The internet is one amazing avenue.
It has everything on it! In my opinion, it is the most valuable product of
technology, as of now. It allows you to catch up with your favorite TV series,
kiss the cookbook goodbye (since you can just search the recipe of your
favorite dishes via web browser), effortlessly gain access to the latest games,
watch a movie for free, get the meaning of the most unpopular word there is, and
do so much more.
But, the internet has a
purpose which, most often than not, has been abused by many individuals.
Let’s say you’re a lonely
mistake who has no friends to talk to. Let’s say you’re somebody who’s
deliberately trying to annoy and irritate people, causing them to expose their
inner keyboard warrior. Or maybe you’re just really bored. Well say no more,
because with just a few clicks of a button, you’ll get so much undeserved
attention from mindless wights (a person of a specified kind, especially one
that is regarded as unfortunate)!
Let me give you my "top" picks of the
so-called ‘tumors of the internet.’
Exploiting
Religion for Attention
This is the form of
attention seeking that I personally despise the most, especially because I am a
Catholic. This is found mainly on Facebook. Just plop down a picture of Jesus
on the Cross or a picture of the Qur’an, then insert text that says “TYPE
AMEN!!” or “TYPE PRAISE IF YOU BELIEVE IN (religion stated in
picture).” After an hour or two, people will be flocking to your post. Tricked
to believe that you love your religion, and is willing to express it to
thousands, no, millions of people. They will obey you, and type amen, and give
you likes. Whenever I see a post like this in the internet, my skin immediately
crawls. I would be willing to bad mouth anyone who posts/uploads things like
this, even if it leads to a salty flame war, although I would want to avoid
such and focus on my studies.
https://i.imgflip.com/10kwz1.jpg
Clickbait
In case you still don’t
know, clickbait, according to urbandictionary.com, is a link that entices you
to click on it. This is probably seen all around the net, but I see the more
obnoxious forms of clickbait in YouTube. Just put a rather enticing, eye
catching thumbnail, or maybe a fake, misleading title, and all the views are yours for the taking. The even sadder
thing about clickbait is that sometimes, clicking on misleading videos
generates undeserved credit in the form of money for its creators. Yes,
creators actually have the power to monetize their creations, like videos, even
if it is very misleading. This is also found not only in the internet, but,
sadly, also in more professional programs like TV, magazines, newspapers and
more. A good example is this: The news announces that the guy in your favorite
love team is about to confess something about the girl. You are then forced to
wait until the end of the program (since they usually reserve this for last)
just to know that all he was going to “confess” was that the girl is flying out
of town for a week. And no, hindi pa rin “sila.”
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/pHNbitDDW3A/maxresdefault.jpg
Simply
Lies
This common form of bait is
found very often almost everywhere, be it in Facebook, YouTube comments,
Instagram, 9GAG, you name it. You would just be browsing by the web, and then
suddenly something similar to “LIKE THIS for 5 years good luck!” or “LIKE
= Your crush loves you, SUBSCRIBE = marry your crush, IGNORE = your crush hates
you.” This is very easy to avoid, because it is obvious that you won’t actually
gain anything from liking it or subscribing or whatever. However, if you’re
that “new boy” or maybe an overly kind person, then you’d give in to the
temptation of obeying and doing as they say. Another common lie is “It’s my
bday today omg yay pls give like so I celebrate ty yes”. But the most common type
of lie that has the most impact on society itself is “You just won an iPhone 7!
Just type in all the numbers in your dad’s credit card to claim your prize,
sonny!” Seriously, stop this., or get caught eventually and face the consequences.
There are loads of other
forms of bait out there in the internet. I dare not go through all of them or
else the iPhone 10 would have been released by the time I’m done. Let’s hope
this time it has a headphone jack, alright? But, anyway, these are my picks on
the worst forms of bait in the internet. I hope I didn’t sound like I was too
entitled to type this since after all, I’m still very young. Try your best to
avoid these so called tumors of the internet, unless you want to die young.
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