Ten Reasons Why You Should Read this blog: This is Going to Blow your Mind!
Okay, first of all, I’m not going to give you ten reasons, and most likely this blog is NOT going to blow your mind. Now that I have warned the Buzzfeed and Upworthy loving click-bait slaves out there, let me get down to business.
It is not that I have a problem with headlines that lure the audience to a story.
No, I Do Not.
But if the headline promises me something that will blow my mind, it bloody well deliver on that promise.
Now, I’m a reasonable reader. When I click on this story, I am expecting to discover, at least a couple of things that are, in fact, going to blow my mind. And then I get this.
Wow! I DID NOT know that. Ketchup? What is that? A mind blowing thing that I should try, most definitely!
And there’s more!
Are you waiting for something magical to happen? I did too.
Well, the corgis simply roam around the place, and do things that corgis would normally do. Wow! Mind=Blown!
Erm, yeah. My brain just died.
With stories like this journalistic credibility is reaching unheard of heights. And the worst part? It works! Upworthy and Buzzfeed are raking in the moolah, and there are clones coming out every single day. Even worse, mainstream media are being forced to resort to such headlines as well. Fair enough, they may have some actual content that’s worth reading. But when they have packaged it with a headline which scream click bait, it becomes hard to take it seriously.
Look at this headline on Huffington Post.
Now, the headline suggests that she may have said something at an interview, which blew everyone’s mind. (Can I just say, I hate all versions of the word ‘blow’ now!)
The story really is about how she beat cancer and her own fears. Great story, great video, but the headline, clearly a bad effort at click bait.
There was a time that editors churned out headlines that were quirky and interesting. Sometimes they even conveyed most of the story but still induced the audience to read the rest of it.
Now that is a great headline, conveys the jist, but induces you to read on. Imagine if the headline were, ‘US at War! 5 things the Japs Did That Will Blow Your Mind!
Appalling, isn’t it?
And no longer do we see really funny headlines, like these.
Yes, fair enough, it’s a bit out there, but you can’t deny that the word play is hilarious. Today’s half cracked attempt at humor would probably read, ‘You Won’t Believe How Condoms Stopped Traffic’.
Sigh! I guess there is no point lamenting. These damn things are probably here to stay and we unfortunate journalists may have to start writing like this. I rue the day, that first guy wrote a ‘will blow your mind’ headline!
