You’ve seen it countless times before—a perfectly normal sentence followed by one that completely turns it upside down: “Someone Gave Some Kids Some Scissors. Here’s What Happened Next.” You know it probably isn’t as interesting as it sounds, but you can’t help but be intrigued.
This is exactly how click bait works. The term once exclusively referred to links that were paid for by advertisers; they were phrased in such a shocking or ridiculous manner that readers simply couldn’t resist clicking on them. These days, however, articles from websites like BuzzFeed, Thought Catalog, Elite Daily, Upworthy and The Huffington Post flood our Facebook and Twitter feeds with titles following the same generic formula.
Although it has become a permanent fixture on social media, perhaps more worrying is the fact that click bait is slowly seeping into legitimate news outlets as well. It isn’t just foreign publications like The Atlantic, Slate or TIME,either—even Rappler appears to be jumping on the bandwagon, recently releasing dubiously-titled articles like “#AfterSex Selfies” and “Sam YG’s 9 tips to a fun, hassle-free Boracay Labor Day weekend” under its Life & Style section.
It isn’t difficult to see why people think that click bait is ruining journalism. Spam-like headlines can be demeaning to readers as these imply that they are incapable of handling anything more intellectual. Veteran journalist George Brock refers to this as the “atomization of news and opinion,” where writers struggle to balance brevity and quality. As for me, I find that overusing hyperboles desensitizes us to their true meaning. When something truly mind-blowing does happen, how will we describe it then?
Still, before I start accusing publications of lowering their standards, I have to begrudgingly accept the fact that they are simply catering to my changing reading habits. My attention span, for one, is frustratingly much shorter than it used to be. It takes me ages to finish readings (and write essays like this one, for that matter), especially when BuzzFeed so easily distracts me with lists like “The 100 Most Important Cat Pictures Of All Time.” And it seems I’m not alone: Despite my utter disdain for Upworthy, there is no denying that it successfully attracts more than 50 million unique visitors a month.
Much to my surprise, however, I recently discovered that BuzzFeed has found a way to harness these millions of hits for something good. The social news and entertainment website may have shot to fame by virtue of its viral pop culture content, but that is precisely what is subsidizing its newly launched investigative reporting unit. Headed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mark Schoofs, it has published longform pieces that are surprisingly insightful, proving that click bait might just have the capacity to lead readers to worthwhile content.
Ultimately, we live in what writer Scott Leadingham calls an “eyeball economy,” where media outlets need to generate substantial clicks and page views to earn advertising revenues. The harsh truth is that in the 21st century, information has become a commodity; publications must adapt quickly in order to compete and survive in such an environment. In light of this, click bait suddenly appears to have redeeming qualities. If its inevitable popularity means that my favorite newspapers and magazines can live to publish another day, then perhaps it is a small price to pay in the long run.
