Can communication technologies change your way of thinking? Or, more precisely can communication technologies get in the way of thinking and understanding?

The answer is of course, yes. We have understood this for some time. Each communications technology has its strengths and its limitations. But beyond these are the dependences we form around these technologies, which then further limit communications.

Two stories in the news media illustrate this latter point. The first is a great feature published by the New York Times' reporter Elisabeth Bumiller with the headline "We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint". The article is still available online if you do a search using the headline. It's instructive for many business presenters, who have seen more than their fair share of slides.

It describes the growing realisation within the US military that a dependence on PowerPoint presentations is hindering understanding of their strategy in Afghanistan. The image that went with the article told the whole story. It was of a slide in the presentation given by General Stanley A McChrystal, the leader of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and was meant to portray the complexity of the military strategy. Instead it looked more like a bowl of spaghetti.

"When we understand that slide, we'll have won the war," Gen. McChrystal is reported to have said on seeing the slide.

The story then goes on to document the enormous amount of time spent by military presenters in preparing slides for daily briefings. The key phrase is "PowerPoint makes us stupid", a quote by Gen. James N Mattis of the Marine Corps, the Joint Forces commander.

Meanwhile Brigadier Gen. H R McMaster is reported to have banned PowerPoint presentations when he led the successful effort to secure the northern Iraqi city of Tal Afar in 2005 and said that PowerPoint was like an internal threat that "can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control".

The main criticism in the military seems to be that PowerPoint "stifles discussion, critical thinking and thoughtful decision-making" in addition to tying up junior officers.

Would anybody in business dare to follow the same path in at least reducing the use of PowerPoint? If there are any readers out there whose businesses have restricted or even banned PowerPoint, let me know. If you have set guidelines on its use, share them with me so other business leaders on the Island can gain some insight.

For example, I once discussed in the column on how brilliantly Apple's Steve Jobs uses slides during his presentations. One such analysis is available at Presentation Zen (www.presentationzen.com). One of the major stylistic devices we use to death in PowerPoint presentations is missing from a Jobs' presentation: bullet points. In fact, many communication advisors tell presenters not to use bullet points. Studies have shown that people do not remember bullet points. What they do remember are images, and numbers associated with images.

In fact, a PowerPoint presentation should not be a mirror of your presentation, although as a reporter I love them. They serve as handy notes to consult when I cannot read my scribbles. Look at a Jobs' presentation and you see images, and single numbers he wants to get across (like "30 percent growth!").

That's why his presentations are memorable. You can do the same, though your product or service might not be as sexy. The end is the same. You want to communicate a simple idea about your business.

The second example or comment on over dependency on communications technology was by US President Barack Obama, known for his love of his BlackBerry. In a speech before graduates of Hampton University last Sunday he singled out iPods and iPads as distractions, rather surprising given his campaign's use of networking technology to motivate voters.

"With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations - none of which I know how to work - information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation," Obama is quoted as saying.

He added: "We can't stop these changes," he said, "but we can adapt to them. And education is what can allow us to do so. It can fortify you, as it did earlier generations, to meet the tests of your own time."

Personally, I think the first quote is wrongheaded, but the second is right on. What do you think?

Send any comments to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com