DailyPost 1071
DIRECT OUTPUT AGE
They say there is gestation period for everything, short, long, hard or easy way. Their is always an assembly line before the product rolls out. Their is backend process to the front end display – a technology, input and process that churns it out. Man or machine there is an effort to produce a result. The result is supposed to have a level of quality, some acceptable format, even for small and sometimes inconsequential outputs like a small text or even a short speech. Lots of outputs were not generally acceptable not being of right quality or not delivered in the right manner. Now we are in a Direct Output Age. The seems to be no need for an input. At the best some sham backend and the output is ready.
We start with the flavour of the day, the social media, taking a huge toll on our lives. Putting anything in the public domain has always been a serious business. It’s all changed now. The great authors of this great ongoing literary extravaganza don’t need writing skills. The language which has been so meticulously groomed to take care of all our expressive needs has been put on the great sacrificial altar of social media. Language is conspicuous by its absence, the format too, the tenor and lots of times the mindset / attributes too. If we get into the content, its utility, veracity and purpose it serves, then the Direct Output Theory becomes crystal clear.
Resounding and resilient results is fully dependent on the inputs – planning, preparation, skill creation and the capability and real execution. This is forgotten. Every speech is a product and so is even the smallest one liner on a social media post. The dramatis personae on the electronic media generate at the very best a feeling of a badly conducted soap opera. Content and humour are abysmally low, the impact only the producers and TRP hunters can suggest.
On a long lasting impact side, institution building is happening on the fly. No institution builders and experts are involved, no purpose and hence no goal, the businessmen / educationist, the funding agency and the consultant can do the job. Time taken is only the civil construction time. No time and energy invested for teachers / students. Rarely a worthwhile institution gets built, an asset to the nation. The feeling of having the uncanny knack to deliver without any worthwhile inputs, effort and gestation time spells doom.
NO INPUT / EFFORT AND DIRECT DELIVERY HAS BECOME OUR WORKING MODEL OF CHOICE.
Sanjay Sahay