Clever marketers, content creators, and media outlets have cracked the code: if they can trigger you emotionally—FAST …they can get you to click.
Never mind facts.
Never mind truth.
All they need is curiosity, plus a jolt of fear, anger, or disgust… and you’re hooked.
Got ’em.
Just scroll the YouTube homepage. It’s a hall of mirrors built from algorithmic psychology and third-hand outrage.
Every thumbnail is shouting.
Every title is bait. Bahhh…
To stay semi-sane, I’ve made up some rules to filter the noise.
If a headline contains any of the following, I keep moving:
• The Scary Truth About…
• The Secret They Don’t Want You to Know…
• Why No One Is Talking About…
• Don’t Do X Until You See This…
• The Real Reason Behind…
• Exposed
• Revealed
• Lied
• Warning
• Reaction / Reacts
• Slams
• Goes Crazy
• Spills Tea
(And just to clarify for the older heads in the room: spilling tea originally meant gossiping over a literal cup of tea. A calm, lovely image. These days, it means a YouTuber rants for 13 minutes in front of an LED sign that says “authentic.”)
Sure, sometimes these videos deliver on the drama. But more often, I click, I watch… and I wait for the scandal, the revelation, the truth bomb.
Nothing.
No tea spilled.
No one slammed.
Just me, sitting there with empty hands and slightly lower self-esteem.
Shame on me. Bahhh…
And yet—I’m still here. Still scrolling.
Still dodging headlines like potholes on a digital road paved in cortisol and dopamine.
Attention is the currency (just check the valuations of all the major social media platforms). We are the oil being drilled.
Outrage is the exchange rate.
And emotional triggers are the ATM.
So I try to be more intentional. I try to scroll with a seatbelt on.
Because these days, the line between being informed and being farmed is thinner than ever.
And I’d rather not be part of the herd, even if I still hang out in the pasture.
Bahhh?
