Less is More on the Internet

Many years ago, publishing sites wanted ‘tomes’.    They demanded Two Thousand Five Hundred words,  (2,500) plus images.

In those early days there were writers of high caliber who could take a topic and give you those words to the extent you could virtually submit that paper to a University,  for it was that high quality.

The fact of the Internet, as many of you have found, is that you don’t want to read so much in one item.  Yes, if you are doing research on a topic, sure, you want that very long, nothing left out encyclopedic document.  But if you are reading something, just off hand, you don’t want ‘blah blah’.

I use the term blah blah to describe an item which any proofreader would cut at least 1/3rd of the verbiage.

For many not so good writers, having to write 2,500 words on a topic they know about 300 words of, will stuff. Stuff and repeat, and add adjectives, adverbs, and meaningless sentences.

I know, when I write an item here, for example, and it is ‘too short’ I’ll go back and stuff words.   Okay, maybe it is ten words, maybe fifteen, but nothing more than that.

Instead of saying; “Some people are not security conscious”,  I will post, “There are many people, all over the world, in all sorts of positions, who seem not to take their personal security seriously.”

That isn’t too bad, but what happened in the longer sites is that there may be 300 words of information and 2,200 words of blah blah.

Publishing sites which demanded so many words in an article have disappeared.   Yes, it is because of ‘blah blah’ but also, the fact that people simply don’t want to be bogged down in a long and tedious item.  Further, many people want specific information.

Doing a search on the Internet is not like using a hard copy encyclopedia.

For example, one might want to know; “The history of Jamaica from 1494 to 1655.”

In hard copy one has to take the ‘J’ book, look up “Jamaica”  then read down, find the sub-topic ‘History’ and begin.   On the Internet, one enters “The History of Jamaica from 1494 – 1655” in a search box, and gets that history.

Sure, there will be other entries which are blanket, but there will be specific items which cover just that period.

With writing sites, unless one is a very good writer and has a lot to say that people want to read, the longer items are ignored.  They are ignored because unless the reader is engrossed in that item, they skim, skip and jump.

I recall seeing a ‘headline’ on a site and going to read the item which instead of plunging into the topic, dished some blah blah, and I was gone in less than 4 seconds.

People want their information and they want it NOW.   Not way down in paragraph 34.  This is why so many sites which demanded long items have closed.

As writers, it is not easy to keep a reader’s interest when doing a long treatise on a topic.   Many of us avoided the long sites because we only had 1,789 relevant words and weren’t going to stuff.   Those who joined and posted often did no more than stuff.

Yes, our attention spans are much shorter.   Watching a 1960s drama we start to day dream because it takes so long to get to the point.   That is because we are accustomed to getting our information as we want it, not wait to get it.