Follow the Instructions!

I have seen this a few times on Facebook. This time I couldn’t resist capturing the image to make a point.

In this image below, there is the photo of a man standing on the ledge with a bear right near him. The text accompanying the image urges the readers to click on the image, type “Jump” in the comment box and then watch what happens.

What do you think should happen?

Nothing.

Right – because whatever you type in the comment box will have ZERO effect on the image. You can’t trigger anything on the image by posting on the comment box.

Of course, that would be too logical.

When I took the screenshot, there were 23,000+ comments most of which typed the word “Jump” in the comments box. For every 25 or so “jumps,” one or two people would try to expose (?) the silliness by typing “nothing happens here” or something like that. But even after that, hundreds of people continue to type “jump” in the comment box.

Honestly, most people know that there is nothing that’s going to happen when the type “jump” in the comment box. But somewhere deep in their mind, they think – “What if something does happen.. the cost of checking that is super small. All I have to do is type jump in the comment box…”

To make things worse, they see tens of thousands of people who have typed “jump” (social proof) compelling them to go for it.

What we need to reflect is not whether we were one of those that fell for the trap above but where else in our life are we following instructions blindly just because the cost of following them is very small.

All the best!

PS: Here is one other example with a lot more people following “instructions.” Keep smiling.