Older people still experience the need to translate images into observed reality. When they travel, they want to see the Eiffel Tower or Grand Canyon exactly as they saw them first on posters. An American tourist in sneakers can cover the Louvre in six minutes, since there are only about seven things he recognizes - Winged Victory, Mona Lisa, etc. - and therefore wants to see. He can tell the cab driver to wait. Similarly, he can cover eleven capitals in two weeks, convinced he has missed nothing.

He does more than see the real Eiffel Tower. He photographs it exactly as he knows it from posters. Better still, he has someone photograph him in front of it. Back home, that photograph reaffirms his identity within that scene.

This need to translate images into objective reality has been a hidden factor in advertising: encountering only the image, people felt the need to acquire the product, not for its own sake but to complete & validate the ad. Similarly, they translated political images into votes.

Unlike their parents, the young are less anxious to validate images by reference back to observable reality. That need arose largely from conditions unique to literacy, and literacy exercises little control in their lives.

Today's images are often self-sufficient. We now have ads that give more satisfaction than their products. Conceivably there doesn't even have to be a product. Sometimes when we try to purchase a product advertised on TV, we're told, "It's not yet in distribution," which probably means not yet in existence since consumer interest is often tested prior to production.

In government this is called a "press leak," though it's obviously not a "leak," having been planted in the news to test public response. In other words, it's possible to achieve the effect of a product or act without having either.

"Oh, what a beautiful baby!" exclaimed a neighbor.

"That's nothing," replied the mother. "You should see his photograph!"