There is an opinion that people benefit more if they use video records rather than written documents to learn about how people in the world live. While acknowledging the effectiveness of visuality from this method, I believe that written documents hold an equally valuable place when it comes to educating people about other customs and cultures of those from different parts of the world.
On one hand, video records can provide an authentic way to discover people’s lives. To illustrate, videos allow people to see facial expressions, hear languages and observe things in an authentic way, thereby grasping the environment, behaviors and nuances of others more easily. For example, videos and documentary films about African residents’ lives can capture events in real-time, record live interviews with people in there, hence providing a sense of immediacy and authenticity and increasing the effectiveness of video learning.
On the other hand, resources to learn from written documents are more in- depth and detailed. They are likely to contain statistical data, analysis and nuanced arguments. This enables people to have a deep understanding. In addition, there are many untrustworthy and deceitful sources on videos that potentially lead to wrong information and misleading belief. Therefore, reading is superior as its content is often well-verified and reliable.
In conclusion, I disagree with the idea that written documents pale in comparison with video records in terms of learning about other people’s lives. It is rather unwise to make such a blanket one better than another as each approach has its own merits.