18th Century Novel, Modern Novel, and Blogs

I wrote this in 2015 and never published it, but it’s something I still resonate with, so here you go. 

Sometimes I wonder what happened to the enormous tomes that novelists used to write. Where is the current War and Peace, Les Misérables. Then I realize that bloggers from this year alone have probably written more than Tolstoy wrote in his whole life. We have easily written more than his generation wrote. Someone with access to massive amounts of data, this is my plea, do a study comparing what was written in 2010 to what was written in 1910. Not just the words though, but also average number of words per person, median, mode, and keep track of the outliers because that's where interesting things happen. I'm sure it will be difficult, possibly impossible, but it's just one of those things that we can all guess at and never get any concrete data on.
Personally, I love a good short story. Longer works, for all of their increased bulk, never seem to pack as much pondering potential as shorter bytes of information. There is nothing like finishing Moby Dick, but I think I garner more pleasure and insight from A Man Without a Country.