"Digital media has developed this strange obsession with speed. News apps now display reading times before you even click an article. Platforms reward content that gets to the point instantly. If something takes too long to explain, chances are it will get summarised, shortened or turned into a list. Somehow, time became the internet's most aggressively optimised metric, and everything else is designed around it."
"One way to describe this 'need for speed' is the mini-max principle: maximum stimulation with minimum effort. Or maximum drama, with minimum patience required. Btw, the mini-max principle also explains AI-generated content neatly: minimum production cost, maximum ad impressions. Much of today's digital media is built around exactly that idea."
"Some things are meant to take time. Slow-cooked food. Long conversations. A good book. Bird watching. A day on the golf course? The digital world, however, seems determined to turn everything into a five-minute activity. Five-minute reads. Five steps to fix your marketing. Ten things you need to know. Three-bullet report summaries. Thirty-second videos. Six-second ads."
The digital world has developed an aggressive obsession with speed, transforming everything into quick-consumption formats: five-minute reads, thirty-second videos, six-second ads, and bullet-point summaries. This phenomenon stems from the mini-max principle—maximum stimulation with minimum effort. News apps display reading times before articles are clicked, platforms reward instant content, and anything requiring explanation gets shortened or listed. This speed optimization extends to productivity culture and AI-generated content, which prioritizes minimal production costs and maximum ad impressions. The underlying assumption that attention spans are shrinking drives this design philosophy, making time the internet's most aggressively optimized metric, with everything else structured around it.
#digital-media-speed-obsession #content-optimization #attention-span-culture #mini-max-principle #ai-and-productivity
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