I wrote some time ago on my social media page that social media has cheapened what it takes to be a celebrity. All you need to do is to find a way to say or consistently do something crazy and then go viral online and boom you become a celebrity. This understanding that the Internet holds the key to celebrity status and whatever benefit that could be derived from it, is at the heart of podcasts and the use of clickbaits to court traffic online.

If I take a poll of say twenty persons between the ages of 18-28 years and ask them to pick their aspirations, I guess that a larger percentage would say that they want to be content creators or influencers. Just a Ringlight, a good smartphone, an understanding of clickbait, and you are on your way to creating whatever content you want with the hope that it will catch enough of our attention and if you are lucky enough, you go viral online and voila! you become a celebrity.

Those who are richer and assume themselves smarter set up a podcast where they aim to speak to issues that are strong and emotional enough with the right clickbaits to capture our attention and make them go viral online

The whole aim of content creation is to attract our attention, and then sell the attention for profit.

Attention being a commodity is not a new invention. The Newspapers were the pioneers of commercialising attention. The Penny Express Newspaper first published in 1830 is credited with being the first newspaper that sought people’s attention for profit using what we now know as clickbaits.  The Penny’s Express was cheap and had gossip and sports news with a lot of sensationalism that attracted readers. The publishers understood that the business of Newspapers was attention and not necessarily the news. If a newspaper could attract large attention it can resell that attention to big businesses as advertising

With the arrival of the TV stations and Radio stations, the business of attention went to the roof and the use of clickbaits rose in a desperate bid to capture our attention.

When you watch Big Brother, the promoters exchange your attention for pay. The last Big Brother Naija All Stars caught the attention of 23 million viewers with about one billion impressions on Twitter. This huge attention is being resold to advertisers who want their business seen by this large audience. It cost over N1b to be a headline sponsor on Big Brother Nigeria. House members in the Big Brother house also know that they can go viral online if they say enough crazy stuff that acts as clickbaits to attract attention to them.

Similarly, the biggest source of income for sports teams is TV rights. TV Rights are shares of the money paid by advertisers to place their advert on sports games due to its huge followership redistributed to teams in that competition, often based on the number of viewers each team generates. According to FIFA 1.5 billion people watched the 2022 World Cup globally. The EPL asserts that 900m homes globally watch the 2023/2024 Premier League and in return, advertisers rushed into the EPL to purchase this attention making it the most lucrative league in the world.

Attention is big business those who understand this keep making it. Yesterday I read a projection by Pricewatercoopers( PWC) that the Nigerian Advertising Industry would hit N893 billion by 2028.

Clickbaits are unethical means used to sensationalise and exaggerate information in a bid to force someone to give up their attention. In this age of attention overload, getting attention has become more difficult. You must be crazier and use crazy clickbaits to attract attention to go viral online

The Internet has democratised and commodified attention. The traditional print Newspapers, Radio and TV stations were expensive to set up, hence, creating an entry barrier for those who wanted to get into the attention business. The Internet eliminated that barrier. By scrolling through your phone, your attention is being harvested without your knowledge.

The internet was designed to connect people and to be a repository of information. As the Internet-connected more people, gossiping became a thing. It is human nature to gossip. No one has ever taken gossip to be commercially viable. In the early days of the Internet. We made friends from different countries on Yahoo Messenger and gossiped away. Not until Mark Zuckerberg popularised social media with Facebook in 2004 did we know that gossip pays.

Social media works on the concept of people creating free content( I refer to them as gossip) the content attracts the attention of those who love such content and the attention span builds up traffic on that platform. The social media platforms resell this attention to the advertisers. In 2023, Facebook generated $131.94b as advertising revenue while Google( including Youtube ) made $237.86b as advertising revenue in 2023.

Pioneered by Google, content creators( bloggers, YouTubers, podcast hosts) now earn a share of the advertising revenue generated by this organisation based on the number of views.

The desperation to capture your attention in views in exchange for a part of the advertising revenue from Google, Facebook or other Ad networks is the sole reason why people say crazy things on podcasts, create fake content and do the unimaginable to attract traffic.

I should also add that the urge to be seen as an influencer is also a reason. To be an influencer you need to grow your page to have more followers and impressions to attract the attention of brands who would pay you to have a share of their followers

It is tougher now to court attention, hence many utilise many unethical clickbaits to generate traffic and go viral online. When Saidobaj goes on a podcast to make the sex-for-money claim, see it for what it is. A scripted clickbait aimed at gaining and profiting from your attention. When you see those prank videos or crazy Instagram or Facebook pages that do or say crazy nasty things, it is all a deliberate plan to hack your attention and resell for attention.

Gossip pays in Nigeria and those who understand this are out with different strategies and clickbait to get you talking- generating impressions for their posts, especially in our societies were values are non existent.

1. 1. Be cautious of sensational and exaggerated headlines.

2. Focus on relevant and informative content that adds value.

3. Follow ethical and credible sources.

4. Verify information through trusted channels.

5. Prioritise your well-being and mental peace by avoiding unnecessary engagement.