The Smell of Change is in the Air: How the Internet is Transforming Writing for the Better

“Writing with snark is like cooking with salt — a little goes a long way.” –Kevin Kelleher

With so much discussion about how the Internet is changing journalism and media, there’s surprisingly little said about how writing itself has transformed. The truth is, it’s changing right now, right this very minute; every time a new article is written there’s just a little bit more writing evolution happening under our noses, and it seems like no one nose it! Or at least we don’t recognize how awesome this phenomenon really is.

But we should.

Did you catch a whiff of wordplay up there? That’s the kind of thing I’m referring to. Internet writing is getting more clever, more condensed, and less formal by the second. In a famous passage from “Ulysses,” James Joyce summarizes the development of the English language, from the archaic and formal (“Deshil Holles Eamus”) to the conversationally casual (“Pflaap! Pflaap! Blaze on”).

Since the turn of the century, the evolution of Internet writing has followed the pattern that Joyce laid out, and has exponentially accelerated from the conversationally casual to an amalgamation of the formal and the informal, both insightful and relaxed simultaneously. The Internet isn’t just prompting us to write more, its open structure pressures us to write in a way that’s at once more concise and flexible.

Jakob Nielsen looked at how people read web content in 1997 and argued that web writing should do the following things:

• highlight keywords (often using hypertext links)
• use straight, clear headlines and subheads
• deliver one idea per paragraph
• cut word count to half that of conventional writing
• employ bulleted lists

Many web writers, whether they’ve read Nielsen’s advice or not, use these practices because readers respond to them. The impulse to scan is a good thing because readers’ impatience inspires economy among writers.

At the same time, people are mastering more kinds of writing. Other technologies that have grown more popular in the past 16 years require a different mode of expression: instant messaging/texting invite a breezy, fast-thinking tone; blog comments (the thoughtful kind) sharpen our debate skills; Twitter enforces even more economy onto our words. All of these have contributed to the rise of the stronger writing voice in the individual.

Not all of the Internet’s effects on writing have been positive though. A lot of bloggers mistake a strong writing voice for caustic irreverence.  And some critics worry that the Internet is making writers, especially students and aspiring professionals, way too casual in their writing.

Like Joyce suggests, language is always evolving; a more conversational English isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it is certainly a product of the Internet’s effect on writing. 250 years ago, in Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne wrote, “Writing, when properly managed…is but a different name for conversation.” 250 years later, as the Internet continues to evolve, that statement is truer than ever.