Don't Believe Everything You're Linked

"The Internet is Outraged..." begins a headline posted on Facebook by some news organization looking for clicks, and it is usually followed by something some intern somewhere drug up and reposted. It doesn't even have to be outrageous, just mildly provocative, and then all the "news" has to do is sit back and watch the clicks and dollars come in.

That isn't news.

It isn't news.

This is called news organizations shirking their responsibility to provide information, and just sitting back, being lazy, and shitting out clickbait so they can inflate their web numbers and get a couple more bucks.

If that link was even created by a real person.

I seriously don't know what a news site is anymore, there are so many computer-generated pseudo-news sites out there that look real but are probably a product of some AI algorithm and no real person ever touches the content. They just forever skim the turds from most popular posts on Facebook and Twitter and present that as the news.

Breaking news? More like broken news.

And seriously, I couldn't give a damn what the Internet is outraged at today because the truth is it is outraged at everything everyday. And it will be outraged by something new tomorrow. Water is wet. Ice is cold. The Internet is outraged.

And some people bet on that 'outrage' so you will click on that next link, and depositing some virtual advertising coins into some account somewhere. Your eyes and those pop-up ads make you pay as you wait through twenty seconds of ads to end up feeling a little dumber for having clicked on that link.

"But," I hear myself saying, "I wanted to see what the outrage is all about."

Does it really matter? And seriously, why? So you can validate an opinion social media does not care about on an 'outrage' some computer selected as today's clickbait link? It reminds me of those science experiments they did in the 1950's where a rat in a maze would press a button and get fed an addictive substance, and the rat would mindlessly press it over and over again.

Why am I posting this?

Because I just fell for one.

Again.

That isn't news.

That wasn't a real news site.

A computer is creating all of this outrage for us.

Or, as they call it now, 'news.'

Get me out of this maze.