You’ll Never Believe This About Clickbait…

Clickbait, love it or hate it, you just clicked on this. So that must say something about its effectiveness.

Clickbait is by far, one of the worst afflictions to modern media in recent years, as we’ve transferred to digital media. Especially with websites that are gaining immense traction and popularity off of this simple tactic. I’m sure many of you have seen an example of this somewhere, and have either fallen for it, or were nauseated by the pretentiousness of it.

As according to the definition of “clickbait”…

“Content, especially that of a sensational or provocative nature, whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page.”

The definition seems to do it justice to what this actually is, but I’ll delve some more detail. As stated previously, websites will apply this tactic for people to click on their page and view the video or article. Websites like Buzzfeed or any sort of amateur listing or pop-culture sites may use this trick to gain viewers and make ad revenue off of it, by associating it with an otherwise illegitimate means.

“But how do they gain ad revenue?” You might ask…

Ad revenue is generated by you clicking the page and seeing the advertisements, every time an advertisement is displayed, the company running the website then gets payed by the corporation advertising. The exact details of the article doesn’t matter, it can become so horrible and wretched that not even Fox News would bother to publish something so hideous. Not even pop culture websites are doing this. Yet full blown news organizations realize the potential for profit and have hopped on the train.

Just… how? HOW?  Who would make something like this, who put in the “okay” for this to be put up on their Twitter. It’s making me have an existential crisis because they have it down to a perfect science to how our brains function.

Studies show time after time, that curiosity has a depraved effect on the brain. Humans naturally want to be informed about their environment and surroundings in nature, but this concept can also be applied socially. Even with words on a screen that light up the correct areas of the brain to cause a simultaneous reaction and make you want to click on the page. The specific study I’m mentioning here, is where they had three headlines. And when they compared them all, the one that was most sensational and controversial got the most clicks on it.

You should have somewhat of a provoking and intriguing headline, but no so much that you take advantage of your advertising platform and people’s emotions to get a few clicks to line your pockets. And I know some of you out there share these all over Facebook, stop, just stop. You’re only giving these people more fuel for the fire, and they even have the nerve to slap a big ol’ share button on their article, because they know you’ll share it.

Am I a dirtbag for using a clickbait title for the purpose of irony? Eh, probably. I’d think the fault is on you for clicking it, more so than it is me. It’s infuriating to see a famous writer just get stomped into the dirt by someone doing crappy lists. Even I’m putting in more effort over two pages than all of the clickbait websites do, and this is for a class. I don’t even get paid!

I know you’ve seen those, “Top 10 (insert something here) you won’t believe #2…” And then it’ll turn out to just be a mediocre list where everything is completely obvious and then it turns out to be just a disappointment. There is absolutely no prior research or any sort of their own work and making a profit off of it. No wonder why they’re a joke. Sometimes they’ll make a claim about the best part of your day with this list, and I’m sitting there at 4 A.M trying to get the will to go to sleep, we all know they’re lying.

I get it, news websites need all those crappy things to keep people entertained. But when those things are pulling in more money than the rest of the site combined, then I see the start of a problem. There’s a worrying fusion of entertainment and news going on. You’ve probably seen a controversial headline and were thrown into a tizzy, only to be disappointed when you find out what it’s actually saying. I’ll use an example given by the Urban dictionary, with edits.

‘President Obama loves KKK!?’

Hey what the heck, Deshaun you see this?

Haha man, that’s just clickbait!

*click*

“Obama loves the Krispy Kreme’s new special item, ‘Krispy Glazed Bear Claws.'”

Stuff like this is what worries me. Someday, people won’t read into the specifics or details of anything and just shout out whatever they see first without doing any background knowledge, and falling for what one person says, or, just doing something to be sensational. And just how news is going away from being informative, to being profit centric. Using lies and emotional manipulation to get money from us It’s wrong, and needs to stop.

Oh wait, some people already do this…