click bait

Stupid teasers instead of real headlines. I nearly always delete-before-reading, or just pass on by.

Real headlines Tell Them What You Are Going To Tell Them.

Then the article Tells Them.

Then the closing Tells Them What You Told Them.

This was taught to people of my generation when they moved from English language fundamentals into literary communication – somewhere around 12 years old.

The Dumbing Down of America is well on its way.

Trump Makes HUGE Move For Secret Service
– No President Has Done This…

This is a typical headline. What did it tell you?

The President did something. Wow! He does something all day every day. No information whatsoever.

The something he did involves the Secret Service. With no information whatsoever, who cares what that nothingness applies to?

“No President has done this”. Whoopie doo. The first one to fly on an airplane … talk on a telephone … be a Catholic … be a Muslim… what difference does this first-ness make to the action they have not discussed?

Zero-Zip-Nada.

Try this one:

President Trump innovation:
Marine General To Head Secret Service

I don’t know about you, but the first headline gets a PASS from me. The second gets me to check out the article.

In the Internet world the void headlines are called “clickbait” … attempts to get you to click on their links. They intend to benefit in someway from your visit to the website. Maybe they get information about you, your e-mail address, something they can sell somewhere, or maybe they are hoping to make money on the number of people visiting their site – even if the visit only lasts the 30 seconds it takes you to realize they wasted your time.

It is somewhat self-leveling, though. If they cannot write headlines, they probably cannot write valuable articles. I figure I am just as well off judging their literary talent by headlines alone.

People who can’t figure that out will be wasting their time somewhere. One choice is as good as another.