Clickbait

“Klikbit,”our driver Sam said when he started vlogging about his chickens and roosters over two years ago. That was the first time I heard about clickbait. He was ruing his inability to write a clickbait to earn as much as his friends who are adept at doing so.

I never paid it any attention because I skip vlogs. 

Then I read my friend Lucy’s post on her wall: 

“Once upon a time, it was called a LIE. Nowadays, it’s called a CLICKBAIT. (And it’s OK, because that’s how it goes to get ahead?) She quotes the Bible:  “…and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone…”  Rev.21:8 (KJV) 

I sit up and scroll down my page. Clickbaits (headlines designed to lure readers into clicking a hyperlink especially when it leads to  something dubious or salacious) abound! 

“How could this have happened?” 

“It’s the first time the world will know . . .” 

“Why, this is impossible!”

“The biggest mistake you can make!” 

“This is the cutest thing ever!”

“Take this quiz and find out why . . .” 

The term clickbait,  a combination of "click" and "bait", was coined in 2006 by blogger Jay Geiger, and added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2016. Clickbait drives page views and generates revenue for sites through advertisers.

Advertizers  . . Lucy and I were, once. We called those misleading headlines, “false advertising.” Penalties were huge. 

Today, there are new synonyms for digital lie: scam, fake news, toll farm, meme, deep fake, AI generated, etc. They're monetized. And no penalty! 

I ask Sam if he has learned to write clickbait. He replies in Filipino, “I am not a liar!” But, he smiles, “My vlog is earning because readers buy my chickens and roosters. I cannot breed them fast enough.”

Uh, oh, I hope he does not think of resigning.  

Clickbait/lie. That’s where we are today. Denver, another friend, summarized it thus,“We have not only hit rock bottom, we have breached Hades.” 

We need grace to lift us out of Hades.