A Problem With Modern Writing

Modern online writing is exhausting, and it's making people tune out

There may be a reason that magazines, newspapers, and other more traditional forms of media are struggling — the writing is tiresome.

From food and cooking columns that are more about the writer than the food or the point, to formulaic and “write by the numbers” thought pieces in prestige publications like the Atlantic or the New Yorker, to out-of-touch pieces that show the author has never ventured outside a cloistered existence, a lot of what we’re forced to read is, frankly, hard to read. Not in the education-level sense, but in the get-to-the-point sense, the have-some-ideas sense.

Milking small ideas or perspectives for column inches was sometimes a requirement in the print era, when ad sales had a hole to fill. Now, the endless capacity of online with the slotting of digital ads every few paragraphs has created a new and more consistent incentive — stretch out the article, bury the lede, and get more ad slots and impressions.

It leads to terrible writing in more and more areas. No wonder more people are turning to newsletters without ads, feeds and friends, or simply tuning out.

There, idea offered, and we’re done.

But if you’d like me to regale you with the heartwarming story of how my first puppy inspired my fascination with toast and breads in general as we shared sick days watching game shows, and how this and a surprising selection behind Door #2 led to my ability to discern various types of olives, and how a long vacation in Tuscany taught me to combine these two passions before I get down to writing out a recipe for focaccia . . .

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