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You were scrolling through social media when you encountered an article titled “Shocking: List of areas in Philippines that will disappear, become part of the ocean after few years.” You clicked on it without delay. You wanted to know whether your city would be unsafe to live in for the next three years.

 

However, the headline had all been an exaggeration. Apparently, the article cited the Asian Development Bank that by 2085, seven cities in our country might be vulnerable to typhoons and flooding due to climate change. The total disappearance of cities was not directly stated as well. You realized there was no immediate need to panic. It just so happened that you fell for a clickbait.

 

Clickbait refers to content whose main goal is to attract attention. It prompts viewers to click on a link of an article whose title is usually misleading, unverified, and provocative. It does so using curiosity-piquing statements that create and exploit gaps in their knowledge, motivating them to explore and view more. For example, some of the commonly used cliffhanging statements are “What happens next will make your heart melt,” “Why you should never _____,” and “Number __ is my favorite!”

 

Clickbaits are primarily used in content marketing. Website publishers and marketing agencies employ these to rapidly generate web traffic through page views, which consequently boosts their online presence and advertising revenues.

 

The emergence of social media platforms further enabled clickbaits to flourish. Serving as major content distributors, these networking sites have allowed clickbait websites to facilitate their tools of user engagement (likes, comments, and shares) in order to reach more people across the world.

 

That’s why, the clickbait articles that we used to see only on a website’s recommendation section have become part of our daily user feed. As long as the pages we like and our friends share these, encountering clickbaits is unavoidable.

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Some argue that clicking on most clickbait articles is harmless. It is often rationalized as a pastime, a guilty pleasure, and a harmless diversion, according to Todd Cesaratto, a former Sclable content manager. Freelance writer Tracey Dowdy described it as a “cotton candy for your brain: you know it isn’t good for you, there’s no real substance and it’s overpriced, but you’re at the fair so why not?”

 

Many mainstream news organizations online have even adopted the use of clickbait techniques to attract readers and generate revenue. A recent study found that 33.54% of headlines from mainstream media could be considered clickbait. Damian Radcliffe, an honorary research fellow at Cardiff University, said in a BBC report that this phenomena is “a reflection of the fact [that] audiences consume content in different ways,” adding that this is not dumbing-down but being creative in telling stories.

 

On the contrary, others argue that clickbait tactics become harmful and problematic the moment they are adopted in online journalism. They consider clickbait headlines part of tabloidization—the shifting of news into an exaggerated, sensationalized, and misleading form. Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher, for instance, believes these are the antithesis of the traditional, which is driven by the quest for truth and public accountability.

 

The use of clickbaits in online journalism has become a more serious problem since fake news websites recognized its effectivity in rapidly disseminating false information on social media. More than reasoning and accuracy, it appeals to emotion, especially anger. This makes it three times more likely to be impulsively shared across social media platforms, according to a MIT study of 200,000 Twitter users in China.

 

Consequently, clickbaits are associated with both dis- and misinformation. According to First Draft News research director Claire Wardle, website publishers disinform as they deliberately create and share false and misleading information. Meanwhile, viewers misinform the moment they inadvertently share these contents with their peers.

 

Wardle further listed down types of dis- and misinformation. Clickbaits belong to false connection as these headlines do not match and support their content. This shows that fake news takes a lot of forms—even what we perceive as a “harmless diversion” can be used to further one’s cause.

 

Disinformation tactics diminish the impact of real news and legitimize hoaxes and conspiracies. They damage democratic processes by corroding trust in the free press and swaying the public perception on key political and social issues. Political actors are also not held accountable for their actions and decisions as they can easily dismiss any news detrimental to their image as a ploy. Truly, they are threats to democracy.

 

With both of mainstream news organizations and purveyors of fake news using clickbait headlines, it is important to be critical and evaluative of the news stories we see on social media everyday. Thinking before we click the like or share button involves thinking after we click on these clickbaits. If we double-check the truthfulness of their contents first before we share them to our family and friends, we help avoid misinformation and confusion.

 

Falling for a clickbait may be inevitable, but being victims of false information is not. Now, the ball is in our court. We have to be responsible for verifying the stories that we see online. We may feel disappointed everytime we click on clickbaits only to see that the content is false and misleading. However, by doing so, we safeguard not only ourselves but also the future of our democracy from individuals whose only aim is to fulfill their own agenda.

 

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Phoebe Salvador, 19, who is a journalism student at the University of the Philippines Diliman, believes that with freedom comes great responsibility.