So much of what shows up on social media, Threads in particular, it seems, is what might be referred to as “engagement bait”. It’s often inane or perhaps an inflammatory comment, it could be a boring or open-ended question, a reboots of stuff from other places that might be years old, some cliched statement with no qualification, for instance. It all seems like a rather pathetic and lame attempt to boost one’s reach and gain attention, to get interactions for the sake of interaction. I won’t embarass anyone by sharing examples, they’re endless anyway and it would take weeks.
The phrase “engagement bait” is itself a bit lame though. There must be a better phrase. “Interaction bait” is one alternative, but just as inept. We need something closerto “clickbait”. Perhaps “likeBait” or thinking of Donkey in Shrek, “PickMeBait”…or to abbreviate that “PickBait”. That’s it, PickBait!
Pah! Are we there yet?