If I were a fish I would’ve been caught and released a thousand times. Or, God forbid, caught and cooked just once. When something tantalising is dangled in front of me, I can’t help snatching at it, so those links that appear in my browser with headlines like, ‘You won’t believe what she looks like now!’ or ‘How did they keep this secret for so long?’ are like the tastiest worms ever.
The problem I find is that click-bait is often just time-wasting rubbish. It’s the online equivalent to all those ornaments that collect dust on your shelves. Sure they’re enticing but they’re basically worthless. And that’s at best. At worst it’s cruel and leaves me wondering how the authors can get away with writing it. Either way, it leaves me wondering, ‘why did I click on that?’.
What is it about click-bait that makes me ignore my better judgment and take a peek? Why do I click through those seemingly endless ‘slide-shows’ only to find the big climax is a big letdown? Am I really that hard up for entertainment?
Sadly, I don’t know the answer to any of those questions. But I do resolve to never fall for the click-bait again. If we could all do the same maybe it would stop clogging up my browser – or at the very least the quality and value of it would go up.
I too find myself to be a victim of click bait. Only to find myself clicking through like 10 pics before they show the actual “Nothing”. Like Beth from Dog the Bounty Hunter. Look what she looks like now, I still don’t know what she looks like, lol. Guess I’ll never know 👻
Exactly! Thanks for stopping by. Did you get here from The Editors Journal?
Actually, I was reading some feedback on another post, and I saw you and Editor Journal chatting. That it was pretty cool feedback they were giving you.
Oh really? Isn’t that nice 🙂
I finally weaned (weened?) myself off them a while ago. It was indeed frustrating that what you got having clicked was not worth it, makes you wonder why they don’t just make it worth it. I know Facebook was fertile ground for these sites and they were getting millions of clicks a day and their sites grew fast and furious until Facebook had enough and put a stop to them.
I suppose the pay-off for them is the ad-revenue? But you’re right, if you’re going to do it, why not create something of value?
Exactly my point!