Twitter Is Out Here Trying To Make People Read The Articles They Share With A New Nagging Feature

(NYP)--In an effort to suppress misinformation and knee-jerk retweets, the social-media company is testing a new feature that would ask users whether they’ve actually read the content they’re about to share.

The new function has already been added to some Android devices.

“Sharing an article can spark conversation, so you may want to read it before you tweet it,” said Twitter in a statement. “To help promote informed discussion, we’re testing a new prompt on Android — when you retweet an article that you haven’t opened on Twitter, we may ask if you’d like to open it first.”

Shut up, @Jack. Twitter is such a giant nag. Out here telling you what you can and can't post or think or share and now they want you to read things before sharing. Fuck outta here. If twitter wanted me to read things, then they shouldn't have invented an entire new form of communication that has conditioned my brain to only process information at 280 characters at a time. Twitter isn't designed for thoughtful discussion. It was designed to read, react, and fire off takes. And by read I don't mean clicking the link. I mean reading the "room" of the internet. When something is popping off and you're hunting for RTs and likes you don't have time to read. You gotta get your takes and jokes in immediately. Ask questions later. Twitter created the perfect website for engagement where we never actually have to leave the platform. This would be like Haagen-Daaz putting an extra lid on the inside of my ice cream container telling me that if I continue any further I am going to get fat. Uhh, no shit. You don't buy ice cream by the tub unless you're already fat and you're not racing to hit send unless you're already conditioned to never read anything longer than a paragraph. That last analogy wasn't great. I admit it, but who are we kidding. Nobody has read this far into the paragraph anyways. We are up to 338 words and counting and the majority of people just saw the headline and kept scrolling.