I'm sick of seeing all this stuff when I go on the internet. No, really. I log on (do people say that anymore?), and I'm inundated with news about my school, my town, my friends, the world. I know what everyone cooked for dinner tonight and who went out with whom last weekend and every little detail of what the judges said to that American Idol contestant the other night. I don't even watch American Idol anymore.
It doesn't stop there. I know about every recorded instance of a dog making eye contact with a human baby ever. I'm pretty sure I know everything Albert Einstein's ever said and done (and a lot of things he hasn't said or done). I see my more politically minded Friends sharing articles about what's happening all over. I see those same Friends reminding me if I don't share their posts on my wall then I am an awful human being who probably has no business being on the internet.
This is insanity. Stop it.
It's a widely accepted fact of life that just because you can say something, it doesn't mean that you should. Unfortunately, people haven't yet realized that this truism translates to the internet. And on the internet it's even more egregious, because if you say something that shouldn't be said it's a one and done. If you post it on the internet, it lingers there for quite some time. If it gets the right kind of attention, it might even stick to the top of your news feed for a while. And as long as there are views or likes or comments, as long as we know that there is at least one person on the internet who is listening (the internet's a pretty big place. that's not hard to find), we'll keep finding creative ways to say boring things. More despicably, BuzzFeed will keep doing it with Ten New and Exciting Ways You're Bound to See Clickbait in 2015!
There's too much on the internet, but there will always be someone who is bound to find any given piece of information useful. What I find vapid and unoriginal might be comedy gold for a Mutual Friend. This makes it difficult to police what kind of content is acceptable to post on your platform. I'm not sure how to solve this problem. If we keep it strictly business, the internet loses its fun. But if we make it all dog Vines, then we won't get any work done. How many dinners a week is it acceptable to post on Instagram? These are problems I cannot solve, but hopefully we as a society will find the right balance soon.
And I hope we learn even sooner that clickbait is never okay. Ever.
I completely understand where you’re coming from Natalie. There is a lot of unsaturated nonsense on internet, social media in particular, and it doesn’t look to be getting any better. Now, I don’t want to be that guy that says, “Oh, I’m cool and different because I don’t post on social media all the time,” but I usually use social media to organize musical projects and post about upcoming shows or events. I don’t have a problem with people actively using social media, but I do agree that a lot of it seems to be useless information that doesn’t really pertain to me.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is hard to know what is important until one actually reads the information. I wouldn’t want an algorithm to sort my newsfeed in case something interesting slips by. On the other hand, something I might find annoying and irrelevant, someone else might find intriguing and worthwhile.
One thing that I do wholeheartedly agree with is the despicable nature of clickbait. The entire nature of its existence is to nip at someone’s curiosity just enough so that they click the link to generate online ad revenue, but the sensationalist headline only leads to unsatisfying and disappointing material. It is truly a pejorative aspect of the Internet that needs to be terminated.
Although I understand and agree with a majority of what you have wrote, I don't think that it is fair to equate someone sharing their experiences on social media equivalent to clickbait that is created for the sole purpose of wasting people's time.
ReplyDeleteSocial media enables us. I use Twitter as a sort-of shouting box where I can express my thoughts. Yes, I try and filter it as much as I possibly can and only post things that I think someone would appreciate, and I don't use social media so much for everyone else than I use it for myself. It feels nice to talk out loud, share my experiences, despite how many people get to see it. Blogs are notorious for this, and can seem like an outlet that nobody can appreciate. But should they be filtered? Put away? I don't think so. I think it's up to the audience to make that decision of whether or not to listen, not the creator of the content. Services like Facebook and Twitter provide the tools, we use those tools to make things.
The thing about clickbait is that it works. No matter what you say about it, its a huge traffic driver for a lot of online companies, and I don't think that will change anytime soon. People are prone to get distracted, and unfortunately you'd have to change the entire human race in order to accomplish the goal of making clickbait go away. I mean, isn't that generally how advertisements work? Don't we create distractions as a way for people to notice your product? I think a discussion about clickbait is a worthy topic, and something I hope we can explore further in class together.
I completely agree with what you say when you talk about there being too much nothingness on the internet. As for clickbait, everyone can almost unanimously agree that it needs to go. Personally, clickbait frustrates me mostly because of my own reaction to it. The fact that I'm baited and time and time again I waste that time bugs me to death. While despising clickbait sites out of principal, I have to commend their business model. They know that all they really need is someone to click on the link; the quality of the content really doesn't matter. Every time I click on one, I convince myself that this time it will be worth it. Something relevant and worthwhile might be in this article. They've created consumer demands. They've reached the heights of the business model, where their product (using this term very loosely) generates its own demand. Sites have effectively exploited curiosity, which is not a characteristic we often condemn. Don't get me wrong, I too would definitely choose to terminate clickbait if I could. While their business model is great for profit; that's all it's great for. They don't exist to provide any necessary service or product. There are no needs and demands of people being met. The only motivation to exist is profit. Most companies primary motivation is profit, but is at least veiled or fueled by providing for the actual wants and needs of a consumer.
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