Views, Likes, Followers, Thumbs, Hits; the currency of the internet. How many people have seen, read, or simply stumbled upon your product and decided it was worth something to them. Like leaving a thank you note on your doorstep saying, “Hey, I felt this did not waste a few moments of my life. Thanks.” But what has it become?
Many of us have fallen for this trick; click on a video that is titled as something you are interested in and has a photo to boot. Click. What comes up is a video of “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. Not even sure if this was funny in the first place but this joke has been repeated over and over and over. How many hits are on these videos? Millions. This is not to mention the other half-a-ton of videos that are just slapped together jokes with good titles. Why?
If you have a domain, you get paid. If you are in the Youtube partnership, you get paid. Most people do not get paid for hits. Why do we crave for such worthless numbers. Is it to feel validated? Then why the pointless jokes. What if we removed the system? Left it open so people wouldn’t fight to grab as much attention as possible. Would things change?