Dear Jessica Brennan,
Occasionally I will be approached and asked if I want to write content for various websites and social media outlets. At first, I thought that this might be cool. I would have a platform to be heard. Everyone likes to be heard.
Ultimately though, what these companies really want is, well…tricky garbage, essentially.
I can’t do it.
I really can’t write for someone who thinks that a full-on crisis is having underwear that bunch, nails that peel or celebrities that look worse now than they did 50 years ago.
I also don’t have a huge interest in writing for a group who needs endless lists. Five ways to know your cat has fur, twelve signs you are actually an alien and 3 steps to washing your socks, don’t really seem that inspiring to me. Although I do like a clean pair of socks.
This junk food for the brain is dumbing us down in droves, and this drivel, called bait, is hugely effective in motivating us to do things we don’t want or need to do. The way it is most effective though, is in wasting our precious lives and valuable brain cells.
Bait, by the very nature of the word sounds like we’re being tricked, and for good reason.
How many times have you sat down to check one thing online, and stood up two hours later, being none the wiser about what you initially wanted to explore?
So, what can you do? Try not clicking.
You know already, that what the headline says, won’t be the real story. Your cat does have fur, probably. You’re not an alien officially, and that celebrity still looks great after 50 years. I would say that if you must click, at least guess how they will dupe you first, so you can prove to yourself that you don’t need to click next time.
That seems reasonable, right? Be aware of what you’re doing, even when it is something you likely shouldn’t waste your time on?
But then, what do I know?
I mean the 5th sign indicating that you’re an alien is, you don’t understand the ways of earthlings.
Phone home.
Love,
Mum xo
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