Friday, June 05, 2015

You Won't Believe What Appeared When I Clicked On My Friend's Facebook Status

So, this popped up in my Facebook newsfeed:


This headline is an example of "clickbait" - headlines crafted purely to make you curious enough to click on them, as opposed to telling you what a story is actually about.

I hate clickbait; I wish I could find the person or persons responsible for bringing the practice into widespread use and hurt them badly. I hate clickbait headlines so much that I generally do the exact opposite of what they are designed to get me to do: I scroll right past items that employ them - even those that look like they might provide genuinely interesting or useful information. 

But this time, I made an exception. And when I clicked on the link, this came up - a page that sprawled across the entirety of my 26" monitor WITHOUT A SINGLE WORD OF CONTENT:



Nothing there but a photo, the same clickbait headline, a ton of white space, an incomplete byline, and ads, from...Heartland Homes??? One of the nation's leading luxury homebuilders is advertising on a site that looks like it was put together by a five-year-old with construction paper and dull scissors?

I could have scrolled down to search for whatever content lies behind that putrid headline. Instead, I simply said, "No," and clicked away. No, I'm not going to fall for it. No, I'm not going to succumb to your pitiful attempt to seduce. Just, no.

But although I just kept calm and said no, I felt like doing this:




MAN, I HATE CLICKBAIT!!!

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