There’s a lot of blogging advice out there that claim the short blog post is the best kind. And generally I agree. But I’ve also been rethinking the implications of why we like short blog posts. Here are some reasons I came up with.
The Nature of Screen Reading
I don’t know about you, but the nature of reading anything on a screen lends itself to shorter, scannable material. After a while, my eyes start to bug out when I read for too long on a computer screen.
The Nature of Internet Usage
People don’t generally use the Internet for deep study. The fact that it’s called surfing the web is indicative of our attitudes and approach to online activity. Rather than go deep, we skim along the surface, moving from blog to blog, or website to website.
The (Changing) Nature of Our Minds
There has been a lot of speculation out there as to how the Internet is rewiring the way our brain works. The famous article on this is Nicholas Carr’s, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I certainly can feel my ability to focus and sustain hard thinking is slipping away. It seems that the web is rewiring our brains to be predisposed to short, pithy statements rather than long, well-thought out arguments.
The Nature of Information
Because there is so much information to be processed in a day, we tend to move through it as quickly as possible. After all we are finite beings working with a finite amount of time. The amount of information that barrages us lends to a kind of schizophrenia. The goal is to move from one topic to the next, getting just as much information as we need for our own purposes rather than to explore the rabbit trails that information leads to. Always at the back of our mind is the thought that there may be a better and more relevant piece of information we should be focusing on.
The Nature of Humans
It is human nature to take the path of least resistance. Arguably, it is much easier to read a short, pithy blog post than to commit the time and effort it takes to process a long and involved one. And it’s takes much less effort to write shorter posts, as well.
The Long and Short of It
The question is not whether short posts are better in a consumeristic sense, but are they good for our soul. I posted this killer quote by J.I. Packer yesterday, but I’ll share it again:
“I’m amazed at the amount of time people spend on the internet. I’m not against technology, but all tools should be used to their best advantage. We should be spending our time on things that have staying power, instead of on the latest thought of the latest blogger—and then moving on quickly to the next blogger. That makes us more superficial, not more thoughtful.”
This morning I was talking with some fellow Praxis staff, and we knocked around this idea of superficiality that our culture seems to thrive on. Here was our question:
Is it the Churches job to create content that meets people where they are at (i.e. – short, pithy sound bites), or to try and redeem the culture of superficiality and help people rediscover deep thinking and contemplation?
At the end of the day, we know short blogs are better in a pragmatic sense…but are the better in a cosmic sense? Or are they major contributors to a fundamental change in our ability to think deeply?
What do you think?
[Photo by Will Lion]
I think this isn’t the question that should be asked. Bloggers should desire to be consistent and create a consistent readership. If people consistently read what you have to say, it won’t matter if the post is long or short. I’ve found this to be true, when a relationship is in place the superficial things of how long a post is, don’t matter much.
Thanks for the comment, Tyler. What would you say the question to be asked is?
Also, I guess I’m less concerned with the length of the post being superficial as much as I am with the content in the short post, and how that contributes (or doesn’t) to an overall problem becoming prevalent in our culture – the lack of ability to concentrate. Someone like Abraham Piper at http://www.twentytwowords.com I think does an excellent job of using a short post to generate long conversation.
Thanks!
This blog was too long. Just kidding!
To your point, I’d like to see more well-established, research-based, thought-provoking web content. I thought the point of the internet was to have more information readily available to assist in communication of messages and ideas… and it seems that’s fallen to the wayside. Now it’s about using the internet to project another image of yourself into the world…how many followers you can get, how your analytics looks, what your smart, pithy opinion is…rather than asking the hard questions.
I think it’s great to have a good mix of short and long blog content. But no one is mixing it up anymore! It’s all about being short enough to get passed around on the Twittersphere, not talked about in-depth in the real world.
Great topic Jake. I hate the “rewiring” that my brain seems to be undergoing – it seems like a slippery slope that I am headed down.
A big challenge over the coming years will be to convince the saints to read and contemplate when their attention span is reduced to three sentences (or less)?
Yes. And I didn’t even read this one because it was too long
Jake,
I just passed my 800th post, and I have wrestled with this very question for quite some time.
In the beginning, my posts tended to be quite long, and I sensed that most people weren’t reading them.
I am currently of the thinking, but not necessarily claiming this to be truth, that this new social media is a type of new language.
Therefore, if we desire to be heard, and share the thoughts of our hearts, we best speak its language.
This language tends to be shorter posts.
On the other hand, occasionally, I will have a long post in view, but I will break it up into a short intro, hoping that I am able to draw my reader into the longer, more necessary post.
I love J.I. Packer, but he speaks in the language of books. I am currently reading “Knowing God”, and drinking deeply of his insight. However, this treatise wouldn’t translate on the Internet.
I am far from accomplishing my dreams, but I dream of many thousands that I might build relationship with, all over the world, and introduce them to the beauty of Christ.
I hope to display that through my blog, and hopefully the transparency of my life.
If I can accomplish this, then perhaps I can persuade my readers to occasionally hop off the jet ski, and don their deep sea diving suits.
The deep joy is found in the profound depths. In this, J.I.Packer is completely right.
But, me thinks, we must plead our case in short 3-4 paragraphs to gain their attention.
David, Thanks for your insights. I go back and forth with this too. The thing I appreciate about your posts is that there is lots packed into a short space, and there are ample opportunities for digging deeper on your own if need be.
I agree that short posts are probably better for audience retention. I’m not convinced, as you seem to agree, that the short post is better for the soul…but it can be useful for pointing towards deeper study and thinking.
As to your thoughts on Social Media, I tend to agree that it is fundamentally changing the way people think and communicate – for better or worse. I’ve explored some of that (which I call digitalism) on my blog. http://www.thejakers.com/featured/ministry-in-a-post-christian-digital-society-part-one
Peace.
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