Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Don't be a clickbaitor...

Just to be clear - if you click on what you think is news and the site has ads like these - BEWARE!  The amount of idiocy on Facebook is getting pretty overwhelming.  More and more I am seeing stories being shared that have little to do with what is really going on in the world - but just enough to make unsubstantiated rumors seem that much more plausible.  People just don't seem to get it.  Any number of sites today that FOOKERS (my term for people who use Facebook incorrectly) cling to are basically fake news - with just a hint of truth mixed with a lot of editorial opinion.  If you see a seemingly poignant headline that appears to come from something that resembles a news site but has ads like in the photo - you have been duped.  DO NOT share stories from clickbait websites.  You are NOT helping spread truth and you are NOT sharing "breaking news".  You are just making the owner of the website rich and making the public dumber than they already are.  Clickbait is a term describing web content that is aimed at generating online advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensational headlines (mostly political these days) and conspiracy theories to attract click-throughs and to encourage forwarding of the material over social media.  Clickbait headlines typically aim to exploit the "curiosity gap", providing just enough information to make the reader curious, but not enough to satisfy their curiosity without clicking through to the linked content (and ads like in the attached photo) - or just enough to pass in on without even researching it because they like they way it sounds.  When you do read the actual story, there is little substance to it and absolutely nothing that even comes close to verifying the "information".  If you get sucked in by a sensational headline to a site that has ads like these - you have just been clickbaited.  When you share these links, the collective IQ of the nation drops another notch. 87,96,75,0,B

3 comments:

Margery Billd said...

You are certainly right about that.

coffeeinjection said...

I no longer use Facebook. I use youtube. I make beach video's and video's on other topics but with Facebooks idiocy and rules. I believe Facebook is on its way out. On youtube you can be anonymous or come up with a different name. Its almost encouraged to come up with a different name to keep some of your privacy.

bayrider said...

All the worlds knowledge at our fingertips and yet we have managed to become more ignorant and less informed. Astounding.