TED talks and Ted's talks
14/04/13 05:15
From time to time I watch a few TED Talks. Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation. The foundation is dedicated to “ideas worth spreading.” The first conference, held in 1984, was intended to be a one-time event. It featured demonstrations of the Sony compact disc and the Apple Macintosh computer. The event was such a success that other similar events were organized and by 1990, there were some dedicated TEDers (or is that TEDists? Or TEDsters?). Most of us didn’t hear much about the conferences until they started making the videos of the presentations free to the public in 2006. There are now annual prizes, TED conferences held around the world and even a spin off called TEDx, which is a license granted to a third party to organize independent TED-like events.
The TED web site adds 5 or so new videos each week of mostly dynamic speakers, usually with a few video and audio tricks. The basic format is a speaker standing in front of a projection screen speaking without visible notes. Of course there are monitors, and other ways for speakers to see notes. The presentations are, for the most part, highly rehearsed. The basic format is an 18-minute talk. The web site TED.com/talks has hundreds of talks and features the lists of favorite talks of famous people.
As I preacher, I am a bit fascinated by the phenomena. It is so close to a traditional sermon that I’ve sometimes called TED talks “sermons for people who don’t go to church.” They are often expressions of passions and beliefs. They are occasionally tirades against religion by people who don’t know what religion is. I often find people who aren’t involved in churches to have a lot of inaccurate ideas about what we do and what we believe. TED talks are strong on charts and grafts and references to scientific research. Articles published in scientific journals are used much as scripture is used in a traditional sermon.
If you’ve never been to the web site, I think you will find it interesting. It is likely that you will find several talks that are not only well delivered, but also inspirational. They say that there have been over a billion views of TED talks worldwide.
Watching a lot of TED talks, however, reveals that there is a formula to the talks. After a while they get to be a bit boring and you find your mind wandering – not unlike the practice of attending the same church and listening to the same preacher week after week. You begin to anticipate what is going to be said. You detect themes that are repeated. You find occasional surprises, but not every talk is as impressive or as stellar as the first one you watched. And, occasionally, you find an idea with which you disagree, a mistake or a misspoken illustration, and occasionally an idea that isn’t quite worthy of such a big audience.
What is interesting to me is how often the speakers think that they are doing something really innovative and new and how often it seems to me that they are espousing ideas that have direct links to the ideas of others. Being an amateur philosopher, I’ve read enough of the history of philosophy to have a sense that ideas tend to fall into groups and categories and that we rarely think thoughts that haven’t previously occurred to someone else. From that perspective, I prefer to be a preacher to being a TED presenter. I get a chance to get up in front of the congregation week after week. I am able to wrestle with ideas that are too big for a single session. I am able to revisit themes and develop them in new directions. I can even admit mistakes and try out different perspectives.
Back in the 1830’s Ralph Waldo Emerson drifted away from the church and began delivering public lectures aimed at a wider audience. He achieved a great deal of fame and by the 1850’s he was giving as many as 80 lectures a year. Soon there were lecture circuits springing up all over the country. The Chautauqua Institute was founded and then imitated across the country as a kind of model of public education. TED talks are not a new phenomena, but rather a new step in a long tradition of persuading people by talking.
I’m not sure how I feel about a corporation, albeit a non-profit corporation with many donors and lofty ideals, having copyrighted my name. It has been a good name for me and for many members of previous generations of my family. I suspect that they don’t mind my continuing to use it and I have no inclination to start calling my sermons “TED talks.”
But I am interested in the popularity of the talks. I kind of appreciate it when friends and colleagues send me links or recommend I listen to particular talks. I learn a lot about the craft of preaching by listening and watching other speakers. And I gain ideas through many different media, but listening to speakers is one of the ways that I enjoy learning. And there are many ideas in TED talks that are worth sharing, just like the web site proclaims. Furthermore, I think that there are a few too many people in our country who rarely listen to speakers who have ideas that are new to them or different than ones they have already heard. We in this country especially, are a bit too likely to listen to and read only ideas with which we agree. Disagreement can be a good teacher. And knowing what others are thinking can be a good way to overcome barriers and bridge differences.
Despite the decline in membership of mainline denominations, preaching is not a dead art. It is being practiced both within and outside of the church. I am not personally drawn to the public lecture circuit. I am grateful for my role within the institutional church.
And, unlike TED presenters, I am not a slave to the 18-minute format. Most weeks I preach a sermon that is considerably shorter. Some weeks I go over that limit.
You’ll have to come to church to find out what I will say today. The sermon won’t be available on YouTube.