why i don't do podcasts

Reference sites: Wikipedia on Podcasting; iPodder

Initial disclaimer: I've never listened to a podcast. If you're the type to automatically dismiss my criticism just for that, then feel free, or find a more emotionally invested person to pick a fight with.

Maybe there's a world of wonders of podcasting which I have yet to discover. But I think there are a lot of things in life that don't need to be experienced, and I personally plan to include podcasting in that category. I think it's a fad that will go away once people stop being amused by it, and I'm willing to put that down in print, knowing that there's a possibility it will become huge, in 6 months or so I'll start podcasting, and I'll have my words flung back into my face. I don't think that people who enjoy it are wrong. I just don't understand what they get out of it. Here are some of the reasons why I think it's not a great form of communication (which mostly seem to be derivable from the fact that I have the attention span of a gnat). If any big podcast fans want to supply their reasons for liking it, I would be happy to hear them.

• I'm not an audio learner. I have enough trouble with lectures which are given by (supposed) professionals. I prefer communication in the form of pictures, source code/mathematical formulae, and direct physical contact.
  
• Listening to an audio recording of someone's speech demands almost full attention. It's hard for me to pay that much attention to a recording. Hell, it's hard for me to pay that much attention to someone in a face-to-face conversation. Fortunately most people don't have that much to say and i can get away without paying full attention. [I'm trying to be funny here.]
  
• Text as a form of online communication is far more efficient. The speaker can convey it faster. I can absorb it faster (and with considerably less attention and greater multitasking capability). And i can screen it much faster. I skim blog posts very quickly (in like 1-2 seconds) before deciding whether or not to read them. Just imagine for a moment trying to determine in 1-2 seconds whether or not a podcast was worth listening to.
  
• I admit additional information can be conveyed through speech that cannot be conveyed through text, such as 1) funny accents and impersonations, 2) dryness to indicate sarcasm, 3) sounds of breathing, and so forth. But I expect a lot of podcasts aren't intended to convey funny accents or sarcasm, and are really just spoken forms of what would otherwise be text posts.
  

This all is a comparison between podcasting and text blogging. Perhaps a more favorable comparison could be made between podcasting and web publishing of AV files. Perhaps it's best to view podcasting as a combination between text blogging and web publishing of AV files. But I fundamentally don't think the multi-producer multi-user communication environment of the blogosphere will support spoken sound recordings very well.