Do You Chunk?

by Nick Coston, not a chunker

It’s the latest thing, “chunking”. All the crazy kids are doing it, as well as a few of you old farts. Especially a fe bloggers. Chunking has become the new mode of the written word.

I see who chunks and I’m not impressed. Some of you are chunking more each day. LinkedIn has become a chunk-fest.

“Must you chunk?” is my new phrase.

See, I just chunked.

According to someone on the Google, “Chunking is the cognitive technique of grouping individual pieces of information into larger, meaningful units — called chunks — so that they become easier to process, remember and act upon. Instead of overloading working memory with separate items, chunking packages information into manageable groups. “

And here I thought chunking was something us kids did on Thursday Nights in the late 70’s after a night of barhopping in Whitewater, Wisconsin.

“Ewwww, now that was chunky”, you would in the tavern’s men’s room.

They weren’t referring to literature.

For record I’m not fat-shaming either, calling a bunch of you media peeps “chunkers”. After being a chunker myself for years, size wise, totally different meaning.

I hope.

“Chunking” or “micro blogging” has increasingly gained popularity on LinkedIn posts, Twitter/X, Instagram, Facebook and Reddit. Being a chunker means you break down the larger amounts of information into smaller, sometimes almost one sentence long pieces. For example, today on LinkedIn I saw eight fresh chunkies, very short, on-the-go almost bullet points segments, mostly written and posted by names (if you’re a LinkedIn stalker) you would find familiar. This short form of social media writing is a clever way to keep readers attention rather than risk losing them in a 1000-piece heavy study material.

Without delay, or in “chunk-speak”, here’s a few chunks that appeared earlier today, all Cannes related. See if you can figure out who the Cannes chunker is:

- “5 scheduled meetings (3 with air conditioning) and countless more unplanned run ins”

-“Two years of building these rooms and I’m still learning something new inside of them.”

-“Day 1 at Cannes Lions
International Festival of Creativity: That time when I packed dresses that don’t
wrinkle, but my eyes didn’t get the memo.”

-But here’s what most teams are missing:”

-“I booked my flight and hotel to Cannes months ago with zero confirmed opportunities.”

-“Everybody who’s going is SOMEBODY.”

-While governance was the shared thread throughout the session, another theme really stole the show. Any guesses?”

-“Brand entertainment is everywhere”.

And finally, -“I only got 1000 views…”

How’s that for some Cannes chunk? They really didn’t say too much. Sound bites.

Not exactly attention getting, but if you build maybe 20 of these chunks into one post, you look like a genius. Instead of three or four paragraphs where you risk losing your audience just rip off a few original chunks, and voila! A social media masterpiece.

It’s easy to chunk. Hemingway never chunked, neither did F. Scott Fitzgerald, or George Orwell. But plenty of well-known bloggers, company heads, agency owners and a few brand chiefs do. It’s quick, it’s keeping the reader’s attention and you get in-get out without ever having to making a point.

Which brings me to my very own chunk-laden lines:

-“I used to post daily, then I didn’t.”

-“I always drink my coffee strong, black and boiling hot.”

-“Then I got the call”.

-“It wasn’t who I thought it was”.

-“I decided to meet my client for dinner for an offsite. I got there first.”

-“Then I screamed, who here ordered the veal cutlet”?

-“He got up to hit the head; darn guy never came back”.

-“Ended not getting the IO, stuck me with the check, I got canned the next day”.

-“Got told to stop speaking in sound bites”.

-“Decided to learn short-hand”.

It’s only fitting that I end today’s ramble with an original chunk of my own:

-“what’s your favorite candy bar”?

Mine’s Chunky.

(Editor’s Note: the two B/W photos used in this ramble are of famed American silent film actor, director and screenwriter, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, 1887-1933, one of America’s original “Chunkers” who not only famous for his chunkiness but also for being accused of accidentally killing his girlfriend in 1921. After two mistrials due to hung (chunked) juries, Fatty was fully acquitted in his third trial in 1922. The jury even issued him an apology as well as a box of Chunky bars.