Analyzing a Blog

       In his post, Reading is Fundamental, Jeff Attwood explains why people should slow down when it comes to social media and maintaining an online presence. Attwood linked personal blog posts and screen grabs of analytics to provide supporting material for his claims. Immediately adding a question and image he grabs his reader’s attention and makes them think about their own experience with online accounts.

 Attwood’s blog is effective in reaching his audience of young adults, who are likely to be high school or college graduates. Through his use of graphics and online terms, the audience he appeals to is the middle class; people who are interested in or already apart of the digital world. He argues that people tend to think that the count on their page means that things will be better for them and that they will do anything to get that number higher. Supporting this Attwood says, “I find that the value of conversations has little to do with how much people are talking. I find that too much talking has a negative effect on conversations.” He believes that people need to listen and read more; rather than just pumping out content for the sake of a large post count.  Attwood offers four suggestions on how to encourage people to read: remove interruptions, count and display read times, give rewards for reading, and lastly update in real time. Jeff Attwood believes that if people can become better listeners they will succeed in all aspects of their lives.