My car windows don't keep getting smashed in by people hard up for another fix of Reebok commercials. But go to any TV-equipped bar or hotel lobby and watch the eyes of those who are exposed to the volumeless TV sets. There is, after all, something to be said for the unspoiled, static page - be it online or offline. I'm not anti-video, by any means. What I'm against is gratuitousness - images that quiver simply for the sake of quivering.
Slate is a great example of how flickering eyeball-lures can interfere with serious ideas.
On virtually every page, insightful, thought-provoking prose is forced to do battle for the eye against the mightier, flashier advertisements up top. All I knew was how to write. But I believed in the magic and the healing power of words and of stories. But the truth is that prose and moving images can be powerful antagonists. We are not born with imagination.