Read This If You Always Follow Directions

It seems the title of this piece was right about you: you do always follow directions. The fact is you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. You may have seen this link on social media and it commanded you drop the task at hand and focus your attention toward this internet dialogue, and you did. What does that say about you?

Look, the internet is a never-ending wormhole that you can be sucked into and never leave, and I’ve been there. So, if you’re only indication for how to consume the massive quantities of content available for your eyeballs is to go by snappy headlines, you may be falling deeper and deeper into said space. The title cue here was that if you always follow directions you need to read this right away. Since you apparently do and this digital literary snap caught your attention, you’ve found your way here.

You’re not reading this because it has any intrinsic value or insightful knowledge (or maybe it does, which remains to be seen [all part of the plan]), but because you were told to. Is that what people live for now? Headline gold? This one got you here, so that must mean it struck it rich.

Now that it’s obvious you always follow directions, you’re being told that you need to keep reading. Keep reading not because you want to, but because that’s what you’ve been told to do. The title lead you here, and now these words are leading you further into the internet. Your eyes need to keep scrolling and your thumb or a combination of your index and middle finger need to keep tracking down the page before you.

That’s right, stop what you’re doing and read this is the basis of all internet headlines and this one was just more forthright in giving you an insight into the process. From the start you knew what you were getting into, and since you always follow directions, the success of this piece of internet content was able to lure you in with its blasé wit.

In all honesty, as a person who always follows directions, and has made it this far, you should know that you cannot stop here. There are more words to be read. There’s more content to be had. What lies ahead in the following words? In the next sentence? Paragraph? Read on to find out more is your only option, and you’re being told that you have to do it, and you do. That’s what writing and finding readers (*cough* users *cough*) is all about. Calls to action. Second person identifiers that make YOU feel important into what’s going on. Your mind is blown if you’ve read this far, and maybe just because, again, you’ve been told it was. It’s great that you always follow directions and stopped everything you were doing to come here and read this, because there is something you should know: you need to read a little bit more before this whole thing is over.

Do you feel like clicking elsewhere at this point? Well, stop what you’re doing and don’t do that and keep reading this. This right here is what you need to be reading right now, without question, and as a person who always follows directions you should know better than to derail from the process of internet content consumption when it has so clearly told you what you need to be doing: reading this.

Thank you for pushing through and finding your way to these words, but would you have done so if you hadn’t been told to do so? You always follow directions and you were continually prompted to read further. Yeah, and you’re not done yet. There are more words in this post yet to be consumed. There are more links on the page yet to be clicked. There are more ideas from the author you’ve yet to give your precious time to. There’s an infinite amount of things out there, so how do you know when to choose something and what that something is? You don’t, you’re told what it is, and since you follow directions it comes very naturally to you. The fact that you always follow directions is important, because that’s the only thing that has kept you here until the end. And now, there is but one final piece of direction you need to follow–stop thinking about what you’re about to be doing: finish reading this sentence if you truly always follow directions.