Is the quick-read/Wikipedia-checking/information-now/skim-over-it/RSS-aggregating culture affecting our ability to take in deeper information?
And with millions of blogs out there how do people get attracted to particular ones? Why this one, for example? (Don't think about that comment too deeply, or you may be tempted to navigate away (leave that mouse alone….leave it!))
Check this out (please ignore ref to 2007):
Gartner forecasts that blogging will peak in 2007, levelling off when the number of writers who maintain a personal website reaches 100 million. Gartner analysts expect that the novelty value of the medium will wear off … the firm estimates that there are more than 200 million former bloggers who have ceased posting to their online diaries, creating an exponential rise in the amount of 'dotsam' and 'netsam' - that is to say, unwanted objects on the web.
Guess where I got that information? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog#Popularity
I was also recently sent a link to an interesting piece on the simple aspect of the layout of a posting.
It recommends short sentences. Sharp. To the point. Pithy.
I thought questions may engage the reader. Is that working? Are you engaged?
It also talks about the:
The full article is here: http://www.slate.com/id/2193552/
Slate says that a bit of bolding doesn't go amiss either. But they don't like puns, which ruins OddIT straightaway.
Back to the wider issue: Are we training ourselves to read in snacklet-sized portions, just McInformation, destroying our ability to take in anything deeper than a moderately evaporated bird bath?
Nicholas Carr has written on this very question: http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/06/read_it_if_you.php
It's largely anecdotal of course, but in some of his subsequent posts on the subject (and in the comments, which I do occasionally read) it seems that others are recognising this in themselves. http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/06/read_it_if_you.php
Anyway, the word count is now at 312, so you must be bored to death (if you're still there…hello?).
Are you losing your ability to read?
About the author
Brian has been at BCS since 2001 and seen a lot of changes - all positive for BCS, rather more mixed for the IT industry. Of course there are still ridiculous things in IT that cry out to be recorded, and that's what this blog is for.
See all posts by Brian Runciman
Comments (2)
Leave CommentI say, well this is the first time a read a blog posting to the very end... However, I don't really think that many people have that much time to read blogs unless they were really good...
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I also rarely read Blogs as my own life is busy enough without reading soneone elses. I also feel that the time taken to layout my comments are largely wasted and therefore have decided not to bother! In fact I only read this one in the interests of democracy. ;-)
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