The importance of reading carefully

Just as our former president once said, “Listen carefully”, so one must also try to read carefully.

It astounds me how people misinterpret information purely because they did not read the article clearly or carefully.

About two weeks ago, we published an article on our website about applications for wildlife trainers which are currently open. This training programme is presented by a company which specialises in the training of park rangers and so forth. All the information about how you can apply was in the article, yet, till today, my email inbox is flooded with applications from members of the public.

I have stopped responding to each and every person who sent me an application because I just cannot do it any more. Where in the article did it say to email the editor with your CV and list of qualifications?

Here’s another example: I was contacted by a reader who told me we were blatant liars for publishing information about an article she knows is not true. When I question her about the information she was referring to, she subsequently admitted to misunderstanding what was written because she had not read the article properly. She also said she should have probably done that first before calling me and accusing me of all sorts of things. I laughed it off. But she insisted that it was still my fault because, and I quote, “Come to think of it, you deliberately misled me, so shame on you”.

I was stunned at her conclusion.

I know this type of response, which luckily does not happen every day, comes with the territory, but sometimes I place my faith in humanity and hope people will not resort to becoming part of the ‘socially dumb’ that comes with online reading and interacting.

The old saying of pointing the finger rings true because three more fingers are pointing back at you as you do so. The fact remains, is the proverbial pointing of the finger done with accuracy? Something to think about …

Until next week, keep it factual, Krugersdorp.