I think the net-surfing speed and superficiality with which we all do our tasks today is a cursed gift of the internet age. ‘New York Minute?’ It’s a weak sister compared to internet time.

And my take on the old school need for editors/gatekeepers isn’t so much that THEY enforced standards, but that their very existence, and the pause that was inserted in the process, made us all elevate to a higher standard, or at least stop and read our work critically. I see so many smart people make so many errors of grammar, presentation and judgement simply because we’re moving so fast and there’s no way un-send. There used to be several days and many visits to the typing pool between you and the presentation to the client. Not so anymore.

I don’t know what generation you are, but I am old enough to know that insulting the musings of kids is a recurring generational theme, and always amusingly unprescient. Every generation creates enduring content. OK, maybe not disco …

You’re correct, of course, that lack of oversight is an issue. But haste is also a culprit, as anyone who’s ever worked at a place with constant deadlines will tell you, no matter how deep and mature the shop’s editing hierarchy.

I wouldn’t want to leave you with the impression that I thought the old days were good because there were gatekeepers. I frankly used to believe that, but it’s not a sustainable argument — as well as being academic.

The instant access to global distribution also comes with no editors and no standards. When a newspaper was an important (and expensive) thing to produce, editors stood guard against mindless drivel, because it was too expensive to waste space on the average joe’s ramblings. Not so with the Internets. Any idiot can hold forth (and post comments). In addition to reducing our attention spans, Social Media has reduced our standards.