Journalism Article and Video Response

Every year the world we live in becomes more technologically advanced. We have access to everything digitally. You can search your unanswered questions and have the answer within less than a second. Rather than continuing to subscribe to magazines or newspapers you can access them online. Television shows and movies are provided on websites where you only have to pay an average of eight dollars a month. You can search videos on how to do your hair and makeup and save yourself hundreds of dollars. Considering everything is at our fingertips, our attention spans are becoming limited. All of this technology and the advancements we are continuously adapting to are causing some complications to what we used to know so well.

James Bennet tries expressing to his audience that the term “long-form journalism” has a negative connotation. When we hear that something is long, such as a movie or novel, majority of the population is now hesitate due to the fact that everything in our world right now is so immediately available to us. “In the digital age, making a virtue of mere length sends the wrong message to writers as well as readers.” This statement was the most profound among the entire article. Length has a major effect on the results a writer receives nowadays. It’s sad when you think about it because now writers are forced to shrink their thoughts and simplify them, which could ultimately change the entire meaning of what they are trying to say.

Bennet specifically mentions his personal experience and frustration he faced when his writing needed to be shortened or he needed to decide between which examples to include and which to exclude in his writing. He was frustrated at the current time yet Bennett realized why these cuts and edits had to be made. If the continuation of “long-form journalism” carries on, it can be dangerous considering we associate the term with an extensive piece consisting of a large amount of words. Yes, journalism is changing, and Bennet makes this point extremely clear. On the other hand, Bennett is trying to make his readers ask themselves “Why are we shortening the length of writer’s projects?” While satisfying the reader is a key priority, the main priority the writer should be considered about is getting their point across no matter the length.

While we are constantly communicating with those around us through our devices and can get any answer we need in less than a second, we cannot forget how important it is for us to remember how to be able to concentrate on something for more than sixty seconds. All of these advancements we’ve made are significantly profound but so is being able to read and fully process something that is more than two pages long. While everything is becoming related to technology, because society has become so immune to it, we cannot neglect the past. In The Atlantic video, one of the men interviewed said, “To me there is really not old media there is just how quickly are you taking what is good from the past and kind of adding new ideas to it.” I agree with this statement but I believe there is much more that goes into it. Yes, while we adapt to the changes in our lifestyle it is extremely important to take what’s valuable from the past and incorporate with the future, but we should not neglect it altogether.

As a future educator, I firmly believe that technology should be incorporated into the classroom. On the other hand, I also believe that old classroom styles should be included as well. For example, writing keynotes on the board for your students is okay and it is beneficial to provide the students with handouts for reading assignments rather than them do it online. Reading assignments online can lead to distractions and I personally cannot concentrate and fully comprehend the information when I read something online. “Long-form journalism” sounds like something nobody would actually be interested in, although we cannot let society forget how important reading is. Length can be extremely detrimental considering people simply cannot handle reading pieces of writing so long, but that does not mean we cannot reverse the curse that we have created upon ourselves.