Clickbait: Will Understanding it Shock You?

A Brief Introduction

My apologies about the title, but I had to draw you in somehow. After conducting some research, I would self-describe clickbait as content that uses strong, inaccurate words in a title to gain views. As you probably know, this is not anything new. Do you remember that nauseous feeling of visiting a new website and receiving pop-up ads that said you won a million dollars? Now this idea has spread to the corners of web on news articles, product pages, and more.

The Facts

In an article from Inc.com, Bill Murphy Jr. summarizes the findings from a study that compared mainstream vs unreliable sources and their use of clickbait. The results found:

Mainstream and Unreliable Media both consistently use clickbait
19.46% of headlines were categorized as clickbait in 2014
25.27% of headlines were categorized as clickbait by 2016

Link: These Researchers Studied 1.67 Million Clickbait Headlines. What They Learned Will Completely Shock You https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/these-researchers-studied-167-million-clickbait-headlines-what-they-found-will-totally-shock-you.html

Perspective

I am not surprised that mainstream and unreliable media both use clickbait, but the results are a bit concerning. Isn’t it the general consensus that people like you and I don’t like content that does not live up to its title? Can companies not be sued for being dishonest toward us, the ones that hand them a paycheck? This is not right.

On the opposite side of the ethics of clickbait, Murphy Jr. notes,

“…there’s nothing sadder for a writer than pouring heart and soul into an online article and finding that nobody reads it”.
These Researchers Studied 1.67 Million Clickbait Headlines. What They Learned Will Completely Shock You – Bill Murphy Jr.

Well, that really puts a damper on things doesn’t it? What are you and I to do about this clickbait problem? I think that if the content is engaging and related to the title, that we should not get too upset over said title. If the content has little to do with the title, it may be time for us to take a stand and blacklist the authors producing online garbage.