Have Clickbait Headlines Ruined The World?
Don’t hate me for it. I already hate myself enough.
My interview with Helen Andrews about her mega-viral article The Great Feminization has gone a bit viral itself on YouTube. As I write this, it has garnered 97,753 views, making it my most-watched video to date. (Just before posting, it was up to 101k views.)
The second most-watched is my 2022 interview with Jonathan Haidt. That’s pretty impressive considering it’s an audio-only episode and the viewing experience consists of watching a squiggling waveform against a purple background.
This recent success might have something to do with the subject matter. The YouTube algorithm loves it some bitches-be-ruining-things content. Men between the ages of 25 and 34 make up the bulk of YouTube’s audience, so it only follows that bro-bait performs better than, say, tutorials about which Eileen Fisher tunic goes best with your Enneagram type.
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