"We talk a lot, then we dive deep"

In his Wired essay “How Texts and Tweets Nurture In-Depth Analysis,” published in January 2011, Clive Thompson argues that today’s short-form thinking and composing practices like texting and tweeting are not in fact leading to a dumbing down of the public discourse. Rather, these short bursts, this “fire hose of teensy utterances,” he says, is a catalyst for longer, more reasoned writing on platforms like blogs.

Why might this be the case? Thompson points to Anil Dash, who blogs about technology and culture. (And, at his blog, writes long-form essays.)

“I save the little stuff for Twitter and blog only when I have something big to say,” as blogger Anil Dash put it.

Thompson ends by framing the phenomenon this way: “We talk a lot, then we dive deep.”