In this Facebook age we seem to be losing the ability read more than just the headline. Many are happy to read a headline, believe it entirely and share the ‘fact’ amongst their friends. Even if the story is laid out in detail they just won’t read it, their mind is already set on the direction they’re going with the headline.
I write a lot, I write long and deep. It could be argued that I preach in my writing and, well yes, that’s correct. In a Facebook or Blog post that’s what we can do, we can have a thought, expand upon it and open it up for comment except … few are reading past the headline.
It could be that what I am writing is just not interesting enough and, it’s quite topical, quite current, quite not about Big Brother so, perhaps it isn’t so interesting. Perhaps I should add pictures of fluffy cats?
I’ve had people say to me that they really can’t be doing with reading lots of ‘stuff’. That they can’t take it all in. I’ve spent hours sometimes piecing something together which was really important. Something that, were it read, would have explained everything, helped create a better way of doing things, changed a situation totally only to be told that they ‘can’t be bothered’.
I think it is a real shame we have lost the ability to write and read letters. That’s effectively what I do, I write letters. What I write, well, it’s intended as an opening to debate, not as a stated fact which cannot be challenged. We can learn so much from writing such things and reading and, perhaps more importantly, understanding the responses. Of course, I have to accept, most of what I write falls on deaf eyes, if such a descriptive makes any sense.
None are so blind as those who will not see
Someone must have said that at some point.
Now, is it time for the cuddly cat yet? No, of course not because the average Facebook reader left us way up there before I ever mentioned cats! They are already seeing more important things such as Anakin Skywalker getting chased in South Carolina by the cops … yes, this is the news today. I have no clue if Big Brother is on at the moment but, that’s way more interesting than anything to do with immigration or multiculturalism. Those were my subjects of today.
Perhaps the stark reality is, people just don’t want real reality only TV reality. Nothing actually real can be as real as the reality TV programmes. No real life situation could be as interesting as the recreations of real life situations in Eastenders (UK soap). I often joke about my own life that no soap would ever run the story as no one would believe it, where fiction is more believable than reality and, seemingly, more interesting.
Often, when I write something I am telling my readers something about me. Perhaps I elude to it in what I’ve written, sometimes I spell out the connection. Very often I don’t mention how this relates to me. By reading the headlines of what I wrote earlier today on Facebook, some will conclude I am a racist (I am the total opposite of that). Some might conclude I am a sad old man who will never find anyone to love, that’s actually not the current reality … there see, if you’ve read this far you’ve suddenly discovered something, there is someone special in my life at the moment, I am just not sharing the information.
Let’s do a little test, see who can still read.
In your chosen place be it Facebook, Twitter or something else simply write, ‘I read to the end’
and so you can write that honestly here is
The End
I read to the END!