Over the past couple of years, every social media platform has been flooded with interesting articles that are either true or completely false. You'd think by now we'd be pretty wise on which articles are credible and which ones are well...putting it nicely, complete trash. Whether the article focuses on a celebrity figure, political news or some other "news worthy" topic, there has been this thing called clickbait that most people tend to ignore.
For those who might not know what clickbait is content that focuses its purpose on gaining attention from a specific headline that will link readers to their website. Clickbait is mostly used as a catchy headline that may or may not be completely true.
When it comes to clickbait there are three specific aspects to take into consideration:
1. Headline
The number of people who just read the headline of an article truly baffles me. How can you take in all of the correct or incorrect information of an article by just reading the headline? The headline is an important factor of an article but readers must remember that it is not the entire article. Click the link, read the article, don't be fooled by the information in the headline. We are all much smarter than that.
2. Source
As a reader who prides herself on source-checking before reading an article, it confuses me how this concept is so far out of people's heads. I have seen friends and family members sharing articles from satire websites. I have seen so many people sharing political articles from websites that aren't even close to being a political website. The information in these articles is so wrong that it scares me how people think it is right. When reading an article the next step is to look at the source. Have you ever heard of the website? If not, do some research on the website. Check to see what others are saying about it, see if it is a credible source. If you find out that it's not, dump that article. It's not worth your time.
3. Date
Some websites reshare articles in order to gain traction, does that mean that the article is relevant to the time? Absolutely not. Any website's Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media platform can share an article from 2014 in 2017. It is extremely important to check the date of an article before sharing it with your friends. If the source is credible but the article is dated, trash that article. Find something more relevant, you will more likely gain more information and a better understanding of that topic from the present rather than the past.
Although these concepts seem pretty logical, it's easy to get caught up in a sharing spree without actually checking the credibility of an article. Clickbait can be interesting but before sharing something with your friends take a few minutes to not only check the date of the article but check the source. It will give you more credibility and probably spark up a better conversation on your social media platforms.
