The web is the perfect medium for long-form text, and I think we would lose a lot as a society if people only stuck to the Cliff's Notes' version of everything. If it's well written and interesting then I'll read it.

I believe a synopsis can be useful when it leads the reader to decide whether or not the original is worth their time, but it shouldn't take precedence over the original. On a news aggregator or a forum, the result of people refusing to even read beyond the article title can be damaging to the intellect and to discourse.

I may be a bit of an outlier, though. I read an entire book on a Palm z22 and it didn't bother me at all.