With the exponential increase in short-form content produced and shared online, the preference for long-form written essays has somewhat declined.
Long-form essays have always been lengthy pieces of writing containing in-depth information about specific topics. These writing pieces allow us to move through the topic with clarity, understanding different perspectives being laid out. Writers of these articles do an amazing job explaining everything needed for the topic to register in the user’s mind and the message to be conveyed effectively. These detailed pieces make complex ideas more digestible and easier for the audience to understand.
Brain rot content can never provide what long essays can
The internet is filled with short-form content. From YouTube Shorts to Instagram to TikTok, every app is filled with highly edited, polished content that keeps users engaged for a good 10-15 seconds. The content is often repetitive. It does not have much to offer in the sense of knowledge. It’s all a loop of creating videos, adding engaging sound effects, talking about the latest trending thing/showing their outfits/skincare routines/day in their lives and ending it in the next 15-20 secs. There’s no knowledge being shared; there’s no room for the mind to think. It makes our brains go numb because there is no content to challenge our cognitive abilities.
On the other hand, however, come essays, long-form content. These essays are curated on thoughts. A decent time is spent thinking and articulating thoughts, and later pouring it into the writing. It is imitating the perspective that exists in the brain and bringing it to life in the form of words and sentences.
Reading these essays allows us to read through someone’s collection of thoughts, their knowledge about the topic that they have gathered through their passion or curiosity, and get an understanding of the world from a different angle.
Essays are a little portal to someone’s experience of knowledge. They do not just claim information; they explain the way through it. Why are they saying what they are saying? What led them to think this? What events in their lives or experiences influenced this thinking? They provide knowledge, but also so much in-depth context about it.
I want to read while everyone’s scrolling:
As time progresses, many people are realising the damage short-form content is doing to their brains and are trying to quit it and return to long-form content. Choosing to read an essay in this age of clickbait content feels like rebellion. It feels like a rediscovered interest that people are slowly returning to. More like we collectively forgot that there is more substance to consume than just these short videos that are messing with our brains.
People are rediscovering length again. Preferring to watch longer videos on YouTube, reading essays, it is a quiet revolution happening where everyone is getting aware of the damage brainrot content is doing. Long-form content helps de-stimulating the brain from all the noise and excessive consumption of media, and guides it back to what nourishes it. Our mind was never made to be used for nothing. It was made to be used in navigating life, looking up to people, being inspired by them, learning about the world, different communities, different diseases, different ideologies, and realising how vast the world actually is. Reading acts as a fuel to the brain, allowing it to think of possible realities, and being curious to learn about a new topic, it expands our realm of knowledge.
Long-form content challenges our overstimulated brains and offers something worth pausing for. We live in such a stimulated, fast-paced world, as if there is no room to sit and think. We just scroll past videos, barely taking a minute to look out if we agree with the opinions being thrown at us, or do we just allow some random person on the internet to decide for us? Long-form content allows us to slow down; it gives our mind some silence and allows it to consume information in an unhurried way, because honestly, consumption of media doesn’t have to leave you in a constantly bizarre position.
Let’s all gather at Substack and buy each other a coffee!
It is about time we started reading more, indulging in longer pieces of writing, and letting our minds take a break from the overstimulating environment of the internet. There are some applications that help us enter the world of reading and writing, such as Substack, which allows us to read articles written by different people, learn about their perspectives, and relate to them. Life is a shared experience; we all go through the dynamics of it, the confusions, hardships, taking risks, discovering parts of ourselves, learning about grief, friendships, forgiveness, sharing nostalgia, melancholy, some gloomy episodes, and a whole lot of humanness through it all. Reading helps us discover these parts about someone’s life.
Essays are like memoirs, where we read through someone’s idea of life, their circumstances and experiences, their thoughts, and the things that make them feel curious or passionate, or that enlighten a sense of optimism in them. Reading is an experience, and it can never be replaced with brainrot content.