As someone who loves reading, it’s easy to notice a good quality writing piece from a bad one. But not everyone may realize a good web page. It’s also hard to imagine that the internet has become so intertwined with our daily lives that it has changed how we all read. In Nicholas Carr’s article: Is Google Making Us Stupid? I found it fascinating that the fast-paced world of the internet has led to other mediums like newspapers and TV to shorten their advertising, and to only give “a taste” of the day’s news, thinking that its more efficient. We may not realize it, but the web has influenced the way we read online and other content we consume throughout our day.

As a generation that grew up with the internet, I know the possibilities and the overwhelming feeling of endless content. The man Jakob Nielsen, who studied how others read on the web says it best… “They don’t. People rarely read web pages word by word…”  I know for a fact that if I was in his study, I would be a part of the 79% of people who scan web pages rather than read word-for-word. This stunning fact concludes that for our words to have meaning on the web, we must use certain tools to make our writing more powerful. Jakob explains that some ways to do this is to have highlighted keywords, include subheads that have meaning and to keep the word count low.

But while this may seem like I am denouncing online reading, I don’t think it’s necessary bad. After reading Maria Konnikova’s article, I felt better about all the online content we consume. She explained that digital reading requires a different ability, and young children often need practice and training that differs from reading printed word. One can be a great reader with books, but struggle with reading on the web, and this doesn’t mean they are bad readers. It’s just a different medium, that requires a different sort of skill.

As I continue to blog, write captions for social media, and produce articles I share online, I must remember how my words will come across the screen. Thinking about the readers from the very beginning can only help our writing, not hinder it. I am optimistic about how our future web content can look and how it can help us learn and share our knowledge with others, instead of leading to confusion and information overload.