The Yellow Kid
May 7, 2015 3:54 PM Subscribe
Based on such continuous disappointment you'd think that trust in these grandiose, empty promises would wane - yet articles like this are more popular then ever. How click bait articles work (this will amaze you!)
Ah yes, the meta-clickbait clickbait.
posted by GuyZero at 4:01 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by GuyZero at 4:01 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Upworthy is still a thing? I haven't seen anyone link to them in ages. I guess I'm living in a bubble.
posted by effbot at 4:07 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by effbot at 4:07 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Huh - when you said bubble it reminded me of an old song by Steve Taylor (a Christian musician), and I realized the article kinda touches on the same topic as the chorus...
Am I in sync?
Paint a picture on a subway train
Carve my name in a video game
Am I in sync?
Out looking for the camera crews
Sell my soul for a second on the evening news
Am I in sync?
Live 'til the bubble pops
Hold my breath when the big one drops
Am I in sync?
Immortality is what I'm buying
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
posted by symbioid at 4:15 PM on May 7, 2015
Am I in sync?
Paint a picture on a subway train
Carve my name in a video game
Am I in sync?
Out looking for the camera crews
Sell my soul for a second on the evening news
Am I in sync?
Live 'til the bubble pops
Hold my breath when the big one drops
Am I in sync?
Immortality is what I'm buying
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
posted by symbioid at 4:15 PM on May 7, 2015
King Victor Shielded By His Queen From Assassin's Bullets
'Oldest Crook' To End Days in the Prison He Loves
Crowd Tries to Kill Would-Be Murderer
Coffyn Carries Passenger in Air Trip About the Bay
Let's look at these:
King Victor Shielded By His Queen From Assassin's Bullets
This was King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, who was nearly killed by an anarchist's bullet in March of 1912. His wife, Elena, threw herself onto his lap to stand between the bullet and her husband. They were both saved by a Royal Guard who wound up taking the bullet. Victor's father had been assassinated by an anarchist, by the way, and was on his way to a memorial mass for the man.
Oldest Crook' To End Days in the Prison He Loves
This was about an 88-year-old man who plead for a long sentence because, if I am reading a poor replication of the story right, he felt circumstances forced him to steal from people who could not afford it, and his conscience couldn't stand it.
Crowd Tries to Kill Would-Be Murderer
This seems to be a subhead to the King Victor story.
Coffyn Carries Passenger in Air Trip About the Bay
Far from being a story about a flying coffin, this is about pilot Frank T. Coffyn, who took people on a flights around the statue of liberty.
All in all, good stories well reported, and headlines that entice without lying.
posted by maxsparber at 4:19 PM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
'Oldest Crook' To End Days in the Prison He Loves
Crowd Tries to Kill Would-Be Murderer
Coffyn Carries Passenger in Air Trip About the Bay
Let's look at these:
King Victor Shielded By His Queen From Assassin's Bullets
This was King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, who was nearly killed by an anarchist's bullet in March of 1912. His wife, Elena, threw herself onto his lap to stand between the bullet and her husband. They were both saved by a Royal Guard who wound up taking the bullet. Victor's father had been assassinated by an anarchist, by the way, and was on his way to a memorial mass for the man.
Oldest Crook' To End Days in the Prison He Loves
This was about an 88-year-old man who plead for a long sentence because, if I am reading a poor replication of the story right, he felt circumstances forced him to steal from people who could not afford it, and his conscience couldn't stand it.
Crowd Tries to Kill Would-Be Murderer
This seems to be a subhead to the King Victor story.
Coffyn Carries Passenger in Air Trip About the Bay
Far from being a story about a flying coffin, this is about pilot Frank T. Coffyn, who took people on a flights around the statue of liberty.
All in all, good stories well reported, and headlines that entice without lying.
posted by maxsparber at 4:19 PM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
I couldn't get past the phrase "pigeon English."
posted by Biblio at 4:20 PM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
posted by Biblio at 4:20 PM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Far from being a story about a flying coffin, this is about pilot Frank T. Coffyn
Clickbait most foul.
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:43 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Clickbait most foul.
posted by prize bull octorok at 4:43 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Why are all the names italicized?
Why are all the quotes enclosed in single quotes?
Why are all of the verbs with company names as subjects conjugated like the companies are plurals and not collectives?
Is this writer using some sort of style guide made to slowly drive the reader insane?
posted by johnnydummkopf at 4:44 PM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Why are all the quotes enclosed in single quotes?
Why are all of the verbs with company names as subjects conjugated like the companies are plurals and not collectives?
Is this writer using some sort of style guide made to slowly drive the reader insane?
posted by johnnydummkopf at 4:44 PM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]
Why are all the quotes enclosed in single quotes?
Why are all of the verbs with company names as subjects conjugated like the companies are plurals and not collectives?
I'm not sure if you're serious, but the "style guide" would be British English. (The author is British.) I have no idea about the names in italics, though.
posted by stopgap at 4:50 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Why are all of the verbs with company names as subjects conjugated like the companies are plurals and not collectives?
I'm not sure if you're serious, but the "style guide" would be British English. (The author is British.) I have no idea about the names in italics, though.
posted by stopgap at 4:50 PM on May 7, 2015 [2 favorites]
Is that seriously where the term "yellow journalism" came from?
Yup.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:07 PM on May 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Yup.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 5:07 PM on May 7, 2015 [4 favorites]
Mobile viewing is what irks me the most about clickbait. Take this blog article, for example. On my tablet, a constant vertical row of social media buttons obscures the first 3-4 words on every line. Unreadable.
posted by Brocktoon at 5:17 PM on May 7, 2015
posted by Brocktoon at 5:17 PM on May 7, 2015
"Beware of everything, especially the dog"
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:41 PM on May 7, 2015
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 5:41 PM on May 7, 2015
Huh - when you said bubble it reminded me of an old song by Steve Taylor
(Holy crap. I have not thought of Steve Taylor in literally twenty-five years. Now I'm having all sorts of high-school youth group flashbacks. I wonder if I got rid of I Predict 1990 back during one of those "all cassette tapes are of Satan" purges?)
(derail over! carry on!)
posted by mittens at 6:10 PM on May 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
(Holy crap. I have not thought of Steve Taylor in literally twenty-five years. Now I'm having all sorts of high-school youth group flashbacks. I wonder if I got rid of I Predict 1990 back during one of those "all cassette tapes are of Satan" purges?)
(derail over! carry on!)
posted by mittens at 6:10 PM on May 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
But I'd rather be immortal by not dying
posted by symbioid at 4:15 PM
Isn't that a Woody Allen line?
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:53 PM on May 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by symbioid at 4:15 PM
Isn't that a Woody Allen line?
posted by lazycomputerkids at 6:53 PM on May 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
Holy crap, symbioid, a Steve Taylor reference! My copy of I Want To Be A Clone was originally recorded on a cassette tape with a twist in the middle (which eventually came undone.) I learned the second half of each side backward. (Yes, I know that "Sync" is from Meltdown.)
posted by DrAwkward at 8:38 PM on May 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by DrAwkward at 8:38 PM on May 7, 2015 [1 favorite]
I don’t understand what "clickbait" is. I thought I understood, but now everyone's using the word in so many different ways I don't understand anymore. I thought clickbait was "9 Foods That Look Like Darth Vader—NUMBER 4 WILL BLOW YOUR MIND!" And then you click and nothing looks like Darth Vader. Clickbait is “under-delivering on a misleading headline,” as Vox describes it. It's the stuff that leads "a reader to feel she has been duped into clicking." The Wiktionary definition's example of clickbait is: "When I found out how Wiktionary defined 'clickbait,' it blew my mind! You'll never believe what happened next!"
Therefore: "Nine Sexually Explicit E-mails Hillary Clinton Wrote About Edward Snowden" would not be clickbait, not if Hillary Clinton did write nine sexually explicit e-mails about Edward Snowden. If Hillary did write sexually explicit e-mails about Edward Snowden (and who hasn’t?), and those e-mails are behind the headline "Nine Sexually Explicit E-mails Hillary Clinton Wrote About Edward Snowden," that's not clickbait. That's "journalism you happen to be interested in."
posted by josher71 at 6:25 AM on May 8, 2015
Therefore: "Nine Sexually Explicit E-mails Hillary Clinton Wrote About Edward Snowden" would not be clickbait, not if Hillary Clinton did write nine sexually explicit e-mails about Edward Snowden. If Hillary did write sexually explicit e-mails about Edward Snowden (and who hasn’t?), and those e-mails are behind the headline "Nine Sexually Explicit E-mails Hillary Clinton Wrote About Edward Snowden," that's not clickbait. That's "journalism you happen to be interested in."
posted by josher71 at 6:25 AM on May 8, 2015
Anybody noticed how clickbaity websites make their article titles longer than Facebook allows, forcing you to click on the article just to see the rest of the headline?
posted by evil otto at 8:41 AM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by evil otto at 8:41 AM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
Anybody noticed how clickbaity websites make their article titles longer than Facebook allows, forcing you to click on the article just to
posted by symbioid at 12:25 PM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by symbioid at 12:25 PM on May 8, 2015 [1 favorite]
I managed to kill most of the upworthy sites with the "Hide all from ${site}" option in FB and my life got a lot better. Also I don't get nearly as irritated with otherwise awesome people who insist on reposting that stuff.
Good article and it helped me understand why I continually click through a lot of stuff that isn't bait. For example in my rss feed there's one guy in my DiY folder that for some reason manages to post all his blog entries in such a way that it's a photo of some broken object or half completed 3d print with some kind of caption that seems barely related. It might be from the middle of the post or near the end of the thing, he's an older fellow and it could just be a case of beep boop how does this wordpress thing work, I don't know. I usually wind up clicking on it just to see what the hell he's talking about. There's always the possibility I've been getting gamed I suppose.
posted by mcrandello at 12:51 PM on May 8, 2015
Good article and it helped me understand why I continually click through a lot of stuff that isn't bait. For example in my rss feed there's one guy in my DiY folder that for some reason manages to post all his blog entries in such a way that it's a photo of some broken object or half completed 3d print with some kind of caption that seems barely related. It might be from the middle of the post or near the end of the thing, he's an older fellow and it could just be a case of beep boop how does this wordpress thing work, I don't know. I usually wind up clicking on it just to see what the hell he's talking about. There's always the possibility I've been getting gamed I suppose.
posted by mcrandello at 12:51 PM on May 8, 2015
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posted by Going To Maine at 3:55 PM on May 7, 2015