By Eva Weber
Staff Writer
If you didn’t already know, we at the Voice had a bit of fun with our April Fool’s Day issue, posing as the Daily Prophet, the fictional newspaper from the Harry Potter series.
For those of you we managed to convince, we apologize for any injuries caused by trying to fly on broomsticks. We know our writing is good, but with great power comes great responsibility.
However, the Voice wasn’t the only news source creating a bit of mischief last week. NPR also decided to prank their listeners who frequent their Facebook page.
On April 1, the NPR Facebook page published an article titled “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?”
Outraged at this bold generalization many took to the comments section to express their thoughts.
One man commented, “This article is horrible. Americans DO read, it’s disrespectful to intelligent Americans to state as fact that America no longer reads.”
If you actually tried to read the article to figure out why Americans don’t read anymore, you were sent to a message that read as follows:
“Congratulations, genuine readers, and happy April Fool’s Day! We sometimes sense that some people are commenting on NPR stories that they haven’t actually read. If you are reading this, please like this post and do not comment on it. Then let’s see what people have to say about this ‘story.’ Best Wishes and have an enjoyable day.”
More and more we see news sources attempt to attract more readers to the comments section, but as Simmons College junior Sarah Kinney puts it, “We’re involved, but not engaged.”
Even those who actually read the NPR “article” showed a lack of reading comprehension. In order to weed out who had or had not followed the link, those who had were to simply like the post, no comment necessary.
However, most who followed the link commented anyway, feeling that it was, in fact, necessary to comment and prove that they had done so.
The question here isn’t why Americans don’t read anymore, but why Americans feel they have to put their two cents in to every topic, whether or not they are actually informed on the topic.
Before news sources used social media to interact with their followers, news stories were very one-sided. We were given the news, and could discuss the stories amongst ourselves.
If the story truly moved you, either positively or negatively, you might be motivated enough to write a letter expressing your views. Nowadays, we’re encouraged to interact with the stories we’re being told, to express our own view. In doing so, we’ve created a two-way conversation between the population and their news suppliers.
Though it’s encouraging to see more people willing to share their views and engage in debates, it’s worrying to find that people are more excited to get their views out there, rather than reading the article that might support or shape those opinions.
