How to escape the age of word overload

There are too many words, too much noise, too much content. And there isn’t enough beauty, truth, or meaning in those words. How to escape the age of word overload?

We all know that there is an excess of content. As of 2022, there are more than 500 million blogs on the internet. And that’s just counting those on a handful of platforms.

Add to that the constant deluge of new posts on social media, the overabundance of mediocre content on way too many streaming platforms and the never ending ads and we can hardly get a moment to ourselves without being bombarded with words. Word overload is the new normal.

But how many of these words are of worth? How many of them have meaning or reveal important truths to us? How many of these have been crafted with care and artistry? How many of these are intended to be savored, and not just consumed? Very few of them. So few you’ll have to go to grueling lengths just to find something good. Not great, just plain good.

I’m not going to delve into how we got here. And how it’s impacting our society. That’s a whole subject worthy of analysis and there are far more qualified people to do it. And it has been talked about before. I’m going to focus on how we can get the hell out of this hole we’ve dug for ourselves. How we can create content, articles and books with real value. How can we accomplish this?

Thinking before writing

We all know how some people speak before thinking. But that phenomenon extends to writing. A lot of writers of all kinds think too little before vomiting words into their respective writing softwares. And I can’t blame them. Writing isn’t easy. Whether it’s a book or an essay, an article or a review, we all dread that empty white page. It’s so hard to get started, so easy to get stuck, that anything that comes out feels like a miracle.

But oftentimes, it’s not. It’s just nonsense. Incomprehensible word salad at best, deranged ramblings at worst. It’s so hard to start writing because it’s hard to think. It’s hard to think because as a society we are not good at it. As children we are taught to memorize and systematize. As adults, we are just trying to survive. To get work done well enough and fast enough to get back to what little life we have left. There’s never much time to think. Not much reason to either.

But I don’t have to tell you just how important thinking is. And when it comes to writing, it’s not just necessary. Its indispensable. We need to think so we can offer value to readers. Something original and worthwhile. Something that excels not only in execution but also in its content. There are no shortcuts to thinking. And neither are there for good writing.

Punishing empty words

In the marketplace of ideas, the bad ones shouldn’t succeed. But they do. In fact, they thrive. In an age of word overload, this means there are a lot of bad ideas making a lot of noise. We can blame social media, shortening attention spans, and the inevitable decay of humanity. But as individuals, we also have some of the blame.

We are not critical enough. We have allowed our standards to fall too low and our opinions to run too short. Our voices are too quiet. With so many opportunities and places to speak, we are strangely silent. It’s hard to keep up in an age of word overload. But bad and empty writing shouldn’t go unnoticed. It should be punished.

It goes without saying that this does not imply being rude or toxic. It shouldn’t even have to be said, but these days we are also growing more uncivilized. We should nonetheless criticize. We should strive to be constructive, active and insightful with our criticisms. And we shouldn’t keep fueling more of the same.

Rewarding worthy words

In tandem with the last point, we should also reward worthy words. As we are quiet about bad content, we are also silent about good content. Even more so, since it does not light the fires of indignation and online virality in the same way.

We should praise good books, movies and essays. We should share valuable blogs. We should revere artists that master their craft and offer us masterpieces. We should go above and beyond to speak about art that has worth. Beautiful and meaningful words should not be forgotten. They should be remembered. They should have the stage and the spotlight.

As individuals we can only do so much, but we can also influence institutions and society. We can demand better standards of awards. We can demand better criticism from reviewers. Better output from publishers. Better quality from studios. Above all, we should help each other be better, and elevate our peers that have created works of value.

Don’t overstay your welcome

Another curse born out of SEO-oriented content creation is padding the length of articles to meet search engine’s standards. That is a curse, because an important message can easily get lost in a wall of needless text.

We shouldn’t have to cram as many words as possible into an article just to get visitors. We are, each of us, incentivized to produce as much noise as possible just to be heard. All we end up getting is a headache. Sometimes, brevity is a great thing. It need not be synonymous with shallowness.

Not all content needs to be long-form. What it should be is effective in how it uses its size to deliver its message. There can be a balance between brevity and length without forsaking depth and padding the word count.

Better bullet points

If you’ve been around the internet for long enough you’ve seen plenty of lists and bullet points. Even more so if you have been involved with blogging and writing in any way. They’re everywhere. And why not? Lists and bullet points are useful. They’re easy to understand, to read and to remember.

But if you’ve been around here for long enough you’ve also seen how often these types of content become stale and empty. I’ve seen so many lists that could have been cut in half. And entire sets of bullet points that could have been turned into single lines.

The reason for this overextension of content is simple. Lists are good for Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Search engines love simple text and structure. But commercial optimization inevitably leads to saturation and irrelevance. What we end up with are droves of articles that all read the same and that offer nothing of worth.

To counteract word overload and, specifically, empty bullet points and lists, we need to go back to basics. Use these when necessary, and only include individual points that add something to the whole. If you’re trying to add another point to a list just to make it longer you’re part of the problem.

Write for a reason (not just for a goal)

If you ever wanted to start a business you’ll know the opportunity content marketing presents. Be it a start-up, an agency, or as a way to gain an audience for an author or artist, it is a solid evergreen tactic. And everyone is doing it. But they’re doing it for the wrong reasons. And it only contributes to the problem of word overload.

Because these aren’t really reasons. They are goals. You are not trying to start a blog or newsletter because you want to and because you have something to add. You’re doing it for business goals. Because it’ll allow you to gain an audience, to build an email list, to funnel people into your real business. And so, everyone and their cat is devoted to creating content. Meaningless, uninspired, unoriginal content.

I’m somewhat guilty of this myself. I want to be an author, and so I arrived at the inevitable conclusion that content marketing would help me. I was close to starting a blog, until I realized just how empty my idea was. I opted to postpone the project until I had something of value to contribute with. An idea that was worthwhile in itself, not just an excuse to sell something else.

Now I started Word Overload not as a way to build a business, to reach other goals. But as a way to tell my stories. To share my poetry and thoughts. To contribute with useful and insightful articles about writing, movies and books.

It may still end-up being a train-wreck, but at least the train has a journey that is worth the trip. Not just a final destination.

Originally published at https://johngillian.substack.com on February 2, 2023.