Values of Reading

Values of Reading

Shaw

January 14 2018

    Blogger Jeff Attwood argues reading and listening are vital components in the blogging world, and that too much emphasis is being cast upon post counts and commenting.

    Attwood introduces his piece by emphasizing the focus towards post counts on blogs, versus the lack of reading the actual content of the post. Upon first glance, he draws one in with his use of language and imagery, and many instances of bold and italicized text. His main objective is to showcase his belief that people don’t take the time to fully read posts before commenting. He believes most tend to jump to conclusions and immediately begin writing out their views without taking time to read the full story. To support this idea, he draws upon two studies: The Ars Banana Experiment and The Slate Experiment. Both indicate a lack of individuals reading entire blog postings, with most appearing to read only about half of the actual content.

    In order to improve the situation, Attwood suggests the removal of interruptions in regards to reading, to measure read times and display them, give rewards for reading, and to update the conversations in real time. He believes people must concentrate less on commenting and devote more of their time to reading.

    What impact this would have among the blog community remains to be seen, however it would be beneficial to know many more individuals were taking the time to read posts in full, thus expanding their knowledge and knowing precisely what has or has not been said. He suggests that by doing this, people would have deeper insights and better conversations, in addition to becoming better listeners and readers.