Please Let This Not Be the Future of Reading on the Web
23rd November 2011
I’m worried that the wells of attention are being drilled to depletion by linkbait headlines, ad-infested pages, “jumps” and random pagination, and content that is engineered to be “consumed” in 1 minute or less of quick scanning – just enough time to capture those almighty eyeballs.
The problem appears to arise because of a mismatch in expectations between the site and the prospective reader. The reader is there to read. The site is there to make money, of which providing something to read may or may not play a part. In the online world, advertising is the prevalent business model; and in the advertising model, money goes to those who attract attention. Unfortunately, much of the advertising world doesn’t differentiate between favorable attention and unfavorable attention. (See here for why this is a bad idea.) In any event, providing an unencumbered reading experience is lower in priority for the site than for the prospective reader.