Was Hailey’s look really worth the consequences?

I consider myself somewhere between a millennial and gen z-er when it comes to social media. Sure, I go on Instagram and post on Snapchat. But I have no desire to use TikTok, browse the Instagram Explore page (is it even still called that?), and I have notifications turned off for almost everything. 

But one thing that always seems to get me is the Snapchat “Discover” section of Stories. Basically the Us Weekly of social media, Snapchat Discover is the ultimate place for just the most junk-filled, reality tv-esque, garbage type of media. 

The section is essentially small rectangles you can click on that consist of an image and a headline, almost always discussing celebrity news. Each rectangle is from a different media company, usually one I already know, such as Daily Mail or Harper’s Bazaar. But some also seem to be from companies whose entire content production are these mini rectangles for Snapchat, which is a whole other topic of discussion.

If you click on one of these rectangles, it’ll open up to a full-screen page that’s either a full-length article or video explanation from someone. (“Someone” being an employee of the company the rectangle is from.)

Let me give you some examples. At this very moment I have the Discover section open, and here are just some of the headlines: “Blac: It’s no big deal Tristan cheated;” “Was Hailey’s look really worth the consequences;” “If it wasn’t for this text, he’d still be alive;” “Tyga’s DM’s leaked;” “Zendaya refused an on-screen kiss;” and so on.

I mean, if you can’t already tell from the headlines alone, the “news” being shared in this space is pretty much junk. I’m totally embarrassed to admit I get sucked into these, but can you blame me? 

I recently read Andrew Marantz’s Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation, in which Marantz talks briefly about what often goes on when media organizations decide on headlines. Spoiler alert: it’s almost never the writer choosing one.

Instead it’s something called A/B testing: an article is published, and one person’s Facebook feed will include it as a post under one headline while another person’s Facebook feed will have it under a different headline. An algorithm then measures which headline is attracting the most clicks the fastest, and then replaces all other headline tests with the most successful one. 

If you’ve heard the phrase “attention economy,” I think this is a good example of it: companies viewing a user’s attention as something to capture, keep track of, and make money off of. But Marantz writes, “curiosity is not the only way to get clicks of course. Humor also works, as do lust, and nostalgia, and envy, and outrage.” So maybe “emotion economy” is a better way to put it? 

I’m fully aware that a big reason I get sucked into Snapchat Discover content is the headlines playing with my emotions. Most of the time it’s curiosity, wonder, and maybe even fear over not knowing the information. And yet everytime I click I’m almost always disappointed at how uneventful and stupid the “news” is. 

So why do I keep clicking? Well, recently I have noticed myself clicking less and becoming desensitized to Snapchat Discover. Mostly because I can almost predict what the “news” might be that’s lurking behind those headlines, because it never has any substance.

It’s like a super annoying, somewhat painful itch. You know it’s there, and it would be easy to scratch it. But even if you don’t, you know it’ll go away eventually. It’s super easy to spend time reading meaning-less Snapchat Discover posts, but whenever I’m about to catch myself wanting to click one, I think twice if I really need to know what it’s about. Most of the time, the answer is no.

The Stute Editorial is an Opinion column written by the current Editor in Chief of The Stute to address and explain editorial decision making, discuss news and media issues, and develop a sense of trust and transparency between readers and members of The Stute.