Every day I wake up in the morning, get on the internet and feel increasingly like Batman trapped in an elaborate puzzle room by the Riddler.
This is something I’ve noticed for a while now, but haven’t been able to really describe. This shift away from clickbait headlines towards cryptic headlines that just refuse to tell you what they’re talking about. Like The Best Part of Alan Wake Is Now On Youtube or The Best Soulslike Of 2023 Just Got Easier. And those are just a few that I’ve seen today. Maybe it will fade away like the worst clickbait headlines did or they’ll just keep getting so cryptic and opaque that one day the headlines will be: Something Just Happened.
I mean, they are literally clickbait. They want you to wonder what the best part of Alan Wake is or what the best soullike of 2023 is. It’s just an evolution of clickbait, but it’s still very much clickbait.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that’s less likely to click on articles like that! If they’re not going to give me an idea of what I’m clicking on, I generally don’t read it. It’s usually possible to find a few websites that have informative headlines.
You are not the only one but there are enough who actually click those titels so it is worthwhile for them to write in this manner and they don’t care about the few of us.