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| Culture exists as socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, and institutions. It also includes all products of human work and thought. Which brings us to socially accepted icons - symbols that have been made a part of the structure and well-established system of our society. | |||||||||||
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| We
have taken for granted the symbols learned as
children: at school, on the playground, in public buildings, even on
the street where we grew up. As adults, symbolic signs instruct our use
of and direct our driving. As we journey
through our daily lives, we are barraged with icons giving us clues
to what is coming ahead: restaurants, gas stations, hotels and motels,
hospitals, to name a few. If you have not noticed before, you will now.
Our daily lives are filled with symbolic messages.
By observation alone, the trend is evident for speaking in symbols. Printed words carry thoughts and concepts; they create an image in our minds. Unfortunately, not everyone can read and for many more reasons than lack of education; for instance, the learning disabled. For others, English may not be their primary language. Symbolic messages provided as pictures - icons - can convey these same thoughts and concepts to all. Iconic signs can cross language barriers. For Americans traveling foreign countries, iconic instructions would provide at least rudimentary instructions in the event no one was present to speak English. It has become automatic
and unconscious to look for iconic signs. The use of icons to travel the roads
of our countries and the information highway of the World Wide Web really
does promote our being a global society. One picture is worth a thousand words
- sometimes more. Perhaps the man drawing on the cave
wall was really eons ahead of his time and prehistoric only in the sense
of technology.
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