Evil Is Powerpoint? Business Author\'s Contact Information

¶ … Evil is PowerPoint?

Business

Author's contact information with further details of collegiate affiliation, etc.

Edward Tufte is not fond of PowerPoint. To say he is not fond of PowerPoint is an understatement. Edward Tufte hates PowerPoint; he firms believes that it is evil. This paper serves as reflection of the PowerPoint and Tufte's attitudes about PowerPoint. I am conflicted in this matter. I both agree with his position and also disagree with his position. Tufte is correct when he states that PowerPoint has the power to change behaviors and institutions. PowerPoint is being used more often in corporate or professional settings as well as in the educational setting. This is both good and bad. He makes a strong point; the skills required to write reports diminish as the use of PowerPoint increases. PowerPoint, he argues makes every assignment turn into a sales pitch.

How Evil is PowerPoint?

In the 21st century, the world is experiencing the digital media revolution. The global culture is becoming more visually based. Consumers need to be media literate, information literate, and technology literate. Thus, it is useful for students and professionals to be well practiced in the art of the pitch. In an age when anyone can make a video and that video can see worldwide, instant distribution, it behooves many more populations to hone pitching skills and PowerPoint assists in that skill development. One the other side of the same point, Tufte is right. Students still need to know how to write reports. Aesthetics and special effects do not replace research and presentation skills. In this way, PowerPoint is evil; it contributes to the retardation of traditional academic capabilities.

Tufte compares PowerPoint to an effective yet high addicting drug. I think this is an apt comparison. I think the relationships people have with programs such as FaceBook is similar to the relationship between a junkie and the substance they abuse. Thus, I agree with Tufte that PowerPoint is a drug that promises more than it can deliver, just as narcotics are abused for recreational purposes. The drugs promise a high greater than the last one, yet never delivers, hooking the user to an endless pursuit of something they will never attain. Tufte says that PowerPoint does not deliver on its promises and generates more harmful side effects than serves positive use to the public. This is similar to many pharmaceutical drugs advertised in magazines and commercials. Often, the longest portion of the advertisement is the portion where the narrator states all the known and potential side effects of the drug. Often the description of the side effects outlasts the description of the benefits, purpose, and drug regiment. On this point, I agree with Tufte. PowerPoint stunts creativity for the most part. People use it to distract their audiences from the fact that they did not conduct strong research; overuse of PowerPoint values style over substance, just like MTV.

I think though, ultimately, I do not agree with Tufte that PowerPoint is evil. I think people are evil and lazy. They use software, technology, and whatever else they can to perpetuate their laziness and support the evil within. Thus for me, it is not so much that PowerPoint is evil, it is rather that the users of PowerPoint make PowerPoint a bastardization of their own incompetence, laziness, and inefficacy. Personally, I like PowerPoint. It is boring sometimes as people do not know how to use it as a presentation tool rather than the primary source of the presentation itself, but alone, it is not a bad program. It has improved a great deal through the iterations of the 21st century. I actually saw a PowerPoint presentation I thought was cool, and it was on a subject I find incredibly boring. The subject was boring, but I was captivated by the speaker and by the speaker's PowerPoint presentation. Therefore, the program cannot be entirely evil. It is a tool. It is not the presentation. What I think is evil is when people give PowerPoint presentations and read to the audience exactly what is on the screen. I also think it is evil to put as many words as one would in a paragraph within the bounds of the PowerPoint slide.

The best career advice I ever received was "don't give up" and "every experience is an opportunity." Not giving up is so critical in this world. Every person faces numerous instances of rejection whether in their professional and private lives. Rejection is really painful and everyone experiences it. Rejection occurs quite often in the professional world. Therefore, giving up is counterproductive to professional success. If we do not persist, we will live with regret. How do we will know what we can achieve until we try? Every experience we have, even if it is one of rejection, is helpful. I guess I took to this advice because I am of a mind that everything happens for a reason; there is a purpose to every experience great and small within every individual's life. Rejection is a part of life; it is like heartbreak: the more often it happens, the more quickly we heal from the hurt. Each instance of rejection is a learning experience. Perhaps we were not meant for the job that we never got. Perhaps we would have been miserable. Perhaps if we had not been rejected, we would not have been available for the position or career that truly fulfills us. Therefore, not giving up is really important. It works in conjunction with the other great advice I received, which is that "every experience is an opportunity."

Every experience is an opportunity to learn, to try to improve, to grow as a person, or improve our interview skills. This advice is valuable for me again because of my perspective that everything happens for a reason. This advice means that no experience is wasteful or useless. Each experience, even painful experiences contribute to who we are and who we will be. This is advice that I can apply to my professional life and to my personal life.