Is Fractured Consumption the ‘Write’ Thing?
Trapped miners. Taylor Swift. Tom Brady. Binary death star.
Now that I’ve gotten your attention, Robert Lerose wrote a fascinating article in the August Hotline that deserves a second look. It’s about a new book titled The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr—and it wonders if all writers will soon, as Carr puts it, have to “tailor their words to search engines.”
Now, of course, there are numerous times when we want to do this. Matt Bailey, who will be leading three sessions at the November 10-12 Marketing Conference in Miami, speaks eloquently on SEO strategies and our use of words to attract eyeballs and mouse-clicks.
But that’s marketing. Lerose is talking about content—the very essence of what SIPA members deliver so ably to their customers—and long articles, special reports and even novels and books.
“Carr’s book is at the center of a debate,” Lerose writes, “because it makes this case: By interfering with the way we have historically consumed content, the Internet and the devices that support it are warping the way our minds work and chipping away at our ability to concentrate for long periods of time.”
This translates in many ways. Magazine pages start to look like a Web page with 18 places to focus your eyes. Television inserts crawls and flippers into everything we watch. Helium, a company represented at SIPA 2010, starts paying writers by popularity, Bloomberg and Gawker by click-through rates. Newspapers keep score of what readers view most, and best of all, as Lerose writes:
“eReaders come equipped with a device that flags sections or passages which other readers have highlighted. The app can be turned off, but it represents a shift in reading from something that was once a solitary, contemplative act to a ‘team sport.’ ”
How many of us can sit down and read a long article anymore? Lerose quotes Carr: “Whether I’m online or not, my mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.”
So what are the effects of all this fast-forwarding? One study at the University of Michigan “described today’s college generation as being 40% less empathetic than students in the early 1980s,” Lerose writes. “Social media, reality TV and video are among the possible causes for the drop. According to Carr, feelings such as empathy and compassion apparently require ‘neural processes that are inherently slow’—processes developed by linear thinking habits.”
Another study, revealed by David Brooks in The New York Times, reported better test scores for lower-income students who took books home to keep.
“Readers immerse themselves in deep, alternative worlds and hope to gain some lasting wisdom,” Brooks writes. “Respect is paid to the writers who transmit that wisdom. A citizen of the Internet has a very different experience. The Internet smashes hierarchy and is not marked by deference.”
And what about the effects on SIPA members? We all know there’s no sense hanging on to the past. On my frequent bus rides to and from New York, I’m about the only person reading a newspaper or magazine. Devices of all shapes and sizes occupy readers’ attention.
And out of necessity, it may even be becoming less an age thing. Last night at the theater, I overheard a couple seniors in the audience discussed a computer class. “How much does it cost?” the man asked, ready to dismiss it as too expensive. “$50,” the woman replied. “Wow, that’s pretty good. Where is this again?”
So we know that our content has to be flexible enough for numerous platforms. But Lerose, a successful writer in his own right, has larger concerns. How will we think in this very near future? Will this fractured way of consuming affect the way writers write? Will a think piece even be viable in Hotline a year from now—or will 300 words be the new limit? (“Can you get me that article in bullets, Robert?”)
“Regardless of which side you’re on in this debate,” he writes, “Carr’s book deserves attention, especially for those of us who produce and market content for our livelihood.”
To read Lerose’s piece in full, which I highly recommend, go to the Members Page of the SIPA Website and hit on Current Issue of Hotline. (If you’re not a member, a Trial Membership will give you access.) To comment on this article—which I also very much encourage–please go to the Website version of this piece.
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