Life

You've Been Using Chopsticks Wrong Your Whole Life

by Megan Grant

You ever have one of those moments where life hands you lemons, and then laughs in your face because you don't know sh*t about lemons? That's kind of how I felt when I realized I'd been using chopsticks wrong my entire life. Twitter user @bortofdarkness recently shared a hack for using the wooden chopsticks you get whenever you order chopstick — and they've definitely just changed the sushi game for good.

@bortofdarkness originally tweeted the picture on Feb. 8, and in the two days since, it's gone hugely viral, collecting over 3,500 retweets and over 3,300 likes. The picture reveals what may be the real use of chopsticks: Instead of splitting them apart where they're connected at the top, you're apparently supposed to snap the connecting piece off and use it to rest your chopsticks on, so that they don't come into contact with the table and get all germy and stuff. It's like giving your chopsticks their own tiny table for two.

For whatever reason, the Internet went absolutely bonkers over this earth-shattering discovery, and now the tweet is all over the place — from i100 to The Sun. @bortofdarkness tweeted that people are even talking about it in Germany. I personally feel like this is really groundbreaking, because, I mean, who wants to rest their chopsticks on their plate or their napkin? Amateurs.

I feel like everything I've ever known is a lie. What else are they not telling us?

Curiosity got the best of some of us, leading a few peeps to actually test out the hack to see if it really works. Spoiler alert: Your mileage may vary. One pair of chopsticks cracked right down the middle; the other pair didn't do anything, because the woman couldn't break the end off. Just, you know... fair warning.

If you're still harboring deep concerns for the safety and cleanliness of your chopsticks, though, there is a solution. You can actually craft the wrapper into a brand spankin' new chopstick prop that will keep them from touching the table. It's cute. It's functional. I give this an A+.

Image: Nadine Greeff/Stocksy