As kids, we're taught that it's better to give a wrong answer than no answer. No answer suggests we don't understand, or haven't been paying attention. We're (correctly) encouraged to try, despite potential failure, because that is one way that we learn. However...

...it makes for a bad mix when it comes to social media. We feel the need to answer questions - even if the answer is incorrect, needed, or for us to give, because we're programmed to think we have to. Just look at any joke tweet posed as a rhetorical question and you will...

...see replies from people trying to seriously answer it. They think that by answering, they are doing the right thing, despite the fact that by answering, they are only announcing their inability to actually pay attention to the question.

People are so keen to show that they are attentive and helpful and so focused on giving an answer that they have forgotten how to listen to a question. How to check for context. People stop taking a moment to think, "Would the person asking this question already have tried this?"

It's all very well to claim, "I'm just trying to help." But if you can't stop to really think about the question - to ask yourself, "WHO is asking this question? WHY are they asking it? Is it for ME?" - then you're likely not helping. You're more likely hindering. Why?

Because when everybody who either doesn't know the right answer - or who the question isn't aimed at - tries to answer a question, it makes it THAT much harder to find the correct answer from the people it was aimed at.

Because when you ignore context and suggest an unnecessary solution to someone who doesn't need it (yeah, I'm pretty sure X from IT in that company you work at has already tried "turning it off and on again") then you're suggesting they're too dumb to think of the obvious answer.

Because when you get so excited about a question that you don't even notice it's rhetorical, or a joke, then YOU look like a fool.

The thing is, we're all susceptible to this. Some more than others (thanks to ingrained bigotry). But none of us is immune. So let's all let this sink in, because it might help people get the actual answers they need, or let some great jokes land.

Should you reply to this?