Clickbait headlines

[mtbc]

I have heard that some news sites run the same story with different headlines to find which have the most readers click through to the story then favor those. Even on websites that feel to me fairly reputable otherwise, it seems to me that I notice the effects of this: headlines become more misleading than informative. It is like the American local television news technique, keep watching, after these messages we'll tell you about this thing you probably have in your home that will kill all your children. This may lead to more people clicking on the story but, in time, it teaches me to avoid that news source because it tends to be more disappointing than it is an efficient means of keeping me up to date with what matters.

Comments

[wpadmirer]

I KNOW! I hate those click bait sites. I've started avoiding them at all costs. Even if something looks vaguely interesting, I hate the way it just all leads to ads, to bullshit, to nothing that was really stated in the headline.

So fuck it. I stick to the few sources that I know actually publish news and information.

[mellowtigger]

I worry what those algorithms are learning from my late-night mis-click adventures during Twitter scrolling. "No! I was scrolling, not opening the paid promotional tweet! Why won't this awful webpage let me go back again?"

[mtbc]

Ha, yes, I often manage to click on something that was way larger than its visible aspect, in simply trying to get focus back to the broader page, out from some narrow input element or whatever.