There is certainly a degree of absurdity in it; in some areas, graphics is of the very essence - a telling cartoon can say more, and better, than many words of text; how can you teach geography without maps; how can you teach biology without anatomical drawings; how can you teach mathematical graphs - without graphs? You can't.
But you can have a graphics mania - which is what I claim we are now enduring. Words, strung together in properly structured mandarin prose, are our main means of precise communication one with another and, mathematics apart, they give us the most economical, the least ambiguous, medium of communication that we have. Words, properly chosen and deployed, can provide the means of achieving discussion that stands some hope of rising above body language and pantomime exchanges - OH YES IT IS, OH NO IT IS NOT. We undermine the precise use of language at the perils of mental muddle and mutual misunderstanding in respect of important matters.
The use of graphical representation, as a means of dodging the real effort of using words effectively, is now prevalent. The TV news, telling us about, say, a help-line seems incomplete without a picture of a telephone in use by some anxious inquirer. No report of a foreign person's statement seems to be complete without a picture of the performer (as well as an irritating voice-over). A simple report in decent English (or whatever is the appropriate Mandarin) would be far better and will, I claim, remain so.
Thus far, my complaint is one of taste, of quality of discourse. In electronic communication there is more to it than that; it is a matter of money spent on online call charges, a matter of time and and perhaps of eye-strain. Graphics takes a lot of time and memory to download , a lot of memory to save - with nothing much gained except to pander to people who are reverting - with the connivance of the media - to the infantile picture-book stage of reading. I was mightily relieved when I discovered the Options Menu that enables me to cut out graphics, or put them back in, when downloading from the net.
Don't get me wrong. I do not wish to abolish graphics - of course not - but I do suggest that nothing should be expressed graphically unless the possibility of its crisp, precise verbal exposition have been considered very carefully.
Is there not a danger, exacerbated by the graphics mania, that we may find that we have finally debased our discourse to the level of grunts and logoranto?