If you had to diffuse a bomb or risk the death of yourself along with a hundred other people would you read the instructions first? Or would you just dive in willy-nilly and hope for the best? My experience is that most people don't read the instructions. Is it because they can't read? No, it's because they are either too lazy or people just aren't accustomed to reading anymore. Reading, along with listening, is a lost art. Today it's 'watching' and 'talking'. We watch, mostly crap, and we talk in a most degraded rendition of English. Many of us are dumber than a head of lettuce.
The purpose of this article is a plea, especially to Gather members, to read the damned instructions before jumping in head first. Check to see that there is water in the pool before jumping in head first. It could be your last dive. In a participatory web site like this one there needs to be guidelines. An army can't win a war if each soldier follows his own rules, or follows no rules at all.
On Gather we have guidelines for posting articles, images, videos and comments. We have guidelines for creating groups, joining groups and posting to groups. We have guidelines for adding friends to our circle and deleting others. Guidelines are like traffic signals - they are there to make things flow more smoothly. When we don't read the instructions chaos results. This applies equally to everything we do in life. But I'm not trying to tell you how to run your life. I'm just suggesting that to make our Gather experience more enjoyable that we read the damned instructions.
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Comments: 20
Just kidding
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In some instances you are correct that people don't like to read. Much of the time it is simple impatience rather than inability. There is an old saying "when all else fails, read the instruction manual" and that is the way instructions are generally considered.
Another factor is that many instructions are poorly written and may not make sense when you do read them. Or, they are so slow and repetitious no one has the patience to wade through them. Then there is finding the instructions written in English!
The whole point is that many instructions are such a joke that they are not worthy of reading - "don't touch the burner when it is on" is a good example.
And you are correct, I am one who seldom reads the instructions in full before proceeding. I may read them a step at a time on a complex project, to learn what each step entails.
Tell me, when you get a new piece of software, do you read the manual in full before using it? I didn't think so, and neither do I.
You were taught standard English in the fifth grade? They started pounding that into my head in first grade. Of course, that was a country school.
I don't really know in which grade I learned proper English. As far as I can recall I went to school in the first grade already speaking 'correct' English, and I was doing quite well in French also.
You've just hit upon the secret to good English! I too, heard very good English as a child, but many hear very poor English, and they may never learn to speak or write just off the top of their heads, with reasonable grammar or sentence structure. What happens in the home is crucial!