Is content writing getting too thin?

If you’re at all interested in content writing, then you likely already understand what “thin” means in this context. You see it around you – many things in life these days look a little thinner, a little less well-made. Look around your home at all the things made of plastic. In the old days, (you know, the 1970s) I remember more wood and metal. Now a large percentage of my car, house, and office is made of plastic.

f u want mor evidnce, jst l%k @ hw adept we R Bcuming @ transl8N d msgs dat ariV on r Wyrless fons.

Simple economics dictates that the greater availability of the written word means that every occurrence of it has less monetary value. But I believe there’s more at work here. In my opinion, the speed of communication and the flood of information means our audiences are spending far less time consuming what we’re throwing at them.

I recently re-subscribed to the New York Times, not because I have time to read it, but because I want my teenage kids to learn good writing style and gain a wider world view. I’m lucky if I take the time to skim even a few articles. Newspaper readership is now reported to be about 50% of the populace. As this figure comes from the newspapers themselves, I suspect the true readership is far lower. The issue is undoubtedly time. We simply don’t have time for all this reading.

Add to this the fragmented media

We are confronted with a tidal wave of media options. Hundreds of TV channels, music stations via our TV, books, hundreds of magazines, texting, iPhone apps, radio, and of course the Internet.

The Internet is no longer just one option. It’s opened up a wide array of competing outlets – Facebook, Twitter, websites, online radio shows, YouTube, Hulu, online TV shows, blogs, vlogs, podcasting, Internet Messenger, photo sharing sites, social media and more.

University of California, San Diego researchers estimate we each ingest about 100,500 words daily from various forms of media. In all, it’s about 350 percent more data than we were swallowing down just three decades ago.(1)

Think there might be a few competing choices among social media?

Maybe content writing is thin because it needs to be

With the decreasing amount of time and concurrent fragmentation of options, those who are writing content that’s less deeply researched, less thoughtfully developed, are likely doing just what the market demands. These days, no one has time to read a thoughtful tomb you’ve labored over. That doesn’t mean they don’t want facts and interesting commentary; they just want it in a way they can digest in shorter bursts.

So is content writing too thin? I personally don’t think so. The good blogs I read are about 300 words. The good videos I follow on YouTube usually don’t exceed 2 minutes. So, if content writing is on a diet, it’s because the new standard of beauty for it has gotten a little thinner.

Sources of graphs & charts – http://www.frankwbaker.com/mediause.htm
http://infomagination.typepad.com/.a/6a00e554eecbdf88330115712f86e5970c-500pi

You can learn more about how Ion Leap approaches content writing by contacting us at that link above creatively named “contact.”

(1) http://hmi.ucsd.edu/howmuchinfo_research_report_consum.php