Toward Dumber

If you want to reach more people, if you’re measuring audience size, then the mantra of the last twenty years has been simple: make it dumber.

Use clickbait headlines. Short sentences. Obvious ideas. Little nuance. Don’t make people uncomfortable or ask them to stretch. Remind them that they were right all along.

Generate a smile or a bit of indignation. Most of all, dumb it down.

And it works.

For a while.

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