Atwood’s piece addresses the concept of rewarding online users for the number of posts they make. He points out that when there’s a number associated with someone’s name (in this case, a user’s post count), the obvious desire is to make that number increase. This is an issue, because when it comes to having healthy discussions, listening (reading) is more important than talking (commenting).
Atwood begins the article by drawing attention to the Facebook post tally, before pointing out why this number is a problem. This creates interest, as almost everyone is familiar with this number, and focusing on it the way Atwood does makes the reader wonder what’s wrong about it.
Atwood then backs up his argument by giving examples that illustrate just how few users actually read articles in their entirety. While strongly supporting his point, these examples also make the reader question their own online participation. Allowing the reader to see their own behavior commented on in the article proves powerful.
Atwood’s proposed solutions include having more blogs enable endless scrolling, as having to click through multiple pages is too tedious for most readers. Simply having to continue scrolling, however, is far more attractive. His most notable solution, though, is to reward users for how much they read, rather than how much they post. The idea is that this will discourage users from skimming over a topic and heading straight for the comments section to make under-informed posts.
