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Viral Video Killed Our Attention Spans

Momservation: Open Letter to My Readers: I hate Open Letters. And while I’m here—over-used phrase of the year: “So this just happened…” Sorry, I need to go watch a cute puppy video to find my happy place.

☺        ☺        ☺

The pen is no longer mightier than the sword.

It is the smartphone camera. Yup. Jumped into the duel between wit and brawn and slayed them both before taking a selfie and posting YouTube video.

People don’t want to read anything anymore. They want to watch it. They don’t want to sit down and discuss a well written article. They want a video montage no longer than 26 seconds they can *Like* and move on. Even better: make it a Vine and you have their attention—for 6 seconds.

And forget about quality content. The more outrageous the better. It’s why we have She of Little Clothing and Self-Respect, Miley Cyrus, hosting the VMA’s and Donald Trump as the Republican hope for President. (Hilary Clinton really should send them a fruit basket thanking them for giving her the 2016 presidency.)

It is a depressing time to be a writer.

So as I try to figure out how I can stay relevant without being a snarky bitch (If I see another “Open Letter To…” go viral I might lose my sh**. See – doesn’t work for me.), or resorting to 6-second sound bites (okay, Vine star Lizzza is pretty dang funny), or abandoning the craft all together because I’m not willing to stoop to Kanye and Kardashian level to get Page Likes—I’m going to leave you with what American really wants:

Irresistible doses of cuteness in the form of puppies and kittens.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Rm_W9nci4

#CantCompete

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