Shorter Writings, Readings, and Attention Spans

In chapter 5 of Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, “The Peek-a-Boo World”, he contrasts the results of typography and telegraphy. Part of his comparison focuses on “the news of the day.” In the typographic world, newspapers consisted of information applicable to the lives of its readers. In contrast, the telegraph altered the content of information to irrelevant news impersonal and unlocalized to the readers. In earlier chapters, it is mentioned that Americans wrote “pamphlets” rather than books and how commercial advertisements changed from the form of paragraphs to mottos and jingles. Now, in reference to telegraphic conversation Postman remarks, “Its language was the language of headlines--sensational, fragmented, impersonal” (70). I completely agree, sometimes I’ll only read headlines and not even glance at the articles. However, headlines seem awfully similar to book titles; both provide a hint at what the composition is about, and they are often the basis of whether people will decide to read them. All of these examples demonstrate how our writings are getting shorter and how lengthier works are less frequently read. With more distractions, it makes sense for current generations to have smaller attention spans, but this problem will likely only get worse as newer technology grows. Books seem to be on their way toward becoming obsolete, along with paper as most of its uses can be done online.