By Hyacinth D. Ermac, a 3rd-year political science major at the University of Cebu-Main Campus
There’s a new trend in town: react, share, and comment first before reading. I heard it’s very popular nowadays, especially on Facebook. As the Philippines consistently tops global charts for most social media users, you’d be surprised to know that we’re also ranking (almost) last in reading comprehension and literacy globally. Yikes! We are becoming a “headline-only” society, where the speed of the scroll outpaces the depth of the mind.
Poor reading comprehension is becoming very evident on Facebook, where an exaggerated news report on a detailed legislative amendment or a complex Supreme Court ruling is often flooded with “angry” reactions and furious comments that are very far from what the article really means. This “clickbait comprehension” happens because we no longer read to understand; instead, we selectively look for words to trigger our emotional response. When reading comprehension is thrown out the window, a bold headline questioning a legal decision becomes the truth, and a simple joke critiquing a policy becomes the law itself.
This cognitive lack is a breeding ground for disinformation. And yes, you can always correct the masses, provide facts and break a sweat trying to explain what the article really means. But at the end of the day, if people refuse to comprehend the correction, you just wasted your time. Not only that, propaganda feeds on those with poor comprehension; they can no longer tell the difference between an evidence-based argument and an emotional appeal. In today’s social media, where the algorithm prioritizes engagement over facts, the loudest voice wins over the coherent one.
Okay, maybe social media isn’t making us biologically “dumb,” but it is certainly making us intellectually lazy. To save our political future, we must treat reading comprehension as a matter of national need. Being “active” doesn’t matter if you’re not “comprehending.” We must look past the convenience of headlines and invest in the slow, difficult work of critical reading. If we continue to understand a topic based on a few words in its headline, we will find ourselves governed by the same misunderstandings we refuse to correct.