” The average attention span of the modern human being is about half as long as whatever you’re trying to tell them. ” -Meg Rosoff
I have always enjoyed reading and writing, even when I allow myself to get distracted or make excuses not to, I still enjoy it. The key point I took away from from this weeks readings is to capture the readers attention as quickly as possible within the first paragraph, or you will likely lose them.
I am guilty of clicking articles online that look interesting only to read the first three lines, skim through the rest of it quickly and deem it unworthy of my time. When it comes to novels, I have a rule of thumb, if I do not find it interesting within the first 50 pages, I am not going to read it. When someone is attempting to tell me a story, if they do not show enthusiasm or draw me in by some other means, I am likely to mentally check out until the tale is finished. This same rule can be applied to writing blogs or articles, just on a much smaller scale. According to an article by Tony Haile on Time.com, the average person only spends about 15 seconds on a webpage. That is not a lot of time to draw your potential reader in, you have to be creative and well spoken in order to do so.
What type of tactics do you use to capture a readers attention?
Cheers,
-Aaron Doy
Time article: http://time.com/12933/what-you-think-you-know-about-the-web-is-wrong/
Algonquin College Social Media Certificate Program 