To despair...

[ShouldIStaySelfIsolated]

About the lack of comprehension/attention skills evident on this site, and what it might imply about wider society?

The amount of times this weekend I've seen people replying with a response to an opening post, despite it being 5 pages long, with several updates from the OP... its mind boggling.

See also, people not reading the OP, e.g. "my kids (ds4 and dd5)..."
"How old are your kids OP?"

Considering this is a site for adults (supposedly well educated, so the stereotype goes), it actually baffles me

I’ve not read the full thread because I’m too busy and important, sorry OP but anyway back to me me me me it’s all about meeee and my important comments.

(Bloody love reddit though)

There seems to be an increase in posts where OP has written a first post about (for example) her husband kicking their dog, and the reply will be something like "Wait, your husband kicked your dog?" Nothing else, just that.

Yes, yes he did that's the entire point of the post.

Or, recently, "Where did this happen?" It's in the bloody OP.

Whilst some OPs do need further clarification, I think some people would like someone to come round, hold their hand, read posts aloud to them (slowly!) and maybe act out the situation with puppets to make it clearer.

That’s very outdated and I don’t know why people keep saying it. I’ve been here for years now and it has never been that way. It heavily leans towards lower income, which is actually true of most Internet forums statistically speaking.

It’s similar to how people bang on about “skinny people” posting when in reality every other thread is about WLI and bragging about the portions they eat. 😂

My fave example was thread about bats.

"We live in the US and had x situation with bat and potential bite...." (note bat was killed and OP mentioned CDC or similar iirc)
"OP that's criminal offence, bats are protected in UK! You are horrible person and deserve to be reported"

Op said numerous times she wasn't in UK but that did not matter to many🙈

Indeed. Isn’t baffled just code speak for “I’m judging them and I think I am better than them?

Bingo.

She DOES now say that she's "genuinely interested" though, so she's hopefully over the original despair

if a thread is pages long I tend to avoid it as I’m sure someone on it has already made the point I would. But if it’s something that particularly interests me I at the very least read all the OP’s post, and read the last few to see if it’s been totally derailed already (as it’s beginning to here with the middle class business).
I also write out responses and then don’t post as I think I’m not really adding something and boring even myself!

Maybe the site needs an update that makes it impossible to post a reply until you have read all the OP's posts?

@ShouldIStaySelfIsolated Where did you get the 'well-educated' stereotype from? The level of intelligence on this site is waaaaay below average. I don't think anyone actually believes it's full of degree educated 'high earners' do they?

And you're basing your assertion that people here have below-average intelligence on... what, exactly?

Whenever there's a savings/mortgage/earnings question there's always a very broad spectrum but there are quite a large representation of high earners, although that's not necessarily a proxy for intelligence.

Surely you realise the majority of the so-called 'high earners' are not real?

People like to claim that, maybe to feel better about themselves. But there are plenty of high earners around. I don’t think these posts are obviously fictitious.

You aren't being unreasonable op. It's really sad how many people on here can't read or gather information properly. See it all the time, people will post about a headline or article as gospel rather than click bait/story fillers with no substance. I put it down to poor education and parental guidance for whatever reason.

I do despair about it, not in a judgy way, bit more a "this thread is 20 pages long of the same 3 responses because no-one has bothered to read past the OP"

And I do think its genuinely interesting as to why this is. I dont remember it being as bad as this when I joined Mumsnet about 9 years ago, so I was wondering what had changed.

As for the snarky comments about the MC/educated skew of mumsnet, ive seen that assertion on several posts this week, and if you ask Google about it, this is what it comes up with, so it's not be being judgy or whatever, its a pretty commonly held view... whether it's a true and honest reflection of the membership is another matter

dispair? Baffled?

you’re being OTT Op. it’s a chat forum. It’s informal communication and people don’t take the time or effort to care either about their own quick typos or assumptions, or anyone else’s view of them.

People are here for themselves, not for you

IME Chat forums used to be quite focused on providing high quality evidence to back up your views (most of these forums no longer exist tbf) and MN was always known as a bit of a thickies alternative focused on the “well if I am what are you” school of debate

When I first joined mn you’d get someone posting about very difficult issue in their life and would wait a day or two for them to get back to the couple of often helpful replies people had posted.
Everyone didn’t carry phones around all the time, everyone didn’t go online all the time. Threads never got to the 20 pages level.
Now everyone wants to have input and everyone is online a lot. Not much you can do about yhat

That's really interesting... I hadn't thought about it like that.
I've been searching for posts on here for advice about some issues and quite often the older ones run to 2 pages max. I hadnt really considered why, but yes, being chronically online/available ro notifications is doing us no favours

Or it’s none of these and simply unreasonable to expect someone to read 14 pages of replies.

It is people’s own choice to have 14 pages.

There has always been the ability to change the number of replies you see on one page.

There has also always been the ability to see all the replies from OP, bypassing replies from anyone else.

To come on a thread where (to take one specific recent example) OP had a situation 10 days ago, was advised it was a police matter so she called the police 8 days ago and said so on the thread, and then some bone idle Mumsnetter comes on the thread which is now hundreds of posts long, and declare ‘Police. Now’ as if they are the only one who has given sensible advice is just stupidity.

If you can’t be bothered to read at least the replies from OP, then what makes these people think anyone wants to read their mumblings?

TLDR

But you're not new in this thought. People have been saying it for ages.

Showing 1 - 25 of 2500

Relevance
AIBU?
To ask older lady to wear headphones in cafe
Post
By Dingledongledell
07/08/2025 22:27
The reading comprehension on this site really is poor!
AIBU?
Help me feel ok about this will
Post
By WhereHasMyPlanetGone
28/06/2025 21:52
I knew the general standard of reading comprehension on this site was poor but fucking hell, this takes the biscuit
AIBU?
Child relationship is ‘secret’ and there is a big age gap...should I care
Post
By strawberrieshortcake
08/11/2019 11:01
The OP has not suggested the gender of their child at all, the reading comprehension on this site is extremely poor or people are just making assumptions.
Pregnancy
Right side pain very worried now
Post
By ShaneTwane
16/09/2022 14:21
clearly poor she said people on the site, not this particular thread.

Social media demonstrates how many people are functionally illiterate. They can read and write but can't extract the information they need from even a paragraph or two.

It also demonstrates how many people are just lazy and seeking engagement and outrage.

I've lost count of the number of threads where a poster links an article they clearly haven't read but they are outraged by the title. Then dozens of posters also don't read the article before becoming outraged and posting about that.

Yeah I dont get it either - you are just making yourself look like a complete prick by not reading the OP.

One person in a recent thread had a right go at the OP about something they misread and when it was pointed out to them they said "it wasnt clear". It was crystal clear to everyone else on the thread and OP had literally spelled it out., like, it couldn't be more clear.

But instead of just saying "oh sorry, I misread", they just carried on with their stupidity making themselves look more and more idiotic with each word.

Its like some weird need to be "right" even when you are actually wrong, know you are wrong, and everyone else knows you are wrong 🤣

Surely most posters on Mumsnet are just posting shit whilst they are waiting for their baby to finish feeding and go to sleep? It's not that deep.