On the internet, short is king. Every site and creative exhibitionist is in a constant battle to grab hold of the viewers attention. With this, two minute webisodes are the optimal length (or close to it). Blog posts that are shorter are often more successful in attracting readers. Short blogging platforms like Twitter and Jaiku have taken off. Webcomics are a great source of entertainment and have exploded, packing in full experience into a small number of frames. Shorter podcasts are often the ones that receive the most listening. Even more, some podcasts provide a transcript that allows listeners to tune in to precisely the area they want to listen to.
Shorter content is where the web continues to progress, but is short content popular because it’s actually short, or because it helps us discover longer, at-length content?
While I don’t have the exact answer, my hypothesis is that while some are using the condensed, shorter content as a means of scanning over a larger portion of aggregated content, the majority of people are looking to more quickly identify what they like and consume that longer for a greater level of at-length enjoyment.
Webcomics, for example, are short-length pieces of content usually created two to three times a week. Webcomics tend to lend themselves to the quick scanning of multiple webcomic artists and “plots”. It’s the webcomics short length, though, that allows potential viewers to quickly identify which comics they enjoyed consuming the most.
It’s at the point where the comics are chosen that the at-length consumption begins. The new viewer now begins scanning the archives of all the strips created. Thus the short length enjoyment consumption turns into a greater level of at-length enjoyment.
I say it’s a greater level because you can ask any person who has taken the time to read a good book, comic, or TV series and they will tell you they were sad when it ended. In the case of webcomics, the viewer feels this remorse when they get to the most recently created strip. Then the short length cycle of finding a new strip as to acquire a new at-length enjoyment repeats.
An example on the other side of the fence, however, is Twitter. Twitter has become the ’short blogging’ platform. It’s a means to receive short and frequent bursts of enjoyment based upon what you can quickly identify as meaningful to you. Realisticly, however, those who are really using Twitter are likely to be habitually consuming in a somewhat different at-length manner as opposed to a more short-length manner.
Even though the pieces of content are shorter than normal, the frequency with which we consume it is such that we end up consuming it more than we would have had it been more at-length content. Thus what is consumed from Twitter is the aggregation of a portion of short length content whose sum we consume actually creates a longer amount of content, not a shorter.
2 responses so far ↓
Anonymous // August 8, 2007 at 2:54 pm |
there’s a bit of irony here since the post is relatively long. You made point in the first couple of paragraphs. The supporting examples felt like filler.
Nathan // August 8, 2007 at 3:15 pm |
A good citing on the irony ;)
It is definitely a relatively long post. The post was more of a collection of my own thoughts using pre-existing examples to flesh it out rather than being its own proof of concept.
Sorry to hear that parts felt like a filler. Any chance you can clue me into what part specifically felt like a filler?