As I use written words touting in-person as the medium with the highest density of communication, the irony isn’t lost on me. When communicating, your goal is to maximize both density and digestibility.
The medium impacts the message. Mediums ranked in order of highest to lowest density:
- In-person
- Video/audio together
- Audio or video individually
- Images
- Written word
Videos with audio convey more info than lower-ranked mediums and require more memory on digital devices. A simple way to think of density is that more density = more memory.
Digestibility increases by decreasing bits while retaining or increasing meaning. Old-school computer programmers are well aware of this. “Better” code keeps the same capabilities while using less computing power.
