I am going to piss you off!

VOICE & VISION | Culture & Modern Life

By TLS

Click-bait! Outlandish claim! Completely misleading headline.

That’s how it’s done. If a content creator, or company, wants to skyrocket clicks or views, lie. Is that what I’m doing with my title? Maybe to some degree. But I think, in doing so, I am trying to point to something important. The dramatic decline in quality over flash and dash.

I hate flash and dash. It reminds me of fishing lures, the intent of which is to fool and then consume. I’m not saying I don’t fall for the sparkle from time to time. But when I do, I usually understand what I’m getting (or not getting) in return.

Perhaps the trait to look for quality that I so desperately want in people has never actually been there. Perhaps before, things were simply of more quality out of necessity. Perhaps now, an underlying weakness in ourselves has been blatantly exposed.

AI (Artificial Intelligence, for the last three people who haven’t heard of this yet) algorithms have so perfectly hi-jacked this human weakness that we are now nearing a possible end point. One in which we decend into anarchy willingly and at full speed, dragging the handful of people who do not want this with them.

If the majority of people do not stop and consider the repercussions of endlessly clicking on the next shiny thing or the next thing that pisses us off, we are truly in trouble. The algorithms do not care, at least at this point, what happens. The only purpose is to increase clicks or views. What works best is showing things that elicit a strong emotional response. That manipulation in the crack in the back door of the human psyche has transformed our world in less than a decade, and not for the better.

So, do I think we should scrap everything and go back to the printing press? Of course not. However, I would like for people to stop clicking on what is obviously click-bait. I would like people to value substance over glitter, reliability over instant gratification, and credibility over sensationalism.

How do we get there? Maybe one valuable article read at a time…

If you’ve ever rolled your eyes at a headline, then clicked anyway, this essay is for you. Read it, share it, and next time, scroll past the bait. The world gets better one conscious click at a time.

Clip art

<a href="https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/annoyed-concept-illustration_10117952.htm#page=2&query=Pissed%20off&position=19&from_view=search&track=ais&uuid=28b8feeb-4344-4456-861d-2fadef25d996">Image by storyset</a> on Freepik