Is the Internet good for travel writing?

I believe that the Internet is a godsend for writers from all genres, but it doesn’t make everyone a writer.

Sure, it allows anyone to communicate, demonstrate or remonstrate, but by doing so doesn’t make the author an instant writer. The same amount of talent, quality and commitment required to succeed offline is just as important for the online writer.

If anything, it’s the style of writing, that the Internet is changing. The average Internet user has a very short attention span. They prefer bite-sized, eye-witness, investigative content molded into easily absorbed imagery. For most Internet users, travel essays just aren’t conducive to their online research.

As “Ganghiss” comments on RUSirius’s “10 Zen Monkey’s” blog, “Writing as a whole has not only made a move from books to bytes, from lengthy to short, from long attention span to attention deficit required, it has made a large leap away from creative fiction writing to journalism and investigative writing”.

The dismay many “established” writers express is, more often than not, a result of fear of change or their inability, or unwillingness, to embrace the Internet and the opportunity it presents.

Books are going the way of vinyl records. The message, be it words or music, will continue get through to growing audiences, albeit via a different format.