TLDR: How much information is too much information? …And how much information is too little?

Too Long Didn’t Read isn’t a new phenomenon. Since type existed there has always been the hierarchy of the headline to catch the attention, the standfirst (this bit underneath the headline) to give a bit more information and then the body text for the full details. When did we decide we didn’t need the text?

Dominic Cummings is said to have told aides to keep memos to Boris Johnson to two sides of A4 or the prime minister wouldn’t read them. We can all sympathise with the former leader. Who wouldn’t like to have someone precis our reading material and feed us the important bits as and when we needed them?

And therein lies the problem. To make  decisions about what is important and what isn’t, we need the bigger picture. And we need to be able to trust the information we are given.

Take, for example, the variations on the phrase that we are all entitled to our opinions. We all have our own interpretations of the meaning, which is usually employed to politely end discussions before they become full blown arguments. The problem is that is only half the saying and when the full saying is revealed then the meaning is very clear.

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts,” is attributed to Senator Dan Moynihan, making the point to his campaign staff that they shouldn’t twist the truth to fit the message. Omitting that second qualifying phrase has led to those who insist that the moon is made from cheese to believe their opinions have legitimacy.

Having the big picture is important in making decisions of any size or consequence. Being able to trust the information is also a bit of a headache. But we can’t read everything and we can’t fact check everything. We need filters.

Print is good at this bit. This magazine is contains around 30,000 words. Few will read all of it and those that do won’t consume them in one sitting. Those words are well written and easily consumed and all the information is easily absorbed. But when we are reading long documents online, we have our hand on the mouse, trackpad, arrows – constantly trying to make the process faster, missing chunks out. That’s what reading online does. It always has. When publishers were first figuring out what to do with the worldwide web, they were told that people like to consume bite sized chunks of text and that stuck. What was lost in the melee was that people still want that information. They just find it harder to read online. 

Business people want to be well informed. They want facts, they want to be able to trust what is put forward, they want the background and the fine detail. They could find it online but the internet is a big place. People download brochures, reports and such because they are easier to read when they are printed. 

There is more value in the small print on this page than in the big shouty bits that take up most of the space. 

There might be a time when the whole world is populated by digital natives with thumbs markedly more pointy than previous generations. Who knows? Maybe that’s when longform printed information bows out.