerpoint as "the enemy," but many times there is a period of adjustment when new programs overtake more obsolete technology. Cell phones were probably shunned by older generations stating: "If someone wants to call me, they have my home number." But now they're practically everywhere. There are many other examples of this taking place: graphing calculators, VHS tapes, cassette players, pagers. All of these were once considered mainstream, but are now becoming nostalgia as new technology makes listening, watching, and communicating, easier and faster then ever before.

The article by Bumiller is in some ways, contradictory, so I'm not sure whether she is reluctantly accepting of Powerpoint or actively arguing against its use. For example, the article begins with many military sources denouncing the use of Powerpoint; but ends with many of those same sources admitting it is a part of their everyday lives. A reason for this is perhaps these individuals have never been required to make presentations sans Powerpoint; they might lack the requisite skills required to do so. Many teenagers, for example, can make compelling arguments using Powerpoint, and include charts, graphs, and bulleted lists, but cannot make the same arguments orally or in a written report. This is preventing individuals from having varied methods of communicating, but not to the point it will hinder or weaken the intended message.

While Powerpoint can be used to entertain, in business and in the military it is most often used to inform or persuade. Condensing information allows the audience to focus on what is important rather then many unimportant details that featured in a long report, or details that might be missed in an oral presentation. From my own experience in the military, classes on military protocol and structure are taught using the same methods as in the civilian world, Powerpoint. An audience centered approach may be helpful when using Powerpoint to make the presentation more uniquely attributed to the audience's tastes. For example, if the target audience does not find charts or graphs appropriate, information in text may be typed onto a Powerpoint slide.