Samantha Chaffin
Editor-in-Chief
Everyone who uses social media has most likely experienced the continued harassment of click bait—yes, I meant to say harassment.
I can’t even count the times in the last week alone that I’ve scrolled through my news feed on Facebook to see news or pseudo-news articles with tagline text like, ‘a child sitting outside in December didn’t have a coat on…you won’t believe what this woman did next!’
Actually, I’m pretty sure I will.
Did she give the child her coat? Did she call the authorities to take the child home or get help? Is that the unbelievable event that took place in this story?
Even though I’m aware of the aptly named concept of click bait, I often still fall prey to it and find myself clicking on mundane articles that I otherwise wouldn’t give as much as a second glance.
After reading about whatever concept or event I “wouldn’t believe,” I almost always find myself feeling annoyed, frustrated and tricked.
Not only did I just waste time reading an article that I didn’t care much about or that didn’t provide much (if any) news or information, but I only did so after being strung along by a stretch of truth aimed at sensationalizing content.
This is the yellow journalism epidemic of today, and it needs to stop.
Is there someone out there who wouldn’t believe that someone would give a cold child a coat, or do some other regular, every day thing? Maybe.
Is that someone representative of the average reader? Absolutely not.
Click bait takes advantage of human nature by insinuating that something noteworthy, interesting or unbelievable has happened, which we as humans are naturally curious about.
Some of these click bait articles are even worse in the sense that by the time you finish reading, the click bait statement, question or proposition hasn’t even been answered or fulfilled.
More than once, I’ve clicked on an article offering to “change the way I think” about a certain concept or idea, or telling me about a “major change” in something, only to finish reading and wonder what the point of the article even was.
Many wonder why websites continue to practice click bait when it leaves people like myself so frustrated and ready to “unlike” them. The answer? It works.
Most advertisers pay for advertising on a per-impression or per-click basis. Those who don’t advertise via either of those methods are likely paying for their advertisement based on the number of visitors a website sees every day, week, or month.
By using trickery like click bait, these websites can show higher numbers of visitors to their website, and thus increase their revenue by duping readers into viewing an article or page.
The only way to stop websites and organizations from using click bait is to show them that it doesn’t work. As long as it works, it will keep happening.
That said, you’ll definitely be able to guess what I’m going to do next.
After wasting way too much time on click bait articles, I am making the choice not to support organizations that practice it and I hope you will, too.
