Clickbait for the Masses

Oh yes, it’s clickbait for the masses. Have you heard of it? If not, let’s dive into Wikipedia for the definition of regular clickbait:

Clickbait is a derogatory term describing web content whose main goal is to generate revenue from online advertising, often at the expense of quality or accuracy. It uses sensational headlines or eye-catching images to increase clicks and encourage sharing, especially on social media. Since the goal isn’t to convey information in the best way, but to get as many users as possible to visit the page, clickbait headlines often omit the real point or even lie.

What Is Clickbait in Simple Terms?

Basically, it’s the use of certain headlines or phrases—usually very provocative and misleading. It’s about using obviously false information that can be shocking, sensational, or hyped—whatever it takes to attract the mass audience.

For example, you see an ad promising to teach you how to make weapons by hand or erase fingerprints properly. Or maybe “hack VK”—another popular one. You get curious, visit the channel, and there’s no such content, not even a hint of it. That’s how you fall for clickbait.

The post grabs your attention, you click, subscribe, look for the promised article, don’t find it, and move on to read something else. In 80% of cases, you stay subscribed to the channel that lured you in, just muting it. This is how most “news” channels grow now—publishing questionable news and rumors, trying to capitalize on them. And it seems to work. In my opinion, this indirectly points to the declining quality of the messenger’s audience.

Disgusting Clickbait About “Classmate Gang Rape” on Telegram

I don’t know why, but right now, “rape stories” with “read more…” or “full story pinned” are everywhere. This is the most disgusting clickbait I’ve ever seen. It’s literally everywhere. Do these channel admins really think everyone is interested in reading about someone being raped? Plus, everyone already knows there’s never any video in the pinned post. How much longer will this go on?

Admin, did you get beaten up yourself or what?

Or there’s clickbait about celebrities. Sometimes it’s funny, but mostly it’s not.

Is that a fish pie or what, Nastya?

“Read More”

This is a classic trick that migrated here from VKontakte. Many VK community admins realized (a bit late) that VK is a dying dump with cheap ads, so they moved to Telegram, bringing hundreds of thousands of users who react to these posts.

This is an example of good clickbait.

Black Business: The Clickbait We Deserve in the Darknet

There’s a well-known board called “Black Business,” famous among admins for its truly insane posts. The admin claims it’s all experiments, and I get it: the same old posts and standard texts no longer attract subscribers, and the board’s topic is tough to grow since subscribers are expensive and building a reputation is hard. I suspect that’s why the admin creates such masterpieces, and I invite you to check them out.

What do the darknet and naked women have to do with this?

“Life Partner” is a channel with job listings and products—a kind of shadow market. It’s the largest in its niche. BUT seriously…

What’s with the dominatrix and all these questions?

This one is the cherry on top: “Who’s going to beat you up this weekend?”—I laughed so hard I cried.

Thanks, I had a good laugh.

I have to give credit to the admin’s creativity—it takes effort to come up with and write all this. There are some sensible posts among them, but overall, it’s wild. Personally, I take it with humor and no negativity, but the images attached to these posts are, frankly, inappropriate and totally nuts. And yes, it’s clickbait—the kind we deserve.

Clickbait for the Masses

Why do I call it that? Don’t get me wrong—I’m not trying to insult anyone. The point is, the presence of these posts everywhere (and it’s growing daily) shows they’re probably effective. But who do they attract? It’s just playing on instincts—we’re all Pavlov’s dogs. If you’re not just a bundle of reflexes and instincts, with no self-awareness, this kind of ad will only make you laugh, not genuinely interest you. Still, the chance you’ll click is higher—that’s the whole point of clickbait.

So, this kind of advertising doesn’t attract intellectual readers or people looking to grow—the kind of audience we’re used to here. It attracts the simplest users, porn addicts, school kids, and other consumers of content not typical for this messenger. That’s who I call “the masses.” Nothing personal.

Conclusion

I’m not saying clickbait is bad. It’s just a marketing tool that can be extremely effective. I use clickbait myself, but honest clickbait: on my channel, you really can find the content I advertise. I think you all know that.

However, the presence and growing number of these posts is a bit worrying: the messenger is being flooded with school kids, trolls, and who knows who else. Logically, if there are more of these posts, it means they work and convert. The stereotype of the most “well-read” audience is slowly falling apart.

On the other hand, this trend can be explained by the fact that Telegram really does have a smart audience, one that’s tired of decent, ordinary posts that everyone’s sick of. Everyone wants something unusual. Admins have no choice but to churn out cheap clickbait in the race for cheap subscribers. All I can do is wish them luck.

Pavluu