Comments on: Slightly OT: How the web changes writing

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:21:34 +0000

#4 Judi…”Regular Fans”? Would you mind expounding, ever so briefly, so that our feable SG minds can comprehend? Wow, I think we have been insulted.

By: quartet-man

quartet-man — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 14:02:59 +0000

AFIK, the web hasn’t changed a thing in the way I write IMHO. I have had a LTR with the web. BTA, it may others may have changed OTOH, although OTTOMH I can think of no examples. TAFN, TTYL, BRB.

By: Bari-Tone-Def

Bari-Tone-Def — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:17:12 +0000

I dont think it is the blog or the internet that has caused the short attention spans. I tend to believe that it is the short attention spans that have brought the blogs to the mainstream. Most people no longer care WHY you think and act a certain way, they simply want to know what you think and what your reaction was to certain stimuli …. briefly.

No one listens anymore, they simply wait for their turn to speak.

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 12:56:43 +0000

I don’t blog. But I do email and I do send quite a few IMs. I’ve noticed a change of voice in my writing. I now have to work hard to put forward my more formal tone. My sentences are more short, more pithy–more conversational. I rely on dashes all the time.

I can’t decide if all this is a good thing or a bad thing.

By: CVH

CVH — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:46:13 +0000

I think judi’s comment is particularly insightful; there is indeed something evolving on a cultural basis as well. It’s not just about blog writing, it’s about reading as well. I’ve been a lover of books my whole life and read all the time, but even that seems to be an increasingly lost art in our ‘bullet-point’ culture.

Interestingly, Phil Cooke has a related thread going on his blog:

http://www.philcooke.com/reading_for_a_change#comment

I’m all for the advances in communication that technological changes bring; but personally I think if we ever lose the desire to read or the sense of context and enlightenment that longer-form content can bring, we’re going to be a sadder culture for it.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:55:40 +0000

There is an article in Atlantic Monthly this month about the internet’s (particularly Google) effect on reading that complements its effect on writing. It can be found here: http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/2008og07/google

By: judi

judi — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:46:45 +0000

Frankly I don’t know if blogging is a cause or an effect of shorter attention spans. I used to think just the younger people I was teaching had short attention spans, but now that I’ve been immersed in “hypermedia” for the last 10 years or so, my own attention span is much shorter, too, and I’m too old to even be called a Baby Boomer! I find it hard to watch “classic” movies that have a slow pace; it’s rare that I actually finish the novel for my book club without skipping to the last chapter mid-way through; and I, too, have trouble writing anything much longer than 600 words, even on my blog. Although some would blame these changes on old age or worse yet, incipient dementia, I think something in the culture is at work as well. And I keep wondering where it will end. Once thoughtful essays have given way to IM and thorough, Ken Burns-style documentaries have been supplanted by You Tube, will we even have a public discourse anymore? And once most content is forgotten, what will the Museum of Me actually contain? Oh well, your regular fans want you to get back to SG, I’m sure, as soon as possible!

By: Bill Filer

Bill Filer — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 03:18:32 +0000

Great post. Consider the songwriter and the phenominon is compounded. Blogging-akin to short attention span theatre. Then factor in the internal clock always ticking in the back of your mind desperately trying to get everything under a radio friendly 3:30. Even this comment is too long, lost my train of thought like three times, what with all these droll little words, no hyperlinks, pics, or anything that rhymes!

By: Revpaul

Revpaul — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 16:56:25 +0000

Yawn! On the blogs, I guess it doesn’t matter whether I’m affected or effected by it all.

By: philip elwood

philip elwood — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 06:34:30 +0000

Would dearly love to see Cabel Cain and his boyfriend pointing their fingers at each other with a wink a waggle and a dip of the knees. A world away from sg’s goldfish bowl(judging by the lack of response). Or is it? Heheh.