I came. I saw. You won't believe what happened next!
JULIUS CAESAR AS A CLICKBAITER
I am not into clickbait either as a writer or as a reader. I grew up reading the newspaper where the headline and first sentence of a news article got to the kernel of the story. If you wanted more details, you kept reading. You could break off at any point and still be reasonably informed. The strategy behind this structure was that they already had your attention because you were holding the paper in your hand. The next step was to deliver as quickly as possible on that purchase. If they didn't, you might switch to another newspaper.
Today, people don't buy newspapers. They read headlines and click on the ones that interest them. Or, they don't click at all. Website publishers are desperate for those clicks because they generate ad revenue. Everything is geared to get the reader to follow through on a click. If the vital information is already contained in the headline, the reader may opt to not click. So, we get the baited headline that stirs curiosity. The reader clicks through and often scrolls to the bottom of the article to satisfy the curiosity. The article goes unread, but it doesn't matter. The website got its click. For the rest of us, we are annoyed at the abuse of our attention.
This failure to deliver on the vital information extends to YouTube videos and is so bad that people in the combox timestamp when the YouTuber gets to the information that you want. I remember one video that never delivered on the clickbait. These people love to waste your time and attention.
The most annoying aspect is when the clickbait enters the real world of our conversations. This would be the friend that leaves a clickbait voice message or text message saying something just happened. Please call me, so I can waste a few hours of your life talking about what amounts to nothing. The other thing is when someone talks to you and asks you to play the guessing game in an annoying attempt to stoke your attention. I am so fatigued with this crap that I immediately ignore these people.
These folks don't see that the internet is socializing them to be this way. They spend too much time on social media such that it has warped their social skills in a negative way. My way is like a newspaper. I give you the headline. I deliver the details. I don't waste your time trying to milk your attention. Most people ignore me, and I am fine with that. I am not a whore for attention.
This, Gentle Reader, is just another data point in my argument for why you need to get offline and live like a real human being again. If you have noticed the erosion of social skills in the general population, you are most likely part of the problem. Get off your phone and come up for air.
