How do you feel about the decline of long-form posts?

I'm pretty verbose, but more and more I've started backspacing and chopping down things bc I realized people just don't want to read. Especially if it has no accompanying image or something which makes me sad.

Everyone seems to need so much visual stimulation versus using their own imagination or simply reading what's there for details and clues or even simply asking questions and engaging in real, meaningful conversation and banter. And to echo the sentiment of others here, many posts I've read are very long but saying nothing or worse... What they ARE saying makes me look at the author in a much less flattering light which has been happening more and more lately.

The problem isn't the long-form posts themselves. The problem is that it got largely misused for content that turned out to be deceiving and with AI this is becoming even a bigger problem. Therefore people learned to not invest their time and energy into something that is just slop. Either AI or some fake persona. It is hard to tell the quality of the content right of the bat without delving into it so I think most people just ignore it altogether because they expect it's just going to be a waste of their time. I guess we rather just choose a book to read instead.

Another thing: we were manipulated into thinking that older posts lost their value and only what is present is worth our attention. I saw this decline in real time. Back in 2012 this wasn't a thing at all. It was pretty normal to respond to posts from years ago and the authors often actually responded back without stupid remarks as "dO yOu TraVeL iN TiMe? ". Of course that there are types of posts that are only relevant for a specific time frame but people started acting as if it applied to everything on social media and therefore even longer posts intended to be read when the person interested in the topic has time or is in the mood to read such content get lost now. Authors started thinking: "nobody is going to be interested in this in a month" so they delete it or "archive" on Reddit so you can't contribute even if you just came across it now or it is relevant to you now, not 3 years ago.

That, like most things, neither extreme is absolutely the only way to go.

My problem with the brevity demanded by most social media is that so much context and nuance is lost, and the resulting mishmash can be interpreted multiple ways or makes no sense.

Otoh, as already stated, lengthy discourses can obfuscate the underlying message with wordiness for the sake of appearing knowledgeable or erudite. And some times the clearest, most incisive statement is very short.

General McAuliffe's response to the German demand to surrender at the Battle of the Bulge comes to mind: "Nuts!"

I miss long form personal blogs from back in the day. SW isn’t quite it but it kind of scratches the itch sometimes.

But to be honest my attention span isn’t what it used to be either.

I usually create what I want to see, regardless of the supply and demand.

Maybe I tend to be more transparent than many here, which is why I still make long posts every now and then. People have reasons to hold back and give less. It is not just the short attention span.

Brings to mine one of my favorite Mark Twain quotes:

"If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter."

Concise writing takes more effort and thought than a long, rambling script.

Nobody ever reads my long rants 🤣🤣

But yeah, I’ve noticed a switch. If I post something long, I’m less likely to get comments, but if I post something that only has a header, it gets more comments.

I love a well written long post. But in college I did learn to put things eloquently while still sticking to the meat and potatoes.

It's a sign of the times. We're actually spending too little time on what's really of use, only on things that have an use for the enviroment that we live in. Modern times. It's strangling good manners

depends on the post. some people have a good story to tell and some just ramble on saying absolutely nothing.

Chatgpt gives lots of information I read it all for some reason

i have a short attention span myself but occasionally i find something interesting enough for a deep read.. but not often

Most people’s attention span is less than 4 paragraphs and/or about 1 to 2 minutes. Therefore long form posts are less common

It's unfortunate.

People have very short attention spans in the me me me culture of instant gratification and validation that social media, online dating, etc created

Why bother write a lot when no one is going to read it, or just give some lame "reaction"?