"Clickbait"

I consider myself fairly well trained in media literacy, as in 99% of the time ads don't ever even register while reading a printed publication, driving around town, or surfing the web. In fact, the harder something tries to catch my attention, the higher the chance it'll be perversely ignored.

But one of the more insidious tactics employed by notorious on-line content aggregators in particular, is the annoying phrasing of lead-ins that attempt to lure someone into visiting their website. As a matter of habit I refuse to play that game, but still occasionally the eyeballs wander across the blurb bait, which in itself is a waste of time (even if it is only a few seconds of attention span). Probably not all that different than some folks feel after reading another one of my cartoons, come to think of it.