Attentionization

You tell me.  I think that the jury is out on this one.  This came up in a hearing ostensibly about the state of the ‘news’paper industry.  You know the thing that lands in your driveway in the morning and sits in your briefcase until you throw it out.    You have to wash your hands after reading it.  Like someone with OCD might.

I try to wash my hands about 20 times a day, when I'm not blogging of course.

Arianna Huffington, in testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet in a hearing on the “Future of Journalism, said as much.

I think more bloggers are afflicted with ADHD.  Most bloggers seem to post and move on.  And post again.  Professional bloggers are paid by the post. And by the number of pageviews.  This doesn’t exactly encourage deep dives into research and subject matter requiring contemplation.

If you count Twitter as blogging or online journalism, I would say it’s a toss up.  I think that email is also something that falls into the compulsive genre.  I was never as bad as I am now that I have a blackberry.