Sunday, February 16, 2014

22 Clickbait Titles You Won't BELIEVE Someone Got Paid To Write

Seriously, guys. If you must read fluffy microblogs, at least read ones that don't have to actively trick you into reading them.

Every day I scroll through facebook is a day I feel sad about culture. Not that I don't have friends posting genuinely interesting content, but in order to get to it I have to tromp through a minefield of basically advertisements that people voluntarily shared.

Perhaps they genuinely enjoyed the content of said articles, and this is fine, but I think the widespread adoption of intentionally manipulative headlines that only teasingly hint at the actual content is irresponsible.

They whisper "reward" to the animal brain and then give it candy it doesn't even particularly care for, but has come to associate with the idea of reward. CANDY GOOD YES says the brain. And then you click through five more ad sponsored pages of chupa chups or sweet tarts where they forgot the tart part and replaced it with extra food coloring.

This becomes an unhealthy habit, I believe, because the brain turns on a reward-filter to scan through the mass of links it sees on a daily basis and pick out the ones most likely to be rewarding. But if you've come to associate reward with only the titles which tell you they'll reward you, you're probably missing out on some more modest links that just tried to summarize their content, and meanwhile paying only people who are actively and obviously trying to trick you, whether the content is good or not.

This is very similar to those empty upgrade games on facebook or mobile phones -- wait around long enough and click enough times to get a picture of a thing you don't really have and an animation that tells you you're the best for doing so! These games are addictive because they feel good. The brain is so ready to buy the idea that you found the secret to happiness, that all it really takes is someone telling you you found it and then flashing colors at you just to be safe. But you'll be EVEN HAPPIER if you stick around.

This is also how drugs work. Drugs simulate fun. This can be awesome. But if used improperly, they can start to replace actual fun. And then you forget how to have actual fun because it's easier just to buy it.

There are lots of people making actual fun, you just don't see it because they're trying to make the fun speak for itself. There are lots of people making awesome games. Lots of folks writing wondeful blogs. Don't limit yourself to the dark side of the writing industry, the quick cash grabbers and the desperate.

Don't (just) do drugs.

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