Based on some recent experience on Facebook, I feel the need to remind everyone not to be this guy:
In 2014, NPR conducted an April Fools’ Day experiment. They posted an article on Facebook titled, “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?” The Facebook comments came flooding in.
“I read every day, and all my friends and family members do too. Are we not America? Or are you just weakly grasping for stories?”
“Just because people aren’t opting to read a dusty copy of War and Peace doesn’t mean we’re having a hard time comprehending things.”
“NPR, wipe those nervous beads of sweat from your brow, sit back, or read & conduct research at a library for another NPR story. There are plenty of bookworms, you just have to look for them.”
If you clicked the article to “hear” NPR’s argument and the evidence behind their statement, you were instead greeted by, “Congratulations, genuine readers…” NPR then explained: “We sometimes get the sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read.” Each comment proved their suspicion. Each comment revealed the reality of why James penned his words in James 1:19. As fallen creatures, we are slow to hear and quick to speak.
Read the rest of Nathan Bingham’s post on why we need to “Be Quick to Read and Slow to Comment.”
I noticed trend for a while there on Facebook where people would make these long posts about something that happened to them recently. Then at the end, they're reveal it was all a joke. They wanted to see people would read the whole thing before commenting.
The first couple of times it happened to me, I'd think, "Wow!" as I was reading the story. Then I'd get to the end and have a good laugh. But after a couple of times, I began to get suspicious as I read these stories. They were still good entertainment, though.
I especially liked how one of them ended. I can't remember all the details, but basically one of my facebook friends said they were at the grocery store, and this lady kept staring at him, which made him uncomfortable. Eventually, she was ahead of him in the check out line, and she turned and told him he looked just like her son who was killed in Iraq or somewhere. Then she asked if she could hug him, and she made a strange request. She said, "Would you please just say, "I love you, Mom"? She acknowledged it was a strange request, but asked him to do it anyway. My friend complied. Then she left, and he was stuck with her unpaid grocery bill. The check out lady said, "Your mom said you were going to cover it." He said, "I don't even know that woman." She said, "But I just heard you call her your mom." My friend ran out in the parking lot to catch up with her. She was getting in her car, and he grabbed her leg. As he was pulling on her leg, it turned out to be prosthetic, and it came off. Then he said he was just pulling our legs. The way he said it, it was much funnier than how I'm explaining it because he tied his pulling of the woman's leg in with him pulling our legs. It was pure art.
But yeah, I agree with you. Solomon said, "He who answers before listening, that is his folly and his shame" (Proverbs 18:13).
Posted by: Sam Harper | June 21, 2016 at 12:03 PM
But commenting is so so so much more fun that reading.
Posted by: kpolo | June 21, 2016 at 12:07 PM
Ha! Thanks, Sam. :-)
Posted by: Amy | June 21, 2016 at 12:43 PM
At our house, we have a thing called 'Order of body parts'.
The parts in question are the brain and the mouth.
Posted by: RonH | June 21, 2016 at 03:36 PM