Think of Richard Nixon or Jimmy Carter or Billy Graham, or even Albert Einstein, and what will come to your mind is an image, a picture of face, {in Einstein's case, a photograph of a face}. Of words, nothing will come to mind. This is the difference between thinking in a word-centered culture and thinking in an image-centered culture.
Neil Postman, in "Amusing Ourselves to Death," contrasts the ways individuals recall historical figures based on the culture they originate from. For icons like Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, or even Einstein, most people visualize their faces rather than remembering their words or contributions in detail. This underscores how our society leans towards image-oriented thinking.
The quote suggests that in today's world, we are often more influenced by visual representations than by the substance of language and discourse. This shift highlights a fundamental change in communication, where pictures dominate our perceptions and memories, reflecting an image-centered culture over a word-centered one.