Not My Type

In June of 1980,  I graduated from high school and the world was forever changed--but not because I graduated.

Duh! 

That same month, Ted Turner rolled out CNN, the first 24/7 all-news network the world had ever seen.  Well, I didn't actually see it, since we didn't get cable for a long, long time.  Prior to CNN, though, I doubt any of us had thought of anything in a "24/7" kind of way.

Thanks, Obama.  Er, Ted.

Since that dubious rollout (Ted's, not mine)  things have been a shipwreck.   I mean, what could possibly happen to journalists--the keepers of the gate!!--when someone leaves the damned gate open all night long?!?   I'll tell you--mild cramping and raging diarrhea, that's what! . . . and journalists have pretty much been pooping their pants ever since.

For reasons both personal and professional,  I've been thinking a lot about life in journalistic terms, most of them typographic.

Two terms, in particular, keep popping up in my noggin--kerning (the space between letters) and leading (short e--the space between lines).

KERNING (the space between individuals)  

Whathappenstomeaningwhenwelosethespacebetweenthings...Howdowedecidewhatismostimportantifeverythingistreatedthesame?

The endless pipeline of news does nothing to truly inform our citizenry. We need to return to the days when a group (yes,  journalists--I still believe in their integrity) acts as gatekeeper, determining which stories we see and which ones die on the newsroom floor.  I understand that this is an ironic statement, considering that news organizations helped create this kerning disaster.  But the current situation--in which everything is equally weighted and all are welcomed through the gates--is not helpful to anyone but those who are in power.  

And most of us aren't in power.  

LEADING (the space between lines)

When it comes to problems that arise from managing the space between lines,  I lay much of the blame at the feet of 'social' media. What audacity, using that term 'social,' when it's clear that social-media sites too often encourage the exact opposite of social living--each of us huddled, alone, in our living rooms, staring into our laps, while Facebook and Twitter build coalitions of sameness until we can hardly imagine 'the other' as human at all.

Too little leading and we become claustrophobic.  Too much leading and we don't hear or recognize each other.  

In typographical terms, here's where we find ourselves these days:

Make America great again!

We are a country of immigrants!

What happens when we build too much room between ideologies?  Too often, we just quit listening to the other and, instead, paint them with a broad brush, which is pretty much the same as brushing them off altogether.  

God bless George Tuck and his harder-than-I'd-have-thought Typography class!  It was there that I learned that spacing is an art, that we can lose meaning when we cram things too close together, just as we can lose touch when we space things too far apart.  It was there, in my Typography class four years after the birth of CNN, that I learned to consider the space between things--and how important that space can be.  

As we kick off a new decade, I offer a toast--Here's to the chance to learn those typography lessons all over again.   Because, if we don't take the time to learn about the art of kerning and leading--honoring the spaces between things--we likely will find ourselves both asthmatic and antipathetic, unable to breathe and unable to care about each other.  And I just can't abide such a life.