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.
