At this point, we are much better at identifying headlines or soundbites that are fabricated purely to receive (and then monetize) our attention.
I’d love to make a Chrome extension that identified clickbait headlines and added a little denotation, “This author has no intention of earning your trust.”
When the game is winning your attention, two things are immediately made clear:
- The author (or publication) does not expect they have earned your trust already
- The author (or publication) has no intention of earning it now
We inevitably click the listicle, check to see if the thing we care about made the list, celebrate (and maybe even share the listicle), and move on.
Imagine if we were better able to guard our attention with trust? What if we demanded substance and value in the “content” we consumed? How might the world around us and our own lives change?