"...The more conscious people become that by passing something along they're not so much participants in a beautiful collective celebration of our shared humanity, but are instead part of an intentionally constructed attempt at content viralization, the less they'll want to be a part of it. Because after all, one of the hallmarks of not just Millennials but the couple of older generations going back at least as far as Generation X is media savvy, or at least the desire for media savvy. We all want to think we're immune to advertising's manipulations and we don't get suckered by even the cleverest marketing campaigns. When you go to Buzzfeed, at least you can say, "This site does real journalism, and they also make a lot of funny lists, and there's no harm in spending a few minutes looking at celebrities' yearbook photos." But on some of these other sites, it's hard not to become aware very quickly that they're trying to enlist you in a campaign. Even if it isn't to sell some new product, at the very least it's a campaign to get other people to come to that page and generate page views and ad revenue. You're no longer a thinking reader, you're an unpaid member of their advertising sales staff."
Read more: http://prospect.org/article/insert-headline-guaranteed-to-draw-massive-clicks-here http://prospect.org/article/insert-headline-guaranteed-to-draw-massive-clicks-here Also see: http://www.upworthygenerator.com/ http://www.upworthygenerator.com/
