How I (Didn’t) Deal With My Anxiety During Virgo Season 2020

 ♍Virgo season♍ began on August 23rd and ended on September 22nd. During these 30 days, our minds may have felt a little overwhelmed and cranky, as it is typically Virgo to over think and give our thoughts more power than they should have.

 

Virgo is a sign known for its perfectionist nature and attention to detail. They are logical beings, sometimes a little too logical to the point where they end up obsessing over a problem more than they should, just because they need to find that perfect solution. (Spoiler: It doesn’t exist!)

 

Also, as critical thinkers, they tend to overthink themselves into worrying about something that doesn’t need to be worried about. (I should know, I live with one.)

 

Thus, coming into Virgo season, I was not at all prepared for the mental chaos that would invade my mind in the first half of September.

 

Yeah I had no idea...at all

It started one night when I heading to a local community spot in Petaling Jaya for a private movie screening. The night was young, my mind awake and full of possibilities that excited me at the thought of meeting new people. I had entered a giveaway by the centre and won a free ticket to the screening, so I was pretty estactic. 

My sister was the driver of the night. She had never been there before, so as we took off I gabbled excitedly about how friendly the people were and how much she’d enjoy the screening even though I’d never been there myself. That should have been a red flag that I was over-hyping myself to expectations that (probably) couldn’t be met, but hey, let’s get excited and deal with the disappointment later, right? 😏

 

It only took us half an hour to arrive. Entering the centre, I was not prepared for what was to come. There were two huge sofas, a couple of bean bags, and a large mattress filled with thick, cushy pillows that took up most of the space in front. I was expecting plastic tables and chairs, so this took me by surprise. Fairy lights were dimly lit and draped across the ceiling to give off a relaxed, chill vibe. The projector was set up between the two sofas, reflecting the light on a broad wall where the movie would be shown.

 

I admired the relaxed arrangement of the space, but something had shifted. It was unfamiliar to me, and I felt out of my element. I remember hovering at the doorway, unsure if I should compliment the space, sit down, or make a lame excuse to escape to the toilet to pep-talk myself out of anxiety in private. Unfortunately, the host invited us inside. Too late to escape. 😱

 

I found myself wishing I was anywhere but there. Thoughts of “I don’t know anyone, I don’t belong here,” flashed through my head. A particular one stood out at that moment: 

“This is going to be awkward as hell. I’m going to embarrass myself and regret I ever came. This was a mistake.”

We all have this, don’t we? Moments where we feel top of the world, then effectively self-sabotage by playing right into the mind trap. (Please say you do, I can’t handle being the only one 😅)Any sane human being would have smiled and handled the situation with grace, but I went down the deep end quick.

 

This was just one of the many insecurities that came up for me then. Looking back, it was actually pretty funny. I had barely said two words, but was already bashing myself up for not doing things the ‘right’ way. Anything I said or did was met with intense scrutiny of my own brain. I was mentally screwing myself, but in that moment I was barely aware of it, so focused was I on making myself look normal and presentable. 

Why couldn’t I just enjoy the moment? Why did I have to overthink and complicate everything? 😑😑😑

 

So, one night when I couldn’t sleep, this particular memory resurfaced and chose that moment to taunt me. I spent about an hour rolling sleeplessly before I sat up and declared to myself that enough is enough. Since I had so much going on in my brain, it was clear that I needed to let go of some stuff. My shelves were overflowing with books collected from annual visits to BBW and sporadic visits to the bookstore, so it was a great place to start.

 

Image may appear messier than it looks.

I took a leaf out of Marie Kondo’s book and tapped my books one by one, trying to decide if they still sparked joy for me. I won’t bore you with the details, but at the end of it I had identified a pile of Young Adult titles I no longer wanted. These were my favourite titles during my late teens (they have such pretty covers!) but emotionally, I had moved on from them.

 They were divided into two piles—one to be given to a friend for her book rental business. Check it out here! While the other was to be donated the Beli Nothing Project Facebook group for requesters and hoarders to make a bid. I hope I made some random requester very happy.

 

My streak didn’t end there. I surprised myself further by actually organising my Spotify playlists. I collected these with an obsession that mattered if we were ever going to run out of music, but only played the same ones over and over. *guilty pleasures*

 

I was feeling very productive, having added 30+ songs and deleted about 11 playlists when the exhaustion crept in. How welcome! My mind finally gave way and was tired, enough—to sleep without feeling paranoid about anything. Oh, remember that time when you messed up that speech in public two years ago? Too late for that, I already felt bad an hour ago! You can’t hurt me anymore! 

 

Taking a good look around my room, it was a mess—piles of books in the corner, my bed unmade, and bags I had dragged out to stuff my books inside. But my mind felt light and free.

 

See anything you like? If you're lucky I might still have them...😂

Needless to say I happily drifted off into sleep and had many sweet dreams. This wasn’t the first night I spent in sleepless paranoia, but it was the first time I chose to do something instead of letting my own thoughts control me. So here’s a personal tip: the next time you face night anxiety, organise your room. Or bookshelf. Or playlist. Heck, rearrange your room furniture if that gets you going. You’ll feel much better after!

 

Push yourself to tackle a block in your life, something you promised you’d do someday but never did (the land of tomorrows, amirite?) 😂

 

Oh, and if you’re wondering, I did end up having a good time at the movie screening after all. I got over my self-inflicted anxiety and managed to socialise like a normal person. I definitely could have handled that much better if I hadn’t stressed so much about the little things. Overthinking kills! 😒

 

Now that Virgo season is over, I am plenty relieved that this obsessive thought-crunching process is over. Though my decluttering practice still needs some effort, so I’ll be continuing that throughout the year. Meanwhile, Libra season beckons! ♎

Why I Think "You" Is All About Character Issues

This will prove slightly difficult for me to write. I have been rusty for a while, and since the last post have been stuck in a rut somewhere on the writing scale, so do forgive me for this one.

It's now 4.37am and I just finished "You" an hour ago, which portrays Joe Goldberg, a bookstore manager in New York takes rather dramatic steps to ensure he meets and builds a relationship with a customer he has become attracted to. They share a joke or two, and he finds himself complimenting her 'unique' literary tastes. She accepts them gracefully, at the same time fishing for more. Joe senses her need, and bites.
Stranger blooms to casual acquaintances when he acquires her home address after a quick Google search. He follows her daily to familiarize himself with her schedule, spies on her in all her half-dressed glory; even takes to breaking in at one point. All while she is unaware of the impending creep plotting to forcefully enter her life.
His relentless determination leads him to some 'victory' (if we can call it that) later on, when he saves her life on the racks of a very loud train threatening to crush her alive. He swipes her phone. Beck is too drunk to realize it. She ends up giving her email address to him and says goodbye. But they will meet again, Joe ensures it.

That's about the gist of 2 episodes in a season of 10 and I can only say that it gets more suspenseful after that. The story is narrated from Joe's point of view, so we get to see- and understand how individuals like him think. It's intriguing, really, at the same time a little scary once you realize how he's starting to make you see how he thinks its all reasonable and justified. At one point, even I was convinced. Until I had to click pause for some snacks and really thought to myself, this can't be right.

And I like how on You, the characterization never lost it's touch. Throughout the series, each kept to the most defining characteristics of their personality. Even if none of them were pretty questionable, like Peach's attempt to manipulate Beck to move to Paris and gaslighting her for leaving even though she had MANY reasonable decisions to do so.
Let's not forget Joe's so-called 'concern' for her, once she found herself a good therapist. Sure, she was cheating since then, but Joe's innate need for control went over the top.

Peach watching Beck and Joe watches both.

I love those little justifications Joe internally muses to himself every time he does a 'deed', for Beck. Like how he knows deep down he's something a really bad thing but each time life tries to show him the truth he artfully twists it into something he wants to believe. Which crops up, multiple times, but Joe always so skillfully dodges it.  It really shows how badly someone can live a lie, choose to be blind to things that they don't want to see.

I can see why it has all the rage now though. Stalking is nothing new, but sneak in a little romance and give the MC a handsome do-over, and there you go- an acceptable line of privacy can be crossed as long he treats the girl just right.
Because all that matters is love, isn't it?

ALL IN ALL, prepare to be disturbed as you enter "You"; a title fitting for a series that gives you the creeps when someone asks, 'What are you watching?

'You.'

Netflix's New Series 'Russian Doll' Is About Dying, And It's Amazing.

Netflix's newest show Russian Doll has just hit the screens- and if I can give you any reason to watch it whatsoever, it's a real mind-twister concerning death and life alike. Before I get all philosophical, you should know that Nicky Nichols from Orange is the New Black is the star here. If you've missed her from past seasons, she is alive to explore in this show if you want more of her raspy, sardonic humor (I know I do.)

Natasha Lyonne stars as Nadia.

The show opens with main character Nadia staring into the mirror of a glowing, half-lit door of a bathroom. She goes by as Nadia, a 36 year old woman celebrating her own birthday which her friends threw for her. It feels like a normal night, until she leaves the party to hook up with a stranger and search for her cat. Spotting him across the road, she dashes without thinking and gets hit by an oncoming car speeding on the road. Instant death.

Then she's instantly in the same bathroom staring in the same mirror wondering what the hell happened; until it's clear that something weird is happening because she keeps dying and resurrecting at the same spot.


That infamous bathroom, again.

It becomes clear later that she can't progress forward until she clears some of the emotional roadblocks perpetuating her lifestyle of drugs and self-destruction. I grew more invested in the character, if not the actress herself, as I watched her make both questionable errors and deeply moving acts as she started to consider that her actions hurt other people too, and take living more seriously. 
Through several flashbacks we see her past trauma and it develops to take her character further. It isn't till Episode 3 that we start seeing her grasping hold of her demons and determined to fight through the anger and self-hatred inflicted from her past. Her deaths range from absurdly hilarious to poignantly tragic as we see her dying in front of her friends, family, each one cutting closer to the heart than the last. She becomes more desperate to escape, sensing that she is running out of time.

Nadia's deaths become less erratic and more symbolic as the series progresses.

Her resurrections have not been in vain, as she manages to re-route several what-would-be nasty situations out of the tension and start greeting her life with joy, acknowledging the pain that was before and helping another similar soul bear with his own pain-filled cocktail.

There isn't really a specific genre to wrap this show up as it had its own complex blend of dark, snarky humor, with a mix of sci-fi in the earlier episodes that escalated to pure drama all the way to the end. Bordering a bit of supernatural, maybe. But i'm glad they didn't go that way in this show. Even if it's guilty of carrying the biggest plot hole ever they really cut to the crux in forcing oneself to ask life's biggest questions; then only can you begin to heal.

Streaming for only 8 episodes with one season so far, Russian Doll has already proved itself to be binge-worthy climax that will pull you back for another rewatch for sure if not just to catch the clues referenced from later episodes. 

So I'd definitely highly recommend it, words can't explain how amazing it is. Story-wise and emotionally-charged. Just prepare to have, you know, your mind fucked with for a bit. Take it as your own personal high.

How My Anxiety Is Distressing

Anxiety is made up of a core feeling - always feeling you should be doing something. 

You are inked with that feeling that something is not right. That something could be done, better, to improve what's already at hand. It's the feeling of jumbly nerves that gets up and start pacing up and down the rooms, for reasons you aren't exactly sure of because emotions are confusing that way.

You feel unsettled; something is not right, something you must fix. You pound your head relentlessly for something that will make you feel better. 'Was it my work earlier? Did i not submit it on time? Will they think badly of me?'

And these go round and round in your head.

Round and round in my head.

I constantly uestion myself: Is it enough?

The answer is almost never yes, and I continue to refuse to give myself the validation I so desperately need. Why do I refrain from telling myself that I am good enough?

And from then on I think less of myself. That I am lesser of a person compared to others because of this fake belief. Which then birthes the tyrant of the mind.

Hell should have emphasized a little more on their visitation board--
IN THE DEEPEST PIT LIES THE MOST LOATHSOME MONSTER : ANXIETY.

Months of self-doubt, years of insecurity, and unfair bouts of comparison. I always thought that I should be doing more. That if I settled, I wasn't working hard enough. Lazy. Ignorant. Choosing to be less.

But it's not what thoughts that rule my head that dictated my value; its the actions I took.

And what happened was that I did it. I ran over what I achieved instead of what I had lost. Simple, but that mindset change showed I wasn't completely a useless sack of potatoes after all. And it was the tiniest things-- like borrowing your friends loose change, checking if they're home safe, cooking for your parents, getting them a random gift. Those small things helped shape my own personality. They became parts that stuck.

And thus is how I used it to escape my cycle of self-abuse-- a cycle I myself created, ironically.

So the next time Anxiety comes to visit, you can ask her/him: I acknowledge that you are here because of ____, but **I have helped them before and it's all right.**

**Your own positive memory.** And tell yourself that you are good enough.

Topic: Careers in New Media

In a short time, new media has taken over the dissemination of news and information-gathering process as a whole. This transition has led to certain jobs dying due to the lack of need for it. For example, gatekeepers are the ones that hold the main brunt of the change; as social media is not as closely monitored as traditional media. Printers are another party that is no longer needed in the publishing of news, as writers can now post their content directly on the page. As much as it is changing the job scene, it has opened up doors for new opportunities as well: Social media managers and Digital Content Marketers are now highly sought after.

https://social.hays.com/2017/04/10/eight-emerging-technology-jobs-that-are-going-to-explode-this-year/

This article touches on potential jobs that might overtake 2017 and in the coming future. As we human beings are already so dependant on the Internet for information, career tools, data processing and analysing, it is inevitable that any career prospects in the future would be technology-oriented.

And so it is listed in the article: from AI Developers to Data Scientists and Cyber-Security Engineers, this further goes to show that technology will play a very big role of success in our future—and jobs might even have to evolve to keep up.

Chane is imminent, and there is no preventing it. In fact, something that we thought we had no control over and would last forever—like the most tedious of jobs—will be dead soon. Therefore, to be relevant in this world I believe it is necessary to polish your skills that are related to anything online. Video editing, software editing, app developer or even a social marketer strategist. It never hurts to learn about social media terminologies and algorithms.

https://www.fastcompany.com/3058422/these-will-be-the-top-jobs-in-2025-and-the-skills-youll-need-to-get-them

An article by fastcompany.com shares on the future of jobs that will be extinct by 2025 and those that have strong career growth. Here are the ones that will be defunct by then and the ones that will prosper.

In 50 years from now, much of our jobs will be lost to higher-functioning robots taking charge—especially the ones that don’t require high mental strain—administrative, manufacturing, even law. With the robots taking over, much of our job opportunities will be reduced significantly. However, not all is lost, because there are still come skillsets you can polish to bring value to yourself in the future.

Technology and computational thinking, caregiving, educational mentors and social media literacy are necessities that are important skills for you to build.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/10-jobs-that-didn-t-exist-10-years-ago/

10 years ago, we would have wondered what cloud-computing or driverless cars even meant—are those even achievable? Today, not only are we fast-forwarding into a reckless pursuit of the Internet’s bottomless potential to reach for more technological endeavours, but we are creating more jobs in the process. Jobs, which we would have laughed at 10 years ago because they just seemed too far away to be real.

But they are real today. This article here predicted what jobs would give us our future, to prepare for the onslaught of change. It is no surprise that Data Scientist and Analyst top the list. With the multitude of information that makes the Internet, it makes sense that people who can interpret and organise the data accurately would be high in demand.

Others are not so predictable, like YouTube content creators—who would’ve thought that streaming yourself online could make millions? I mean, look at Pewdiepie. Not only is the guy a millionaire himself, he’s got millions of followers, and each click earns him a substantial amount. His views average up to a few thousand per day, and he uploads one video every 2 days. How much do you think that would make him?

http://www.humanresourcesonline.net/malaysias-salary-job-trends-2017/

Adding a local twist, this article focuses on Malaysia’s own job trends that will take over the year. Most of the local sectors included technology, banking services, finance, and digital.

Once again, it comes as no surprise that digital and technology is a big factor contributing to the market’s growth—and businesses are forced to keep up with it. With investments in big data and content marketing on social media platforms, there is demand for influencer marketers, data scientists, and social media marketers.

While Malaysia recognises the need for these platforms, they still run short on getting the experts to run it due to a lack of returning Malaysians. The case would have local talents travelling overseas for studies; before returning to their homeland for a short 2-3 years for the sake of passport renewals before taking off again.

The country’s capital indeed has the potential to be a business-friendly hub in terms of providing marketing and digital services, but they first need to draw back the people needed to do it.

https://computerworld.com.my/resource/careers-and-talent/digital-malaysia-continues-to-feed-high-demand-for-tech-talent-notes-november-jobs-survey/

In a jobs survey in November from online job platform Monster’s Employment Index, it was noted that Malaysia has continued to sow growth in the hiring of tech and IT talents this year.

The country’s spike in recruitment has somewhat increased thanks to hardware and software sectors, which has had a 60% year on year growth. In 2015, Computerworld Malaysia noted that general economic uncertainty was behind the drop of online hiring in Malaysia. This was due to the negative perception of Malaysians of the local job sectors, either believing they were not good enough or that there were better opportunities overseas.  

Since Malaysians are notorious for their perceptions that ‘the grass is always greener on the other side’, they close themselves off to chances that are in front of them and try to reach for something that is further instead. However, with the growing need that is data experts and digital marketers, their mindsets have opened to accept that local sectors are worth giving it a try too.

Thanks to that, we now have the needed experts to expand our Internet reach and continue to develop and manage data that will help us reach our own goals in this data-driven world.

FB/Twitter Links on Clickbait

https://www.cnet.com/news/facebook-clickbait-fake-videos-cracking-down-newsfeed/

https://www.engadget.com/2017/05/17/facebook-refines-fight-against-clickbait/

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/06/right-wing-clickbait-websites-are-making-a-killing-on-facebook/

https://twitter.com/DolphinSeeker30/status/915170592290148352

https://twitter.com/IanMorris78/status/932671524535984130

Links and Comments on Clickbait in Journalism

Link http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-34213693 

In today's digital age, it's a race to snap up readers' attention and an even bigger one to maintain it.
This article touches on how clickbait has slowly shaped journalism to be the sensationalised one-liners it portrays today. However, instead of completely bashing the clickbait trend, the interviewees featured share their side of the story on how clickbait can offer new ways of delivering content. Each of them are specialised in their own field of journalism and hold respected positions.

Damian Radcliffe, honorary research fellow at Cardiff University's School of Journalism said: "It's part of the world in which we now operate - there's a lot to be said for journalists to be able to write better or snappier headlines."

Headline writing has long been considered a skill-- and in my opinion, the emergence of clickbait isn't necesarrily a bad thing. Like how people grow old, we will all eventually run out of content one day. What's important is how we package, deliver and market it in a way that's appealing yet a satisfying outcome for fellow readers. In staggered doses, it could prove to  be unbelievably helpful.

Link - https://www.socialmediatoday.com/smt-influencer/social-media-scourge-2016-rise-and-hopefully-fall-click-bait

Social media today takes a stand on the trend of clickbait. In the world of social media, they feel that clickbait has swallowed everything-- from political campaigns, banking news, celebrity scandals, leisure news, and many more. In 2016 saw the high rise of clickbait taking over, and news publications did experience a significant drop of reads in their usual traffic. It didnt take much to create intellectual, factual content with reliable stats. Trashy, simple content writing was a lot cheaper and easier to produce, yet those rose to fame in the height of 2016.

Now 2017, Facebook is taking an effort to ban clickbait items by tweaking their algorithms here and there. 

I agree that clickbait has indeed taken over the social media culture and is in danger of being a permanent label for modern journalism. This may deter people to click and even spread misleading news. It hasn't escalated into fake news yet, but with the lack of supervision, that time is bound to come. But the good news is that Facebook and Google is taking effort to reduce the amount of fluff, and soon hopefully we can go back to reliable and stable content.

Link - http://theconversation.com/four-reasons-why-listicles-and-clickbait-are-killing-real-journalism-67406

The listicle is another editorial phenomenon. It works similarly, throwing out easy information and capitalising on their assumptions audiences want quick bits of information. Listicles and clickbait show how this is creating a shift in journalism-- people are now more used to digesting tiny bits of info, instead of reading through slowly with an inept understanding. They both also have the same thing in common, which is how their 'content' are more or less facts pulled from the Internet and jumbled together to create an article which is mostly assumed on.
Editor-in-chief of the Guardian, Kathrine Viner, has written that “chasing down cheap clicks at the expense of accuracy … undermines the value of journalism”.

And i find i agree with her. Publications now race to put together the most sensationalised piece they can think up, and their main priority is no longer fact-checking once, or twice. The one with the most power words wins, and leads to more listicles, more poorly-slapped together content, and all of it undermines the value of news. 
Soon everyone will be taking news at face value just because 'someone told me, so it must be true' and that is a very dangerous path for journalism to take.

Link- https://www.reddit.com/r/socialmedia/comments/70fip5/how_clickbait_journalism_is_destroying_social/

This sub-reddit takes seriously the negative consequences of clickbait and how it may change your thinking as a whole. Therefore they have listed down a few reasons of why clickbait is dangerous and why you should avoid it. Inclusive with a few necessary precautions for you to take if you do not want to be affected.
Most of them touch on how clickbait approach your brain chemicals and induce them to create dopamine. It sparks curousity and each time this happens and you give in to it, it slowly becomes a habit. Over time, the brain will become addicted to these clickbait headlines and we won't even think twice before clicking on it. They somehow achieve this by feeling on our emotional needs, instead of intellectual deep-thoughts. As you continue reading these type of clickbait, you no longer feel any need for intelligent stimuli. Long story short, it makes you dumber.

I think this forum makes very good points on why clickbait is discouraged. It makes the reader more aware of what they read and will be more prone to think before clicking-- something everyone should practice. As users of social media, it should be our responsibility to filter out misleading and fake news out of our newsfeed. We don't want to live in a world where we can't trust what we read.
This gives journalists to reshape journalism back to its original focus-- to inform and deliver reliable news and to be a source that the people can trust.

Link - http://www.statepress.com/article/2016/10/spopinion-critique-of-modern-media

They gave examples of clickbait in all media-- article and video.
This shows how clickbait is creating the culture of readers to comment even before they read. Becoming an increasingly dangerous practice, as people tend to assume one-off from the article before even opening it. 

Milton Coleman, Edith Kinney Gaylord visiting professor in journalism ethics, said the purpose of a headline is to be an accurate summary of a story. He believes that if a journalist can’t attract an audience with the facts, they shouldn’t write the story at all.

“What kind of journalist are you? How far will you stretch the basic principles?" Coleman said. "The basic principle is the headline should be an accurate reflection of the story.”

This type of journalism has caused to breed an audience that is unable to distinguish satire or clickbait from real news. Another reason of why clickbait should be opposed in journalism before journalism loses its meaning completely.

How The Use Of Clickbait Headlines Impact Online Journalism

In a world saturated with all kinds of news and information online, publications have resorted to tactics to getting their articles noticed-- and an easy way to do is through clickbait.

So what exactly is clickbait and why do people use it?

Put simply, it is a headline that is often exaggerated in a fashion that uses that uses a anatomy of power words to tempt the reader to click.

These clickbait titles are often sensationalised to maximise on the number of clicks. In today’s digital age, monetising off social media has become a very powerful, if not effective tool, and publications want to capitalise on that. The algorithms that concern clickbait headlines are very simple: the more clicks you get and the higher the traffic, the more you earn for advertorials.

Therefore, it’s no surprise sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy are riding on the clickbait wave. They capitalise on our natural human curiosity to draw in clicks (and are darn good at it, too) both sites draw in hundreds of millions of views every month.

BuzzFeed, on average, commands 5 billion content views per month. Upworthy, on the other hand, just crossed the 200 million-view mark on Facebook early this year.  

Clickbait headlines are also notorious for something alternative news publications try to steer away from-- delivering misleading information.

While not entirely fake, a deceptive headline can impact the reputation of a publication and discourage the reader from following their articles. It may initially grab people’s attention from the funny or smart headline at the top, but what they promise and what they deliver are two completely different messages.

"If you look at news websites, increasingly stories are being headlined 'You will not believe what you're going to read'. It's all very well to do that occasionally when you've got something to interest the reader, but if you overplay your hand, people will find out what you're offering will not match your headline," said Ken Smith, chairman of the Welsh executive council of the National Union of Journalists.

"This is a dangerous route to follow and sooner or later they're going to wake up to what you're offering them with these teasing headlines is not matched by the writing."

Clickbait stories are somewhat guilty of diminishing the value of news-- the audience’s choice of news stories say it all. Why would they rather read a life update on the pregnancy of Kim K, rather than the status of the US refugee ban by Trump?

Some of the most common examples of clickbait taking form is how they appeal to a specific audience and plays on the fears, stereotypes, realities, and challenges they face. A well-known favourite would be the Cliffhanger pattern. It teases just enough that you can’t help but click to find out more.

·         Things Nobody Tells You When You Buy Property For The First Time

·         Things Nobody Tells You About Using Cryptocurrency For Your Business

·         Ten  Things You Don’t Know About Donald Trump

Cliffhangers + Listicles? Now we’re definitely talking clickbait.

With this conundrum, one thing stands certain: While you do get a lot of curiosity clicks, it’s not the only thing that you want for your website. What is the point of thousands of curiosity clicks if all of them have very low time-on-site and high bounce rates?

Thankfully, this seems to be just a short term trend-- the wave is already ending with Facebook taking official action to weed out clickbaits from its news feed. It’s new algorithms now prioritise what users would like to see (rather than what is trending, went viral, or has been shared recently) via a survery asking them what kind of posts they prefer to see.

You can come up with the most technically refined way of delivering material, yet fail to get a good traffic response at the end of the day if you don’t deliver what you promise. Good journalism should delivers quality content in whatever medium that is available.

Ultimately, content wins. Capturing audience attention is merely winning half the battle, keeping them engaged and harnessing a loyal following is winning the war.

A good headline doesn’t just get clicks. It gets the right clicks.

REFERENCE:

FRAMPTON, B.

Is clickbait changing journalism?

In-text: (Frampton, 2015)

Your Bibliography: Frampton, B. (2015). Is clickbait changing journalism?. [online] BBC News. Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-34213693 [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

SMITH, B.

Why Clickbait Works (And Why You Should Do More of It)

In-text: (Smith, 2017)

Your Bibliography: Smith, B. (2017). Why Clickbait Works (And Why You Should Do More of It). [online] Kissmetrics blog. Available at: https://blog.kissmetrics.com/why-clickbait-works/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

SEDRATI, R.

To Clickbait or Not to Clickbait: What You Need to Know About Headlines and Clickbaits | Marketing Insider Group

In-text: (Sedrati, 2016)

Your Bibliography: Sedrati, R. (2016). To Clickbait or Not to Clickbait: What You Need to Know About Headlines and Clickbaits | Marketing Insider Group. [online] Marketing Insider Group. Available at: https://marketinginsidergroup.com/content-marketing/what-you-need-to-know-headlines-clickbaits/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].

MERCER, C.

Click Bait Headlines -- The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

In-text: (Mercer, 2016)

Your Bibliography: Mercer, C. (2016). Click Bait Headlines -- The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. [online] Seriously Simple Marketing. Available at: https://seriouslysimplemarketing.com/click-bait-headlines-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly/ [Accessed 23 Nov. 2017].