I compared old school news outrage to modern clickbait and it's not even close

Back in the 90s when I was a teenager, my local paper in Cleveland ran a story about a neighbor who painted his house purple. People wrote letters to the editor complaining for maybe two weeks. That was it. Nobody made a video about it or started a hashtag or called for the guy to lose his job. Fast forward to last month when I saw a story about a restaurant changing their recipe for ranch dressing. Within 24 hours there were think pieces, TikTok rants, and people claiming it was a personal attack. I had to double check if I was on the same planet. The difference seems to be that back then people just grumbled and moved on. Now every little thing gets turned into a crusade because it gets clicks. Has anyone else noticed how much shorter the fuse has gotten over the last 20 years?

3 comments

3 Comments

logan_wood15d ago

Julia hit it right on the head with "actively looking for stuff to be mad about." @julia_carter61 I swear people sit around waiting for something to pop off so they can join the circus. The ranch dressing thing is wild to me because nobody even cares that much about ranch, they just want to be part of the next big online fight. Back in the day you had to actually care enough to write a letter and mail it, now you can type three angry sentences while you're on the toilet and suddenly you're leading a movement. It's exhausting and honestly kind of sad that we lost the art of just shrugging and moving on.

julia_carter6115d ago

Oh my gosh YES, this is so REAL and it's honestly driving me crazy. I remember when something mildly annoying happened and people would just complain to their spouse over dinner and that was it. Now I swear people are ACTIVELY looking for stuff to be mad about because it gets them attention online. The ranch dressing example is PERFECT because it shows how we've lost all sense of what actually matters. It's like everyone forgot that you can just be slightly annoyed and move on with your day without making a whole production out of it.

sammartinez15d ago

Three deep breaths before hitting post has saved me more times than I can count...