Stop Calling Everything Clickbait!
Just because you clicked on it, and you happen to disagree, doesn’t make it clickbait.
I am by no means a grammar-nazi. English is my third language, I make mistakes, and I am happy to own them, but I simply cannot tolerate the misuse of words and terms that clearly have a very specific, targeted meaning. I love humans, they’re fascinating creatures, but I simply cannot take any argument seriously when someone erroneously claims something is clickbait when it most certainly and objectively isn’t.
Often when writing articles, I look up words, either to avoid repeating the same ones all the time or simply because I just feel there is a word out there that enhances my message. While I have a certificate issued by Cambridge stating that my English is proficient, relying on dictionaries or tools like Ulysses is still something that’s part of my writing process. Naturally and might I add foolishly, I expect the world around me to think and behave the way I do, and learn the use of certain words before using them willy-nilly all over, be that in real life or the internet. The overly colloquial use of “clickbait” is my latest pet peeve.
According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary:
Clickbait is something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink, especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest.
Where does it even come from?
The term itself makes it pretty obvious that its inception coincides with the internet becoming commonplace, as before it there wasn’t anything we could click on. The moment the web became searchable and discoverable, clicks became an important metric for selling advertisement space. The more people clicked, the more money the site owners could potentially make. Very soon, click-farms became a thing. News sites started posting articles that had very little to do with the news, and more with just intriguing headlines with stories of zero substance or — even worse — no real connection to the title, just more links for people to click on.
Naturally, people got tired of navigating a web that led nowhere and felt cheated out of their time and money. Nor time nor the internet is free, and back in the day that was, even more, the case, as people paid either by the minute or the megabyte. It was for all intents and purposes a digital bait. Most of the time there was no real malicious intent behind it apart from making an extra buck by appearing to have more traffic, and thus seem more valuable to ad companies. And thus the term clickbait was born.
Its misuse is infuriating
Another one that comes to mind is using literally when it’s anything but. While that’s annoying, at least that’s all it is. Calling something clickbait, however, is accusatory. It implies that the user feels like the title completely misled them, and you, the author, wasted their precious time. It’s very much like calling a product rubbish when it clearly isn’t and does what it says on the tin, except maybe not at the standard one might expect or be used to.
It happens extremely rarely to me, but it does happen once in a blue moon that someone accuses me of writing a clickbait headline. What incidentally always happens as well is that they disagree with the content of the story. Never in my nearly 20 years of blogging has anyone called my title a clickbait while also agreeing with its content. This leads me to believe that readers often when feeling disappointed about the author presenting a radically opposing view to theirs, instead of initiating an intelligent dialogue, and presenting their counter-argument, they prefer to just call the title a clickbait because, well… they clicked it and ended up reading something not so stroking to their egos.
A quick lesson on engaging headlines
This may be shocking news to those who don’t write, but storytelling and writing are creative art. While the output may not necessarily be literature, the thought process is a creative one, and it all starts with a clever, engaging, intriguing title. While in the internet-age one also has to pay some attention to good SEO, I will leave that aside and just focus on meaning. The title of this vert story could be written as “The misuse of the “clickbait” term in the internet-age”. I mean, it certainly covers what it’s meant to, but it’s also overly verbose and doesn’t transmit any emotion. It gives the impression of a college research paper, rather than what this story is trying to be — an educational rant, an expression of frustration wrapped in advice.
There are countless articles out there on how to construct a good headline, so I will avoid going into details. If my mom can Google stuff, so can you! But here are my five rules that I follow semi-religiously to cook my titles up.
- Concise and straightforward — there is no point putting an entire volume of Dostoevsky into the headline. If I can’t sum it up in 10 or so words, it means I myself don’t have enough of a clear idea of the article’s message.
- Have a good hook — it needs to grab attention without lying, while also not giving away the ending or the meat of the story.
- Connect emotionally — I am human writing for other humans; therefore I like my headlines to tap into that as much as possible.
- Be factual — stating something that isn’t true right in the headline is a sure way to destroy a writer’s reputation, and will qualify it as actual clickbait, so I 100% avoid falling into that trap.
Present alternative viewpoints
It’s OK to disagree. Heck, I think it’s healthy and welcome. It tends to broaden everyone’s horizons and makes us all more intelligent and empathetic in the long run, but accusatory comments addressed to a writer on articles that don’t fall into the genuine clickbait categories, are just childish and unnecessarily abrasive. Present your viewpoint without attacking anyone. Propose they see the matter from your vantage point. Write a counter-article, and get deep into the topic if you have to. And yes, write a catchy title, so people get intrigued, and your voice gets heard!
And while we’re on the subject of writing…
Here are a few more stories I wrote on the topic. Who knows, you might learn something or get inspired. 😉
Did you know that whenever you subscribe to become a Medium Member, us writers, get a cut? You get a ton of great articles, we get a coffee. Sounds like a fair deal to me…
Attila Vago — Software engineer, editor, writer, and occasional music critic. Pragmatic doer, Lego fan, Mac user, cool nerd. JS and Flutter enthusiast. Accessibility advocate.
