Storytelling in business is making a triumphant comeback precisely because of the story the above infographic tells. We live in a communications world measured in seconds. While most everything seems to have become a sound bite, our brains grope for more meaning.

Tweets of up 140 characters. Instant messaging. The now-you-see-me-now-you-don’t photo trend of Snapchat that deletes your photo message after just 10 seconds. Vine’s six-second video posts. Thirty second TV commercials that scream at us, “Buy now!” PowerPoints littered with meaningless scraps of information in abbreviated charts, graphs and bullet points. These belches of information are like eating a Lay’s potato chip for our brains. We can’t eat just one. Our intellect is salivating for more meaning-filled stories.

Why are we conversing in such small bites/bytes? We have gone from mass media with a few channels, to massive media where the hordes are creating the messaging through blogs, videos, podcast, self-published music, books, infographics… you name it. We’re simply consuming too much information and digesting very little of it.

So start serving up short, powerful stories. And rise above the cacophony of communication.