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There goes another one.
You see them all the time. Outraged opinions spewed all over social media, based on the headline only. Most don’t bother to open with the “I didn’t read this” line, but you can kind of always tell.
I’ve run across this in the company Facebook pages I handle, though fortunately not to the pile-on extent that other pages have, such as Jezebel and the ubiquitous George Takei. Of course, not all such comments are negative, but there’s a reason why there’s a brisk business in the “I’m just here for the comments” memes.
These comments can be entertaining, but if you’re the one trying to get a point across, frustrating, too. Especially when the outrage, condescension, and inevitable ad hominem attacks could so easily have never happened at all, had the person taken just a second to, you know, read beyond the headline.
As Heather Vaughn says, “It goes back to how the way you behave on Facebook (or whatever social platform you’re on) should be no different than how you interact in the real world: Would you jump into a conversation without at least SOME context?”
So I’m curious: What makes someone (you, me, any someone) feel qualified to comment without actually clicking the clickbait?
Author Becky Benishek 