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Xyla Foxlin Lab Eviction
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Nominal Animal:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on February 06, 2024, 04:33:14 am ---The "clickbait" label pisses me off. I get it all the time of course. To me the "clickbait" slur means a thumbnail and/or title that is not indicitive of the content.
--- End quote ---
How come?  The currently-agreed upon definition (in various dictionaries) is based on manipulation to elicit a particular response, with the "traditional" meaning being "using sensationalist headings to get users to view the content".

That is, anything that tricks the user into clicking a link or watching a video is clickbait.  This comes from the manipulation part.

Most common type of clickbait –– extremely prevalent in written online media, where the term originated from –– is a simple question that is left unanswered.  It relies on the human curiosity to trick the person to click and read the article, no matter how banal and predictable the answer is.  (The serious downside is, in my experience, that humans start to ask fewer questions, because the answers they keep reading are so underwhelming and emotionally dissatisfactory; annoying, even.  So, don't think that this is harmless: it is actually changing our societies, and not for the better.)

In Xyla Foxlin's case, the title was "I'm losing my dream workshop :(" with video subheading "I'm getting evicted again."
As the dictionaries say that "evict" means "to expel people from their property; to force people to move out", there is no generally agreed-upon association with causation (although some local languages/dialects might assign some).  Thus, I don't think that video was at all clickbaity; a bit dramatic, perhaps, but that's it.

I consider thumbnails with the open-mouthed surprise face a form of clickbait, because it lies about the content; particularly the levels of surprise evoked by the things discussed.  It is simply a trick, manipulating the user to get interested in the content, via the unspoken suggestion the face conveys that "this content surprised me so much you should definitely check it out".  Social games and manipulation.  It is no different to making the title a simple open question.  To me, it is inaccurate and dishonest.  But, because it is part of today's prevalent online culture, I just have to ignore or work past it.  I cannot just declare it a "slur" against soyboys and get rid of it that way.

Thus, calling "clickbait" a "slur" (in the "insult or slight" sense) is ridiculous, because the definition is based on the presence of a trick.  It's like saying it is a slur to call a prostitute a prostitute when they're trying to sell you their services.
SiliconWizard:
Yes, agreed, and I wasn't meaning that too negatively either (as long as it's not abused). Which is why I clearly said I understood why people would do it, as it's a communication tool that is hard to do without if you want to be heard, especially in a world where there is just too much competition to get a small chunk of some people's attention without resorting to some tricks.
EEVblog:

--- Quote from: Nominal Animal on February 06, 2024, 10:18:21 pm ---
--- Quote from: EEVblog on February 06, 2024, 04:33:14 am ---The "clickbait" label pisses me off. I get it all the time of course. To me the "clickbait" slur means a thumbnail and/or title that is not indicitive of the content.
--- End quote ---
How come?  The currently-agreed upon definition (in various dictionaries) is based on manipulation to elicit a particular response, with the "traditional" meaning being "using sensationalist headings to get users to view the content".

That is, anything that tricks the user into clicking a link or watching a video is clickbait. This comes from the manipulation part.


--- End quote ---

That is exactly what I said.
Of course every creator is going to pick a title and thumbnail that encourages people to click on the content. As I said, creators have to do this in order to even stand out to their own subscribers in a sea of content in their sub feed.
As a creator and a viewer, as long as the title and thumbnail matches the content, I'm fine with it.
I've had countless people throw "CLICKBAIT!" at me for just putting descriptive text in the thumbnail, and that pisses me off.
Nominal Animal:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on February 06, 2024, 11:38:32 pm ---That is exactly what I said.
--- End quote ---
Then me fail English, which happens often.  Sorry!


--- Quote from: EEVblog on February 06, 2024, 11:38:32 pm ---Of course every creator is going to pick a title and thumbnail that encourages people to click on the content. As I said, creators have to do this in order to even stand out to their own subscribers in a sea of content in their sub feed.
As a creator and a viewer, as long as the title and thumbnail matches the content, I'm fine with it.
--- End quote ---
Right; and I do agree, even though the current social media culture requires types of encouragement that I really don't like.  (My preferences are not in alignment with the majority, that's all.)

As an outsider, the line between encouraging and tricking is clear, but the closer you are, the fuzzier the line becomes, especially when you do not intend to trick anyone, but think the information conveyed is useful.  I know I have often crossed that line when tutoring people face-to-face; all I can say is that my intention has always been only to help, not to gain anything myself.  And never to troll; to always have a meaningful, useful-to-others point.


--- Quote from: EEVblog on February 06, 2024, 11:38:32 pm ---I've had countless people throw "CLICKBAIT!" at me for just putting descriptive text in the thumbnail, and that pisses me off.
--- End quote ---
Sure; that would rile me to no end.  But it is being mislabeled as someone who tricks others for their own personal gain that offends you, not the label itself, right?

Many of those people are using these words only to externalize their own confused emotions instead of trying to convey information or interact with others.  Some are using words they think they know the meaning of, but really, genuinely, do not.  Some are trolling, trying to evoke emotions in others to soothe their own inner turmoil, and gain some small reaction from a completely indifferent world.  And because all of them involve emotions instead of logical or rational thought, they often get more traction in social media than anything actually meaningful.  So, being mislabeled thus is doubly annoying/hurtful.

Point is, it is not the term or label itself, but its misuse; and especially against yourself and others who systematically denounce and detest the practice and such behaviour in general.  Just look at all the videos you've made showing exactly why the various ridiculous tech claims are bullshit.

It is ubiquitous in human societies, and excarberated in social media because of the lack of body language cues and evolved social limits and restraints in person-to-person interactions.  It does not happen because people are evil; it happens because they react by emotion instead of think things through, or because they misunderstand, or because they're feeling bad and externalizing it on others.  Having the label applied to yourself is difficult to deal with for a rational person; but understanding it as an action lets you see the various causes and effects, and thus deal with it, at least to some degree.  I do believe countering it as an action (by pointing out the contradiction, for example, and leaving it at that) is also a useful technique (even if it gains no traction, other rational/logical people often see and understand the context, and why the label does not apply), but that gets into the sector of social behaviour where my own track record is pretty damn poor.

In the case of this thread, note that nobody referred to a video being clickbait: SiliconWizard only said that "effective online communication is often borderline with clickbaits", referring to just that sometimes (not here) the encouragement slips into social tricks to get the clicks, even if not deliberately intended by the author, as the border is fuzzy; and that as encouragement is practically required, accidental slips will happen, so we better learn to accept and ignore any small transgressions, while still pointing out the gross deliberate attempts.  All that of course referred to the correct uses of the term, with the mislabeling being a completely separate thing.
soldar:
Mine was just an observation on language use and not intended as criticism.

I suppose my engineer mind strives for precision in the use of words but I also do understand that people want to add drama or other emotions.

The problem I see is that the language loses precision and degrades (or evolves, depending on your point of view).

When "literally" is used only for emphasis then it loses its meaning.
When everything is "rape" or "genocide" then nothing is rape or genocide.

A lady says someone "murdered her dog". No, lady, no, you cannot murder a dog no matter how hard you try.

https://wsvn.com/news/local/miami-dade/she-murdered-my-dog-pet-sitter-arrested-on-animal-cruelty-charges-owner-says-suspect-starved-pets/



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