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.