I read the article if I want to talk to someone about it or make a comment, otherwise I read headline, then go to the comments.

I read the headline, I read the discussion. If the discussion convinces me to read the article myself, I will. If there’s broad consensus, generally it’s not worth my time to confirm what I’ve learned already.

I do this for several reasons:

1. Ads. Even with ad blocker the frequent text breaks are exhausting.

2. Overeditorialization. I want the facts, not a narrative. I get why that’s the way the information is presented, but my time is limited and I’m not into it. Same reason I don’t really like (non-nature) documentaries

3. Perspective. The author has their own unitary perspective, and I prefer to consume multiple perspectives on an issue so I can explore the problem/solution space.

If it’s short, data heavy, and plays nice with Simplified Mode then I’ll read it real quick, but the less navigation I have to do to obtain information the better.

Personally I wish there was a way to filter out all the comments by people who haven’t read the article.

I read the article if when I open the link, I am not immediately slapped in the face with ads that aren’t blocked by uBlock Origin, an ad block blocker, or a paywall. But I’m not also not reading multiple articles on the same exact topic just because they come from different outlets. 9 times out of 10, they’re exactly the same but with slight variation on verbiage because they all took the same original information from the actual original source and just re-worded it.

I mostly read the headlines since most articles these days are written to fill a length quota and info is sparse. Most articles are now full of fluff.

Both. It depends on how interested I am in the headline and whether there is a paywall.

RSS reader -> skim headlines -> open the full article from maybe 10% of the headlines -> skim the first paragraph to see how clickbaity the headline was -> read through the full article on maybe 50% of those.

And this isn’t just global and political news, I follow science, tech, sports, and other niche interest news this way too.

Some days I just listen to NPR’s Morning Edition podcast snips. Double speed. Skip over any with a title that doesn’t interest me.

And finally, I discard any completionist feelings. My RSS feed will never be all caught up. My podcast queue will never be empty. That used to bother me but I have some tools to manage my stress over it a bit better now.

I try to, when I have the time, but I don’t sweat it if I don’t, I just try to avoid forming too many opinions about the topic.

Also, a good chunk of the time I try, I get paywalled. Which I can usually bypass if I’m on PC, but that’s not really feasible on mobile.

Props to all the heroes copying the article into the post, or pointing out when the headline is misleading.

I’ll read the article if it’s not behind a paywall. I often don’t finish them because most articles are poorly written.

Just the headline so I can ensure I misinterpret the context fully when drunkenly ranting at my mates about it.

My conservative inlaws read headlines aloud like it’s a fact without reading the article.

And make up a scenario about the headline. Its like angry improve for distressing yourself.

I didn’t read your question but “yes”

I just read the comments.

Depends solely on ad blocking and writing. I will if it’s interesting. If it’s mindless dribble or not easy to access, I’m out.

Interestingly, I read the full article more often now on lemmy vs back on reddit. Maybe because there aren’t a ton of comments on posts here so I don’t have context and need to just read it myself. Either way, it’s better because I get to form my own opinion instead of basing it off on other people’s comments.