11th
We Don’t Read the Way we Used to, Maybe You Should be Writing Different?
People don’t read the way they used to, call it “the good old days”. The Internet has radically changed the way we read and what we read and how much we read.
In the good old days people would buy the newspaper and read it from start to finish, every word. Even if they didn’t read every section the sections they did read were completely read and processed.
Not any more.
So I decided to try and write a post that people will read from start to finish in the way that we now consume media.
I have made some of the following observations:
- Headlines are what makes us read or click
- You might read the first paragraph if we are mildly interested
- You scan the rest, looking for key words and sentences
- You look for links if you are interested in more
- Bold words are important to form a framework for your connections
- Pictures still speak 1000 words
- You read more of an article that you had a hard time finding
- You read enough to have an opinion
- You won’t read reams and reams of text in long paragraphs
- If you have to scroll more than once the article is too long
So the question for writers, bloggers, newspapers and content producers is: should the way that people read your work dictate how you write?
No, I don’t know the answer.
Some want in-depth analysis and opinion, most don’t.
For me the challenge was to write something the way that most people read “news”. But I bet that you did not read every word.
I have achieved my goal if you know exactly what I was saying and have formed an opinion. I have exceeded my goal if this has challenged you to write differently or at least think about the way you write now and how you might capture most of us for longer.
