The Night I Died and Came Back To Life

[Anonymous]

Not too long ago, on a cold rain slicked night, I entered in through the back door of my house kicking off my muddied boots. They teetered a bit before flopping awkwardly right side up. In that moment, my house had seemed so dark with no moonlight coming in through the opened windows. I remember I felt so unnerved by this so I went about flicking on the light switches in each room that I passed on the way to my office...flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. I had been a bit tired out from the day I'd had, but still had enough energy to sit down and pull out my laptop to figure out a way to entertain myself with YouTube or a movie or something before I truly felt sleepy. When I had finally managed to settle into my office chair, I went to GaG to start writing a mytake on one of what some people consider one of the most annoying internet trends of click bait titles and the pictures that accompany them called, "The Night I Died and Came Back to Life."

Awe, that moment when you realize it. Many of us have had this feeling before. We see some picture off to the side of something we're looking at, and we see some really catchy title in front of us like, "Something More Dangerous Than A Tiger at Zoo," or "Girl Almost Loses a Finger; Find out how," and we click on it only to find out that the article turns out to be something really mundane or fake news or if it had been truthful, something you know you'd never have clicked on. We are somewhat to a lot of what's, gullible people. We love a good head line grab. We love a mysterious picture. It's part of being a human being; we want to know the truth behind the story or the picture which is why click baits work so incredibly well.

The bait can sometimes be reality based, but in general it is not so much about actually having anything of substance. It's about putting money in pockets, or getting more press, or pulling someone in so you can offer them something totally different, which is why in essence the story behind those pictures and head line grabbing articles doesn't actually matter because like the aptly named title suggests, you've been baited, and once you take the bait, you're trapped and the creator has gotten what they wanted out of you.

The thing is, much like you clicking on this because you read the title or saw the picture, you can't actually prevent yourself from these traps. They are effective and widespread. The only way out is to unplug, but since most will never do that, they continue to work really well. I see complaints all the time about click bait and how horrible it all is, but are these not just ingenious content creators who have figured out a way to get you to see their product or their output.

Odds are without that click bait, you'd have never given them a chance. The reality is, all titles and pictures technically are click bait in some form or another. Scrolling through sets of book titles on a shelf via the ancient art of reading, you're probably more likely to pick up a book titled "The Demon Cat That Possessed Us," than "Black Cat." Complaining about this "issue," is to complain that you like mystery, or drama, or interesting pictures. Not all click bait is misleading or fake and even if it is, it can still have entertainment value. It's just a matter of realizing in the end, that some people have just mastered the fine art of bringing you to their doorstep; now whether or not you stay a while, is up to you.

[Anonymous]

That is confusing.