The philosophy of clickbait is relatively straightforward: create an outlandishly melodramatic title
(that’s sometimes an outright lie) to make an article more appealing to click on. Something I’ve
noticed lately as I scroll through my news app is that every single publication does it. It doesn’t
matter if it’s labeled as a high-end news outlet or not, every last one of them is guilty of it. And
I’m guilty of clicking anyway.
I fall prey to clickbait every fucking day of my life. But, you know what, I get it why news outlets
do it. The whole point of writing articles is getting people to read them. Clickbait is a sure fire
way of racking in an audience. Is it dishonest? Definitely. Does it work? Obviously — I’m living
proof. Despite understanding the motivation, I still feel the bitter sting of betrayal when I realize
an article isn’t as juicy as its title. I also grow to hate myself for not listening to my gut when it
told me the headline was too good to be true.
But that’s the thing about clickbait is that it makes the reader complicit too. I’d wager that the
majority of the audience knows what they’re getting into when they click on a clickbait article.
Yet, so many of us are guilty of clicking anyway. I’ve come to ask myself one simple question
repeatedly throughout many days and sleepless nights: Why? More specifically, why do we
make ourselves complicit? I’ve come to realize that clickbait counts on its audience being utterly
human. In other words, we live for drama (think about the sheer amount of reality television out
there), whether we like to admit it or not. This is why we click on unfeasibly melodramatic titles.
We want (or maybe need) the article to be just as interesting and dramatic as its title.
But perhaps clickbait is less about the innate human need for drama, but more about the natural
need for hope. We hope against the odds when it comes to clickbait. That’s what makes it so
tempting. It’s almost like the thrill of gambling at a casino. You’re probably gonna lose all your
money, but that doesn’t mean you’re not gonna try to win some cash anyway. That’s why
clickbait always wins, and why I allow it to continually own my sorry ass.