How Teens Are Like Bull Riders

by Shlomo Wiesen, Guest Contributor

I recently read a startling statistic: The current crop of teenagers (ages 13-17) have an average attention span of roughly 8 seconds. Just enough time to view an entire Vine. (Or win a pro bull riding championship.)
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That made me wonder – how in the world are we supposed to write toward these teens? 

If a 15-year-old kid were reading this blog post, he would have closed the tab right… about… now.

How big a deal is this?

As an avid writer and blogger, I wondered two things:

1. Should I even care that teenagers aren’t reading my (full) articles?
2. Let’s say I do care – what can I do about it?

The answer to the first question depends on your audience. In my case that's probably Millennials over the age of 25 – likely those who have finished college and have more time to peruse the internet. These are the people whose minds I want to capture. So if teens are busy on Snapchat and other "young" social platforms, that's okay with me.

Though a part of me is sad that a teenager won’t bother or isn’t able to read full articles, it doesn’t affect me directly. Then again, today's teens are tomorrow's 25-year-olds, and it never hurts to start building relationships early.

Not to mention, what about the people for whom teens ARE the audience? What should they do?

Considering that a 16-year-old kid could easily become the CTO of a wildly successful startup in just 5-7 years, I think it is important to at least consider how to capture teens' full attention.

Bite-sized for teen digestion

Okay then. How would one go about doing that?

Although a solid title is always crucial, it's not enough. You also need to write snappier prose:

• Short bullet points
• Terse points to keep the reader engaged
• Make posts visually easier to digest – short paragraphs, bullets, subheaders, etc.
  

By writing in bite-sized bullets, along with images, any reader will be able to fly through and eyeball the crux of an article. There is nothing more tedious than large blocks of texts – especially on smaller mobile screens. But with the right formatting you might even get a teenager to finish an article without clicking away to check their Snaps!

Generation Z is a tricky bunch, and there is a lot of interesting data about them for marketers and writers to put to use. But whatever else you do, just remember the golden rule of connecting with digital-obsessed teens: be brief.

Shlomo Wiesen is a content and blogging fanatic who loves working with small businesses and startups. Feel free to reach out: @shlomowiesen

IMAGE CREDIT: CGP GREY