GenAI is fantastic for, you know, generating things. Images, music, prose, code, and even professional development performance reviews (ask me about that later).
- It's straight-up magical to provide a short prompt ("write a story about bees") and get a coherent, full-length, natural language response back ("Chapter 1: The Battle of Stinger Hive").
But seriously, GenAI has apparently made everyone forget that our collective attention spans are shit (those attention spans are even ruining movies). We shouldn't be generating longer, more abundant content - we should be creating more valuable, focused, get-to-the-point content.
Are You Still Reading?
We decided a while ago to address the TikTok generation with shorter, bitesized content.
Shorts. Reels. Summaries. Bulleted lists.
So why are we using GenAI to create more longform content all of a sudden?
- I know why: because we can; because it looks productive.
Personal opinion: when I see a long (but interesting) article and I catch wind it's generated, I bail. If you can't make the effort to write creatively and passionately for me, I won't take the time to read it seriously; at best I might use GenAI to summarize it. GenAI in, GenAI out.
Counterpoint: can't GenAI help with brainstorming, ideation, and writers block? Absolutely. If you're having trouble getting started, I think GenAI plays a role in suggesting ideas and new perspectives in a cheap, easy to use format.
So Now What?
I know GenAI is Pretty Darn Cool™, but taking a quantity over quality approach to writing is a huge mistake for many audiences when attention spans are already so squirrely.
<soapbox> I strongly believe in original, creative, longform content - and to support and enjoy it, we need to fix our attention span issues as a society. </soapbox>
My advice? Don't outsource your perspective and creativity. Use that big-brain power to write genuine, honest longform content when and where it matters - person to person. Let GenAI fill in the gaps by creating variations (social media, summaries, emails, whatever) and meet your audiences where they are today.
But let's not generate content just for the sake of creating content. Let's be smart about it.