Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Goldilocks Might Be Odd Girl Out

I love speed scrolling. You probably do it as well or better than I can. It’s when you open up a news source (not TMZ, I said a news source) and basically skim the words as you move the trackball or scroll down with the wireless mouse (see? I’m catching on. I have a coal-fired mouse on a cable but concede times have changed in the last thirty years (and not for the better)).

Some folks write great headlines: the NY Times and LA Times come to mind immediately; also okay are the Frankfurter Rundshau and the Washington Post. I can read the headlines and get a feel for the content and decide as I’m scrolling on the river whether to go with the flow or open the article and read further.

I dislike a headline that tricks me into opening an article and then the story itself fails to deliver on the promise of the headline. I’m often disappointed to discover me and twelve million close personal FB Friends aren’t getting the dirt the way we thought we were when we clicked on the big ‘youbetcha!’ in the corner of Entertainment Tonight or True Facts. And people wonder why I have trust issues. What people? See what I mean.

However, I stopped dead in my tracks for this headline and while I’ll never be confused with an actual  fan of the Huffington Post which always seems a semi-tawdry mix of the National Enquirer and Police Gazette, I have to agree they delivered this time around. But so much for knowledge is power, eh?

I mean now that you’ve read the story and know the information, how can you seriously expect to work any of it into a conversation? The only thing I’d point out is, had it ever appeared as part of a FB news feed, how could anyone in good conscience give it a thumbs-up since, it seems to me the very absence of thumbs is part of the problem. Where else would you put the pick?

-bill kenny   

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