A lot of lectures and talks are accompanied with presentations in which a lot of information is put in every slide of that presentation. This makes it difficult for a person in the audience to read it and also prevents that person from the actual listening of the lecture that is being given. In other words, the audience is multitasking during your talk: trying to read your slides and simultaneously listening your lecture, but they most probably will not learn and gain information as much as you might have wished.
A study that was conducted a couple of years ago at The British Institute of Psychiatry showed that checking your email while performing another creative task decreases your IQ in the moment 10 points. That is the equivalent of not sleeping for 36 hours—more than twice the impact of smoking marijuana. Maybe almost the same might be said for the audience that is both reading your slides and listening your presentation.
Slides are not meant to be pages of a book, where you are supposed to read, but rather they are a means of helping the speaker recall some important points that are worth mentioning. They are also meant to help the audience get a better understanding of what the speaker is saying, but the audience most probably will not be able to both read and listen your talk. Therefore try to minimize the content of your slides and prepare more engaging talks and lectures that you would like yourself to hear.
You can show more respect to your audience by making it possible for them to learn from your presentation. Though in some cases it may be that slides are prepared and used to help the lecturer read, you are not helping your audience with a dense content. When you get prepared and practice before going to the stage, you will probably be able to speak more and be less depended on your slides. This might not only build in a better picture of you in sight of the others and give you a better reputation as a good presenter, but it also shows that you respect your audience and value it, because you have dedicated your time and effort to prepare before staying in from of it, rather than solely reading your slides.
I am not saying that this tip might be the ideal one to help you and your audience to benefit the most from your talk, but I am suggesting this as an alternative that at least might serve as an improvement to the lectures that are held in the time of Prezi and PowerPoint.
