Spend five minutes on the internet and you’ll probably see an article heading like the one on this post. Sorry to disappoint you, but unlike my title, facebook’s response to clickbait will probably not leave you shocked, rattled, or even surprised.
A clickbait article entices you to click with its mystery filled title- “a little girl picks up a rock, what happens next will blow clickbait cycleyour mind”. Therefore, What does she do with the rock? You click the article only to be led to a poorly made website filled with ads. You are suddenly filled with disappointment and angry that you fell for a clickbait title.
Clickbaiting has become a serious problem on facebook and across the web. It’s defined as “website content that is aimed at generating advertising revenue. Therefore, Especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on. Sensationalist’s headlines to attract click-through.” these sites are only after one thing, clicks. The more clicks. They can get to their site, the more ad revenue they gain in the process.
They withhold just enough information in the headline to get you interested
Although some believe that clickbait started after the web was formed. It actually stems from “yellow journalism” which enticed people. To buy a newspaper for a silly comic rather than the actual news. Frank luther, a media historian listed the defining characteristics of yellow journalism:
Prominent headlines that “screamed how to buy phone numbers in bulk excitement, often about comparatively unimportant news”
Lavish use of pictures, many of them without significance
All these sound pretty familiar, don’t they? Many of these same characteristics are found in almost every clickbait article on the web today. Therefore, Publishers once guilty of fishing for clicks have now realized that a click is nothing with a 98% bounce rate. Therefore, Below is an example of yellow journalism, there was never any proof that the warship was destroyed by an enemy. The title only serves to draw people to buy the paper to read the full story.
Facebook has had enough
The place I find the most clickbait is on facebook. It seems like my newsfeed has been filled with mysterious headlines for as long as I can IS Lists remember. Facebook has heard our complaints and released a statement in early august that said they’ll be demoting clickbait articles. These articles will be shoved further down the newsfeed if they contain phrases that are undisclosed by facebook thus far.
In the next weeks, facebook will be tweaking the algorithm that drives the newsfeed so that users will see less clickbait and more articles they want to read. Publishers will be affected on differing levels depending on the amount of clickbait they normally post. Facebook predicts that most pages won’t see a significant change from the update.
