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Thursday, June 20, 2024

Clickbait and Beauty

"It is remarkable how easily and insensibly we fall into a particular route, and make a beaten track for ourselves." 

~ Henry David Thoreau, Walden

You see it everywhere now.  Clickbait.  Those jarring, ugly images and sensational titles supposedly intended to attract positive attention.  The words carry very little meaning.  The images generally depict the people in them in the least attractive of ways.  

There was a time when the only place you would observe anything resembling the sort of imagery one sees in clickbait was while in line at the grocery store.  The gaudy and crass appearance conveys deception and ignorance.  

As the long term host of an online radio show, I have never used clickbait.  It didn't exist when I started out.  It would not have been even the most remote of considerations.  It is essentially an insult, not a promotion.  

What ever happened to valuing Beauty?  Beautiful imagery.  Sincere and beautiful words.  That's the real "clickbait", not the tasteless imagery that practically shouts "this is a bait and a switch", but something genuinely worth paying attention to.  

Let's change the channel to Beauty.




Artwork for The Frontier Beyond Fear broadcast is based on a book cover designed by talented artist Richard Crookes.