Green Clickbait

[peakbagger]

I am guilty of clicking on "green" articles usually on Yahoo. It may be just the internet echo chamber effect but the one site that is generally very disappointing is "The Cool Down", inevitably its fancy hype filled heading followed by little or no substance, poorly vetted and in some cases just plain drawing the wrong conclusion. It is obvious many of the features are written by clueless folks with not even a bit of technical background that are just reading press releases and beleiving the hype.

Anyone else notice this?

 

[sneefy]

Clickbait is a scourge. Every site you visit has tons of it, every headline you read is designed to grab you. Entire sites are nothing but clickbait funnels posting faux 'news' or rumor articles.

Less discerning people spread it like wildfire on social media and forums, clicks happen, clickbait makes money, the cycle continues.

 

[gthomas785]

Sadly it will only get worse as the AI bots generate more and more believable BS.

 

[begreen]

Thanks for the heads-up Peak. I haven't been to that site yet and will stay away.
Clickbait articles on almost any topic have increased dramatically over the past 5 yrs. They all feed back into analytics databases forming a profile. Click on a few and you may start getting carpet-bombed with ads in that direction. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram take this to new extremes. Their "news" feed is peppered with trivial articles laden with clickbait ads.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

It’s even more creepy when you have a discussion about some random topic and the random topic pops up in your news feed later that day.

 

[semipro]

A little off topic but, I'm a fan of YouTube and get really disappointed when content providers resort to clickbait to get views. Typically these involve screenshots of attractive females that might grab your attention for obvious reasons. I've actually unsubscribed from numerous channels because they've resorted to these tactics. It really cheapens the content.

 

[moresnow]

It’s even more creepy when you have a discussion about some random topic and the random topic pops up in your news feed later that day.

This is becoming a startling reality that used to be a topic we laughed at here amongst friends/family. Not funny anymore. The feeling that comes to mind for me is.
Ominous and manipulative.
Time to get off the net and go hang some bait on a hook btw

 

[semipro]

I am guilty of clicking on "green" articles usually on Yahoo. It may be just the internet echo chamber effect but the one site that is generally very disappointing is "The Cool Down", inevitably its fancy hype filled heading followed by little or no substance, poorly vetted and in some cases just plain drawing the wrong conclusion. It is obvious many of the features are written by clueless folks with not even a bit of technical background that are just reading press releases and beleiving the hype.

Anyone else notice this?

I've been seeing a lot from The Cool Down in my feed lately and feel that it is the type of simplified content that most will take the time to read. I don't think their content is necessarily meant for critical thinkers or greenies. It is focused on the masses.
I wouldn't be surprised if the intent of the The Cool Down was to present green issues very simply and pique interest where this type of information is sometimes hard for many to follow as laymen. The pieces do contain links to other relevant information sources and sometimes even the original publications.
It may just be the kind of clickbaity hype that is needed to get more reading on green subjects in today's "news" environment.
The piece below for example, obviously not deep, somewhat sensationalized, and definitely not new news, but still contains information that many may not be aware of that is still relevant to environmental issues, in this case, air pollution from outdoor equipment.

New research reveals ‘shocking’ information about everyday lawn equipment: ‘It’s really counterintuitive’

“Battery technology has come a long way.”

www.yahoo.com