"Every improvement in communication makes the bore more terrible"
About this Quote
Colby captures a paradox of progress: as tools for connecting improve, they amplify not only insight and delight but also tedium. A bore is not merely someone uninteresting; it is a person who monopolizes attention without regard for the listener, flooding the shared space with triviality or self-absorption. When communication channels were slow and local, the bore was confined to a parlor or a dinner table. Lower the cost of transmission, expand the radius of reach, and the same personality becomes ubiquitous, persistent, and harder to escape.
The observation comes from an early 20th-century editor and aphorist steeped in the age of mass newspapers, telephones, and the coming of radio. Colby had a front-row seat to the industrialization of words. His epigram prefigures the dynamics of email spam, robocalls, twenty-four-hour cable chatter, and social media feeds in which a determined few can drown out the many. Each improvement removes friction: faster delivery, broader audiences, automated repetition, algorithms that reward provocation over substance. The result is an asymmetry. It takes little effort to broadcast and much effort to filter, turning the bore from a private nuisance into a systemic problem of attention.
The line is not technophobic; it is sociological. Technology magnifies human tendencies, and we are all capable of being bores when incentives favor volume over value. The warning is about design and etiquette. Progress without guardrails creates an environment where politeness and curiosity are exploited. The remedy lies in restoring forms of friction and curation: norms that limit intrusion, tools that empower refusal, and personal habits that privilege depth over constant contact.
Colbys wit endures because it names a sensation modern life intensifies: the sense that connectivity without discernment can make the world louder but not richer. Communication improves; discernment must improve with it, or the bore will always have the edge.
The observation comes from an early 20th-century editor and aphorist steeped in the age of mass newspapers, telephones, and the coming of radio. Colby had a front-row seat to the industrialization of words. His epigram prefigures the dynamics of email spam, robocalls, twenty-four-hour cable chatter, and social media feeds in which a determined few can drown out the many. Each improvement removes friction: faster delivery, broader audiences, automated repetition, algorithms that reward provocation over substance. The result is an asymmetry. It takes little effort to broadcast and much effort to filter, turning the bore from a private nuisance into a systemic problem of attention.
The line is not technophobic; it is sociological. Technology magnifies human tendencies, and we are all capable of being bores when incentives favor volume over value. The warning is about design and etiquette. Progress without guardrails creates an environment where politeness and curiosity are exploited. The remedy lies in restoring forms of friction and curation: norms that limit intrusion, tools that empower refusal, and personal habits that privilege depth over constant contact.
Colbys wit endures because it names a sensation modern life intensifies: the sense that connectivity without discernment can make the world louder but not richer. Communication improves; discernment must improve with it, or the bore will always have the edge.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|
More Quotes by Frank
Add to List
