Clickbait — You won't believe what I've seen!

For those of you who don't know me, my sense of humor is quite cynical, sarcastic, and satirical at times. The number one thing I absolutely loathe when scrolling through my newsfeed—whether it be Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter—is seeing clickbait. Ok, on Facebook or Twitter it's to be expected but on LinkedIn also? These are three titles of articles I saw on LinkedIn before I quit my browser:

1. "This is the worst part about the new Apple TV"
2. "How a small design tweak got millions more people to use one of Facebook's products"
3. "Apple is slightly more diverse than it was last year"

Seriously... What do any these titles tell me about the respective articles?

Article #1 - This article tells me the author is bitchy and took objection to a single feature of the new Apple TV and now anyone who is searching for the pros and cons behind the new Apple TV will find this author's whiny opinion. This article is showing up on my LinkedIn because I follow Apple. Seriously LinkedIn? I expected serious articles regarding a company I choose to follow, not some whiny clickbait.

Article #2 - This sounds like those male enhancement pill emails that you receive in your spam folder. Must I say more? If your article is that boring that you must resort to sounding like a Viagra ad, reconsider your website's mission because I'm sure porn websites already have that nailed down.

Article #3 - Alright, I'll admit that the title of the article is actually more appropriate than the previous two but really? There is an entire article regarding how a single company is "slightly" more diverse than the previous year? Instead of talking about a single company's leadership, maybe you should be analyzing this trend in a specific country or around the world; something that, you know, requires actual research or journalism? Oh you're probably not capable of that, sorry.

I find it extremely disappointing that websites like Business Insider and Washington Post (the websites where these articles are housed) are becoming no better then Buzzfeed, Clickhole, or The Onion where clickbait is their thing because it's either their style or it's satire.

In conclusion, I love satire. For those of you who find my humor hard to understand, I purposely formatted this post to be like every other clickbait article I see. If your website is resorting to using clickbait to get people to read your articles simply to get ad revenue, you seriously need to reconsider your writers' abilities and your business strategy.