I don't use Facebook as much as I once did, but I do enjoy the pictures and updates my cousins, friends from work and travel friends post.
“I want to warn my friends about Click Bait. Facebook overflows with this stuff, and I wonder if many don’t realize the risks they are taking when they bite. These are memes designed to trigger an impulse to respond, often by making a ridiculously easy question sound really hard. Recent examples that I’ve seen friends fall for include:
• a picture of cornbread asking what you’d like to pair it with; a similar one about peanut butter
• a picture of an egg salad sandwich asking if anyone still eats them
• a sweet inquiry asking for the name of your first horse; a similar one asking what beloved dog you’d like to memorialize
• a question about whether any adult still eats peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
• arithmetic problems where people get tripped up by not following the order of operations, typically in the form of “if two apples equals 20, and three peaches equals15, and four bananas equals 8, then how much is one apple plus four peaches times two bunches of bananas.”
• all sorts of super-easy questions, many with a tag line that only a genius can answer them
• a challenge to name a US state with an O in the name, or a word with two m’s in it—just saw one that claimed there are only two English words that have double e’s, “meet” and “tree”— and then said “prove me wrong."
• a challenge to name a fish that does not have the letter A in it, and the tag line “bet you can’t."
• a photo of an old but common item, like a simple can opener, asking who knows what this was used for
• a challenge to tell someone to leave without using the word “goodbye.”
• a poll, asking if you ever shopped at Woolworth’s.
• six photos of lovely homes, asking which one you’d like to live in
• questions asking which one of a short list of items you’d be willing to live without forevermore (e.g., chocolate, wine, fresh fruit, or coffee)
• various inventories that tell you to give yourself 1 point for every item you can check off from a list
• a challenge to name one thing that will identify something else, e.g., one line from a movie that identifies the film, one thing from your state that identifies that state. . .
• a photo of a house on a grassy rock island—you’re told you have unlimited food, and asked to name one thing you’d bring with you if you had to live there for a year. This one has over 10,000 clicks.
• and finally (I wish!) my favorite: “What starts with a W and ends with a T?"
Most (all?) of these are actually about data-mining, and many of these schemes unfold over time. When you respond to click bait, you will be tracked, and start to receive more of these things…which leads to more tracking. Some of the worst then trick you into revealing information that can be used to figure out passwords, answers to security questions, or target you for other schemes.
If you see something that sounds like it would be fun to compare answers with your friends, consider making your own version and posting that. That keeps both you and your friends safer from those with bad intentions.”
