Click bait

[Aliquid]

Click bait sure gives the impression that internet users are incredibly naïve, ignorant and simple.

My mind hasn't been blown once by following those links... not even close. Not that I make a habit of clicking on them, but sometimes my curiosity gets the best of me and I end up utterly disappointed.

[The Succubus]

Try This One Weird Trick To Improve Your Click Bait!

10 SHOCKING New Adjectives To Get People To Click On Your Links!!!

You Simply Won't BELIEVE What Happened After Reading This Sentence!!!!



...okay I'm done for the moment. >.>

[Strigon]

The thing about clickbait is that it is very effective at attracting a certain kind of individual.

Most news websites rely on catchy headlines to attract readers, but inevitably they only attract readers who are interested in whatever the news is about. But clickbait, by leaving out huge details and making everything seem like it's a must-hear story, sidesteps that issue and attracts people from all interests, so long as they are the type of people to be reeled in by clickbait.

[Remmirath]

It's a rather annoying trend. I would be skeptical of it working, but I presume there is a reason that these (mostly dubious) new sites do it. There must be people out there who will actually become interested by such a title rather than become sufficiently bothered to ignore the article because of it.

The level of breathless hyperbole as well as the incidence of small-chunk articles floating around the internet both do seem to have increased dramatically in recent years, and I'm not sure exactly what was the catalyst. If attention spans have indeed been decreasing, that could be part of it -- or it could be more of an attempt to stand out from the rest of the web, although that no longer works considering how saturated the internet now is with similarly titled articles.

[Aliquid]

I can understand how people get sucked into clicking. As I mentioned above, curiosity has gotten the better of me and I have clicked... but when you go to the web pages, they typically have a small bit of info, then you click for more, then again, then again. Is there REALLY anyone out there that goes through the whole article and doesn't just say "screw this" after the second click?

[NovenFromTheSun]

Click bait also draws in those that think "this is hella clickbait, let's see what it really says so I can laugh at them."

You know, like me.

[veti]

It's a rather annoying trend. I would be skeptical of it working, but I presume there is a reason that these (mostly dubious) new sites do it. There must be people out there who will actually become interested by such a title rather than become sufficiently bothered to ignore the article because of it.

It's not only (mostly dubious) new sites. A lot of reasonably respectable sites have taken to doing it as well, particularly news sites. Check your local newspaper or TV stations' sites, I bet you can find some examples there.

Sadly, it works. Even the Original Poster in this thread confessed to sometimes clicking on them. So do I, and I think of myself as someone who's been around the block a few times.

Way back when the web was first conceived, we decided that it should be "free" to use. That is to say, there's no charge for clicking on a link, or (as a rule) for viewing a web page. Sadly, that idealistic decision is what has doomed us to the present state of web advertising (of which clickbait is a symptom).

[The_Ditto]

Try This One Weird Trick To Improve Your Click Bait!

10 SHOCKING New Adjectives To Get People To Click On Your Links!!!

You Simply Won't BELIEVE What Happened After Reading This Sentence!!!!



...okay I'm done for the moment. >.>

FYI, you're links are broken .. I tried clicking on every part of your post .. to no avail ... :(

[Anonymouswizard]

The thing with clickbait is that for me I know view it in the same way as banner ads. And I've actually clicked on a couple of banner ads recently (the webcomics looked cool) but haven't clicked clickbait in a long time, I just ignore it.

Actually, I've noticed that I only click on banner ads/clickbait of I'm actually interested. Which means if I'm clicking clickbait I'm probably on a news site trying to stay updated, although I've switched to a news source which uses it less (actually because it's less biased than what I used before).

[Vinyadan]

Clickbait a the less honourable bequest Upworthy has left to the Internet in general. One of its founders explained how they "broke the Internet" by its invention and application. Upworthy managed to be the fastest growing news media of all times thanks to clickbaiting, and, while they declared they would stop using it, their success couldn't pass by unobserved. The result is that, nowadays, pretty much anyone uses clickbait.

This is a problem when relating to newspapers. Where the web isn't as important as in other countries, the redaction of online contents is done by different people than the contents for the paper. So they don't follow the 5 W rules, of giving coverage to the subject in a very synthetic but understandable way. Instead, they resort to partial information in the title, giving an extremely slanted, almost unbelievable view of a happening in it, but a more complete view in the article itself. This is different from being merely sensationalistic. It also has to do with the click economy, you need people to use the link in the title. Newspaper websites also containing a video section can be even worse, and use outright lies in their titles. So a trustworthy newspaper can have a badly informed online redaction and an outright lying video section. So it's a vicious circle of unreliable information spread by a credible source.

If anyone is interested to the Upworthy deal: http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/upworthy-cofounder-admits-clickbait-is-bad/

[Wardog]

Like ads, clickbait of the form ''try this one weird trick to hack your life'' / ''10 places you don't know exist (no. 7 will blow your mind)'' are things I can almost always ignore without any effort. (Its almost as if I've got my own mental adblocker; the only reason I installed an actual adblocker was because so many websites were using ads that crashed my browser/autoplayed audio/covered my screen with popups).

The stuff that I do tend to fall for are the articles on respectable news websites (e.g. the Guardian) that increasingly resort to provocative or misleading headlines. (Which to my mind is essentially a form of trolling).

[Green Elf]

Click bait is art and it should be seen as a comedic masterpiece.

[JobsforFun]

Click bait is art and it should be seen as a comedic masterpiece.

Click bait can be ridiculous, look at RomanAtWood. He puts his girl friend's cleavage in his thumbnails every chance he gets...

[Pocgels]

CAPS is vital. If everyone did it, it would lose its effect, but sadly some people still try to retain their dignity on the internet.