Why April Fools Day Is Driving Me Crazy

April 1st is an increasingly annoying day for one reason, and that is that the signal-to-noise ratio of that day goes WAY up (or down, depending on how you wish to measure it) with each passing year. In the past, and I mean before the Internet, the April 1 noise ratio was pretty well contained. But with the rise of the interconnected communications of the Internet age, now EVERYONE can pull a prank with a few tappy taps on the keyboard or touchscreen. This isn't funny. It isn't funny because with all of the additional communication options these days, my available time to pour through all of these communications is very short. So I simply don't have time to waste an entire day sifting through what's true and what's not. It's not that I'm a curmudgeon, a gullible idiot, or just a cranky guy - I just can't stand the importance this non-holiday is taking on due to the ease of communications these days. It's not even a flipping holiday, for goodness sake! It's NOT something to be celebrated. And it's rude and cruel to those who are deceived by someone's "prank." I'm not saying that pranks and jokes should be avoided - but when there's so little face-to-face time to hug one another, smile at the prankee, or communicate that you only did it in fun then half of the enjoyment of jokes and pranks is flipped on its head and becomes just a mean, snarky communication instead of something to build the relationship. I challenge whoever stumbles across this post to rethink your attitude towards April 1st - when you prank or joke, is it building a relationship, or hurting one?