Originally Posted by
JDNSW
If long paragraphs and sentences are supposes to be a phenomenon from the use of computers, it rather suggests that those claiming that are very ignorant of history and literature.
Word spaces and paragraphs did not become generally used until the introduction of relatively cheap paper to replace parchment in the middle ages, and very long sentences and paragraphs remained common long after that. For example, in Sir John Mandeville's "Voyages and Travailes", the first sentence lasts three pages of print. A somewhat later example, opening my facsimile copy of Hakluyt's Voyages (1581) at random shows two facing pages with no paragraph breaks.
More recently, a quick look at Beadell's "Too Long in the Bush" (compulsory reading for any Landrover fan) shows only two paragraph breaks on the first page.
With the precomputer examples, I find it very hard to blame the computer, although I would point out that popular 19th century authors such as Scott, Dickens, Twain etc mostly have short paragraphs.
Perhaps the computer can be blamed in the sense that it enables people whose writing you would never have previously seen, to become visible.
John