Just something everyone should read.

  • CombatWombat@feddit.online
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    7 days ago

    It’s surprising how much the word “clickbait” has changed over the years. On lemmy today, the word “clickbait” just means “the article tried to get me to click through, rather than only reading the title.” It used to be that if you put everything you had into the title, we’d call it “clickbait” because you were baited into clicking to see more when there was none.

    • wheezy@lemmy.ml
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      7 days ago

      I’d say “click bait” originally is a “joke without a punchline”. You are baiting the user into something that is very interesting and promising the click will give them an instant satisfying conclusion. Not that EVERYTHING is in the title. I definitely find your definition true but a little too specific. The entire point is the promise that the click will instantly satisfy the missing dopamine of a conclusion.

      The click bait reveals just enough to be interesting but doesn’t give you the satisfaction of a conclusion.

      The “bait” is that it’s not satisfying. It’s actually a boring story that you had to read several paragraphs to figure out. The title was misleading and the conclusion actually didn’t align with it in reality.

      You got “baited” into reading a boring article that implied something exciting. The 75 lb housecat in the thumbnail was just a boring photoshop and they spent 5 paragraphs talking about cats diets and exercise before telling you that.