No, I'm not a social scientist or a researcher or any of those important experts, but I just conducted some fool-proof research that concludes that, well, a lot of people prefer to consume scandal, excitement, and 'wutlessness' rather than engage with inspiring messages and serious issues.

Yeah, man! It go so! And how do I know that my research is foolproof? Cho, dat easy!

I'm one of the finest fools I know. I endorse the findings, and that's all the proof I need! So here is how it went. It was a simple experiment. On Monday, I went to my Facebook page and posted a link to a YouTube recording of "Ac-cent-tchu-ate The Positive" by Aretha Franklin.

The uplifting song, from Ms Franklin's 1962 sophomore album The Electrifying Aretha Franklin is one of my favourite sources of inspiration and encouragement. But after two days of being in my timeline, that post received one deggeh-deggeh comment, with only four people clicking on 'like' [and one of them was me].

Yesterday, I posted a link to a YouTube clip of yet another inspiring and stirring piece, Feeling Good,by the late music legend and civil rights activist Nina Simone, from her 1965 album I Put a Spell on You. Trust me, peeps! That Nina Simone selection is the kind of tune that if you listen to it and it doesn't make you feel good, then you can just go and lie in a grave and pronounce yourself dead.

bizarre

Well, after spending more than an average civil servant's workday in my timeline, my 'feel-good' post got a maximum of two comments and a total number of two likes, and in each case, one was mine. So I tried something else. I posted the words 'Murder' and 'Rape'. And within minutes, it not only got a 'like' - which I found bizarre - but it actually evoked obvious interest and several comments.

critical thought

So unnu si, it simple: People nuh want seriousness and inspiration. Dem want sensational salaciousness. Most people don't want nuh whole heap of intellectual challenge or critical thought. Dem want mi buck di volume and talk up tings oh so provocatively. A reader actually asked me some weeks ago how come I claimed to be a comedian and I seemed to love to write about some serious topics and deep stuff. All now mi nuh answer.

There are other readers, though, who feel differently. Some good friends of mine told me that if I don't make it my duty to send them the online link to this lickle box each week, some of them often end up not reading my good-good column at all because they avoid the papers due to shock they experience after reading headlines like 'man takes woman to motel and dies'. Wha dem waan read bout. Budget speech and Sectoral Debate?

I had to inform the ignorant who didn't know and remind the ones who knew but are either forgetful or in denial that even though a headline saying something like 'man jailed for molesting cow' may disrupt some delicate sensibilities, the STAR is the most widely read paper in all of Jamaica. And there's a reason why. Yeah, man! Just check my research findings.

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