Why Clickbait Works<\/strong>
\nThere are some universal signs of clickbait. Some examples would be exaggerated headlines such as \u201cYou\u2019ll never believe this\u2026\u201d or \u201cThis story will change your life!\u201d They promise something so incredible and unique that we can\u2019t help but \u201cclick\u201d on the link. But if clickbait frustrates us, then why does it keep reeling us in? Because we\u2019re curious. It makes us feel as if we\u2019ll be rewarded by clicking on the link. But once we do, the article is often disappointing. It doesn\u2019t live up to its promise; we feel as if we\u2019ve been tricked.<\/p>\nAnother reason clickbait works is that it promises a quick, emotional escape in a world of hard news stories and investigative journalism. It\u2019s a form of instant gratification. It works because after a long day at work, our brains are tired. Clickbait is designed to be easy to consume.<\/p>\n
This tactic \u2014 of enticing readers to read an article by using an intriguing headline \u2014 of course isn\u2019t new. It has been used in advertisements since the 19th century. In the case of clickbait, however, this tactic is used to an extreme. It happens when a company cares more about advertising revenue and site traffic than the quality of the content. Ultimately, this isn\u2019t a strategy for the long run. It can lead to loss of potential subscribers or customers if they are continuously dissatisfied with their experience.<\/p>\n
The Real Issue with Clickbait<\/strong>
\nWhile some content can be unanimously considered to be of poor quality, the issue with \u201cclickbait\u201d is that the term is overused, and has adopted a broad and subjective meaning. One person might deem a certain article to be invaluable, but another might find it to be a waste of time. But if the actual content is of a certain standard of quality, even if not every person finds that content valuable, then technically it isn\u2019t clickbait. This is true even if the headline mimics traditional tactics of clickbait. If we avoid overusing the term \u201cclickbait,\u201d then we can more easily recognize actual clickbait and avoid it, if desired.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Consider this your guide to clickbait. Learn what it means, why it works, and why overuse of the term can be more harmful than clickbait itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[194],"tags":[2981,53,293,141,2877,831],"class_list":["post-4427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tips-tutoriais","tag-clickbait","tag-internet","tag-news-feed","tag-spam","tag-spam-protection","tag-tutorial"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}