The haiku versus the epic.
Or Twitter versus Medium, if you like.
A few witty sentences, trying to convey meaning in a condensed package, versus the comfort of all the details you can gather.
I used to be the adept of long form content. I enjoyed the potentially unlimited expression space, the vast encompassing time, the ample breathing, the structure, the depth. I used to write about 1,000 words per hour, easily. If you look back at some of the early articles here (especially between 2009 and 2011) you will have a hard time finding one under 1,000 words.
And yet, lately I favor more short form content. It might be because this 365 writing challenge forced me into specific writing patterns (basically, every single day), without necessarily putting a constraint on the length. So I probably just leaned towards shorter content naturally, as a way to conserve energy.
There might be more to it, though. I guess short form content is more suitable for rememberable, easily quotable content, and we are living in an age in which this type of discourse is favored. Long form content is more about feelings, stories and profound engagement. A novel requires a specific type of attention. And, on top of that, a specific lifestyle. You can’t read novels if you don’t have the time. You read digests, at most.
The world is moving faster. Emotion is triggered easier and the need for stories is diminished. It’s more about establishing oneself, about statements, not about continuous, coherent actions. We have more stuff to look for, and our available time is the same. Naturally, our attention span has shrunk. The fragmentation of our reality led to the fragmentation of our conversations.
And, just to make a point, I will end today’s article here.
To quote a popular Twitter meme: “That’s it. That’s the article”.
Photo by Dan-Cristian P?dure? on Unsplash
