The dark side of "click bait"

This is generally achieved through advertising revenue. 

The unfortunate phenomenon that has arisen is “clickbait” where advertising revenue is earned by having social media users click on sensationalist headlines.  Usually the headlines are eye catching enough to encourage the user to click on the article because there is not enough information to satisfy their curiosity.

Unfortunately what has happened is that the “click through” has become far more important than the truth of the article.  This weekend the famous South African comedian Trevor Gumbi became the victim of a probable “clickbait” situation when his death in a horrific car accident was reported when he is still very much alive.

To make matters worse, his mother, who is blind, was receiving telephone calls about the reports before being able to verify the truth of them herself.  It seems that it is not the first time that Gumbi has been the subject of a “fake news” report with his imminent divorce being headlined in December with him refuting it in January.

As always you are encouraged to check your news sources and be discerning about what you read.  If the only source of the information is a strange website and you cannot verify the news anywhere else it is probably fake... do not fall into the “clickbait” trap!

Verlie Oosthuizen