Haley Cutright response

My initial impression of this article is that whoever wrote this may be border lined insane. He says he is going to get to the point in the first line and then he reiterates himself too much and we don’t ever know what he is talking about till the 5^th paragraph.

         The point the writer is making is to inform us of how often we don’t read a full article. However, who has time to read an article online that is two pages?? He is making a good point, but if he really wants an audience to want to read his full article he needs to watch the length and take out all the extra fluff no one cares about.

         The writer does have a good amount of information and charts in his article that back up his main points and legitimize his article. The charts and his statistics validate his research and make it appear that he has done his homework.

         The writer’s article would have been nothing without the research. His execution was horrible in my opinion, but he was actually writing about an interesting topic because most people never read a full article but still tweet and repost these articles. And how can you do that with an article that you haven’t full read and act like you know what you are talking about?

I like how Slate.com uses vivid pictures so viewers can clearly imagine the topic of each article. There isn’t much length to each article but they get the information across to the audience as concise as they can, which is good for users who just want to quick facts. I also like how they quote other sources so readers can see what other websites are saying.       

Spenser Sparks Response

Four Stars. Farhad Manjoo's article is a great recreation of what goes on in the minds of people as they surf the web in search of information. He is trying to show how disconnected we are in our connected world and wrote the story the way he did to show readers the scatter brain way we, as connected human beings, go about reading articles online.

Manjoo is attempting to show us how easily news and information are being swept aside for the next new thing (i.e. viral video, American Idol winners, a new "Arrested Development" episode, etc.). He does a great job of this by writing in a way expecting people to stop reading and telling them that they will not read the article, giving them statistics every step of the way so they will continue to read.

I'd say valid enough. It's nothing new that people aren't reading articles in full or even at all. You can tell that by the decline in newspaper sales and readership across America and the world. But in showing the graphs from Chartbeat and quoting Josh Shwartz, he shows that the problem now is that people are reading to an extent, thinking they have all the information, and passing it on to the next person that will do the same. The most amazing fact is the spike at 0% for Slate.com and Chartbeat.com.

Manjoo's article would still have been strong without the graphs, if anything that would have made it easier to read. But without the facts inside of the article, especially the number of people that still hadn't "bounced" yet, I don't believe it would be powerful enough for Manjoo to get people to stick around and keep reading his article.

It seems like a great website with quality journalists writing quality stories, but the format is one that I personally would subscribe to. I do not like, and I am probably one of the only ones, that the articles are categorized by most read, most popular, most commented, etc. That is not necessarily the way I like to choose the article I read, even more so after reading this article after hearing that the majority of people will share or like an article without really reading it. How do I know that they are reliable articles that really touch on the subjects? I would prefer all the articles be displayed on one page for the reader to pick and choose what he/she reads based on their preference, not the preference of his/her peers.

As I began reading this article my first thought was I felt the author almost wanted the reader to stop reading. He rambled on after he stated he would “keep this brief,” he quickly lost my attention and made me want to move onto something else.

Of course, this helps the point the author is making, in my opinion, because it made me want to stop reading it, which is what this article is about. If one does not find something interesting within the first couple sentences of an article then the author has lost their attention. This along with short attention spans causes potential readers to not complete reading the article.

 

The author’s research seems to be very valid, especially when I put my habits and myself in the equation. If I even begin reading an article, instead of just going to the next web page, then I usually do not read the whole thing. As the data shows, most visitors only read about 50% of the article, I find this to be true in my tendencies.

Even without solid research I think this article still would have made a valid point. People are often unaware of their subconscious actions, such as scrolling or clicking on the next link. The research proves that the point the author is making is true, but with or without the research people still have short attention spans and tend to lose interest quickly.

I think the articles on slate’s website are well written, researched, and interesting. They have a variety of stories and make it easy to find one that may be interesting to an individual.

After reading this article I feel as is the author was making more facts then just stating what the people will do. He kept stating that the readers will keep on decreasing the more they read the article, he was showing certain percentages as the readers that will either keep reading or stop reading.

The writer is making a point that the readers all have short attention spans and can not hold there attention for to long especially if they are not reading a interesting topic. Certain readers have there own certain interest and it will show because some will stop reading if it is not a interesting topic to them.

I feel that this article is very valid because I actually have stopped reading a article if it is not something that keeps my interest. My attention span will get shorter depending on what I am reading and how it catches my interest.

No, I feel as if he did not have the research it would not be as valid because he could of been just stating that someone has a short attention span. The research behind this article set off the article because it shows different percentages of where people will stop reading.

I feel like it is pretty reliable and the topics are issues that readers would want to know about. It is a website that will have readers wondering what they will write about next.

Welcome, JOUR 101! Let me make this brief...

                                                             She's already stopped reading.
                                      Photo by Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images


I'm a firm believer in the Arial font, so that's primarily what you'll see on these pages. As we dig deeper into mass communication and mass media, you'll notice just how much traditional journalism has changed and is changing by the millisecond. Although our attention spans have decreased, we'll burn through hours of time reading or playing videos or viewing content that we like. Take this Slate.com article by Farhad Manjoo: "You Won't Finish This Article – Why people online don't read to the end." 

Read the article and write a response to it, in no less than about five paragraphs. In your response, answer the following questions:

1) What's your initial impression after reading the article? 
2) What point is the writer making?
3) How valid do you think the research is?
4) Would the writer's point have been strong without the research? Why or why not? 
5) Acquaint yourself with the Slate.com website. Generally, how would you characterize the site's articles, the style in which they're written, and their topics? 

Your original response is due here by 8 a.m. Friday, 28 June. As a contributor to this blog, please respond to this post to submit your response. Spelling, grammar and other style conventions always apply.