As a senior in college I have seen my fair share of PowerPoint presentations. In fact, much like Wired writer Edward Tufte, I too dislike PowerPoint. In his 2003 article, “PowerPoint is Evil.” Often times students see PowerPoint as a way to get their information up in big fancy letters and colors without giving much information. In fact, I would argue it’s the lazy form of presenting. PowerPoint doesn’t allow for an audience to interact with the speaker. Students in many of my classes have often read directly off of a PowerPoint filled with large paragraphs.
What doesn’t seem to be clear to some presenters is that I am capable of reading.
Tufte concludes his piece by saying,
At a minimum, a presentation format should do no harm. Yet the PowerPoint style routinely disrupts, dominates, and trivializes content. Thus PowerPoint presentations too often resemble a school play -very loud, very slow, and very simple.
The practical conclusions are clear. PowerPoint is a competent slide manager and projector. But rather than supplementing a presentation, it has become a substitute for it. Such misuse ignores the most important rule of speaking: Respect your audience.
I full heartily agree with this. Presentations have become boring where presenters do not seem to respect their audience. When presenters read to me directly off their PowerPoint or not include video or engaging images, I immediately zone out and start checking my phone or the latest Facebook statuses.
Commedian Don McMillan seems to agree with Tufte and myself on highlighting the problems with PowerPoint.
However the internet has started to save the presentation medium.
Free, online presentation sites allow for a more engaging presentation experience for both the presenter and the audience. Since my sophomore year of college, I have used Prezi. Prezi is an online, interactive presentation tool. It allows individuals to embed their own videos and images directly into the presentation. Words stand out by zooming in and out of the content and allows for the audience to move with you as you speak.
In short, I am anti-PowerPoint and Pro Prezi.