Eating and Writing - Tasting the Whole Thing

A couple of days ago, I was reading about the 10 best healthiest foods to eat. I found the story most interesting because, this means the food probably does not taste very good.

Anything that tastes good is typically not very healthy, because of all the chemicals and non-natural sounding ingredients which have been added for taste.

My son is a chef and he agrees; however, he recommends eating smaller portions. This way you can enjoy the tastiest foods and not worry about the calories or waistline.

While reading this, I wondered if there is a correlation between eating healthy and what we read today.

Reading the written word is just like food, except it is food for the brain.

We live in world of written sound bites. If we are not interested in the first paragraph, we click the mouse to find something else.

When most people eat, the first bite leads to other bites of the food item if it tastes good. If it tastes bad, then we select something else to eat.

Any correlation?

When I was teaching, I found my students would lose interest after about 10 minutes, regardless of what was happening. So I had to change what they were doing or use a different strategy every 10 to 15 minutes. This way they would stay focused long enough to learn something.

These kids live in a world of written and visual sound bites; however, they are not alone.

Most people today live in a technological world that I could not even fathom when I was a kid.

I was focused and knew what I wanted to do most of the time. I was always active in sports, playing outside, riding my bike, or playing neighborhood football and baseball.

Today's kids ... well, you rarely see them outside in their neighborhoods playing.

Because they are reading?

No, they are online living off of Internet and X-Box sound bites. Maybe they are texting to their friends, communicating through FaceBook to the friend down the street, or maybe just sitting in front of the TV watching mindless shows.

To get these kids attention, you have to write in short sentences. You need to jazz up the writing with short videos, sound clips, and/or animation.

Is there any difference between today's kids and adults?

Not really!

As I pointed out above, we live in a world of sound bites. Kids and adults, including me, live in this world.

I also taught at the university level teaching juniors and seniors. I found their attention span to be no different from the 8th graders I taught. They lived in a world of written and visual sound bites and I had to teach them the same way I taught 8th graders.

So what has the 10 healthiest foods have to do with writing?

Few people read the entire book or written text in an article today and they live in the world of sound bites that taste good.

If it requires really reading something to learn what is going on (eating healthy), then most people skip it and continue searching for more interesting sound bites (quick and tasty food).

To be a successful writer today, you must use a lot of seasoning in the opening paragraph to tease the taste buds (brain) and sprinkle more well season tidbits throughout to keep them eating (reading).