Internet Friends

15: People Don’t Read



October 17th, 2018  •  54 mins 9 secs  •  Download (25.3 MB)  •  Link with Timestamp

RSS Feed

Jon and Drew discuss the role of writing in online media and community, and they try their best not to sound like old men (Jon has to try harder). There’s a rising tide of conventional wisdom out there that reading and writing are from a bygone era. Jon wonders what he’s supposed to do with his life if that’s the case — which, of course, it isn’t. The problem is really the usual underlying problem of limited and fragmented attentional bandwidth. They discuss the problems with video and why people tolerate them (answer: because the other solutions are too nerdy). They consider the pros and cons of tweetstorms, of which Drew provides a surprising number of pros. And, as all media pundits are wont to do lately, they wonder whether subscriptions inside preinstalled news apps can save the day.