In Nicholas Carr's 2010 novel "The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains," Carr famously argues that internet habits "shatter our brains" and "continue to reverberate… even when we're not at a computer."
He asserts that the internet prompts our brains to skim and multitask in lieu of thorough reading. But Carr did not anticipate a world dominated by social media platforms such as Instagram and Tiktok, which have completely transformed our minds in a way that simple Googling has not.
The popularity of short-form videos, as expressed in Instagram Reels and Youtube Shorts, has exponentially reduced our attention spans and contributed to a rise in short-form text and film, which may simplify important concepts in favor of higher viewership. But the key to maintaining readers' interest is imitation — journalists must exemplify social media platforms and use them to their advantage in order to keep readers interested.
An estimated 2.9 billion users use Facebook alone; the addition of YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok brings the figure closer to 8.5 billion users. These social media platforms are popular because they facilitate communication, use striking graphics, and, more importantly, are characterized by brevity.
Instagram stories last 15 seconds; tweets are limited to 280 characters; Tiktoks, until recently, could only be 3 minutes long. But there is an appeal to these platforms, because of a "less is more" mentality; a story told in a vivid image, a gripping 30 second video, or a punchy tweet is infinitely better than a drawn out "novel."
To keep readers' attention, journalists must learn to exemplify social media platforms. In every article, they must pull off the balancing act of condensing a story into its critical points while also using increasingly interesting language.
"The Elements of Journalism," for example, describes journalism as "storytelling with a purpose"; journalists must write shorter stories where they can and present newsworthy topics as an intrepid "story" to a varied audience.
Most notably, almost half of Americans use social media platforms to get their news, and adults are as likely to trust information from social media sites as they are to trust information from national news outlets. In short, social media provides a connective tissue to the outside world that is both efficient and persuasive.
Journalists must capitalize on the depth and exposure that social media offers in order to maintain readers' attention. For example, journalists can capture a larger audience's attention with incisive captions that make them eager to learn more, thus making the audience more responsive to website links that provide more in-depth articles.
Journalists can also explore video journalism, which is prevalent on YouTube as in the way of Vox; though short-form videos may have reduced attention spans, journalists can create brief, stimulating videos to pique interest in important topics and events. The audience, now more absorbed, will continue to read articles that interest them.
To keep readers' interest, journalists should exemplify social media platforms in their writing and utilize social media to increase audience interest.
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