Landon Howell

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The power of text

Saw this comment on a Hacker News post about the Metaverse and, while it is in the context of the article linked on the HN post, it stands alone as a reminder of why text, both digital and physical, remains a superior means of communication.

Text is mightier than the Metaverse.

Kids can do video calls with their smartphones but prefer texting.

We could discuss Hacker News stories with video chat but we prefer text.

News and politics junkies prefer reading text tweets on Twitter to watching talking news anchors.

Once upon a time Amazon was a company that only sold books. Dried ink on dead trees. And in the early internet age this book seller outperformed many more "forward looking visionary" startups.

Billions and billions spent on making movies as polished as possible, yet "I thought the book was better" is what we always hear.

The Metaverse will be programmed with text.

The quarterly reports outlining its financial losses will be written in text.

When journalists ultimately write its obituary, they will write text.