A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

Apparently, the saying “A picture is worth a thousand words” was coined by an advertising executive, Fred R. Barnard, to promote his agency’s ads. I’m not sure if this is true, but that’s what pops up when you search on Google—the most accessible (and often unquestioned) source of explanations for anything.

As is typical, this statement is repeated across multiple search results, reinforcing the idea that it must be correct. Maybe it is?

But instead of sinking further into these doubts, and not wanting to be bored, my Google search led me to something more intriguing: Apparently, our brains can process images 60,000 times faster than they process words. Wow!

But wait—what does that even mean? Does this imply that if I look at an image, I can process its content in one second, versus 60,000 seconds (or just under 20 hours) to understand a word?

That doesn’t seem right. Yet, how many of us would actually stop to do the math and recognize the absurdity of that statement? It’s catchy, and we tend to borrow and repeat catchy phrases without digging deeper to see if they hold up under scrutiny.

Be cautious of catchy statements that don’t make sense. They are the younger siblings of populism—easily digestible, but ultimately misleading.