cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/20788922
show transcript
agnesmontague posts:
devastating news for the discourse poster: “media literacy” in the modern age includes the ability to identify which posts are baitagnesmontague replies:
before you go on lamenting the death of media literacy on the post of some guy who may, perhaps, have a financial incentive to get as many eyes on their slop as humanly possible, take a second to assess whether this "literacy" you speak of could apply to you in this very moment, because otherwise, brother, i bear some bad newsagnesmontague replies:
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#anybody got pointers for those who don't know the signs of bait? (end quote)
i'm glad someone asked, though unfortunately i don't think there is any set of rules or pointers to abide by; my principle is that if a take is "too hot" (worded in an inflammatory way, way overbroad or generalized, reads offensively) on a platform that rewards engagement (twitter, tiktok, or youtube, mostly, though not confined to those), it's likely bait for the sake of baiting, although to be honest i have never once found it a loss to simply ignore/block any take online that pisses me off regardless of whether i think it is sincere or in good faith. so my rule of thumb is to just not engage, generally
"Don't feed the troll" is literally one of the most basic internet concepts and yet 99% of people fall for it. Everyone is high fiving about how good Mastodon is, but when I visited their explore tab I was greeted with people taking screenshots of every Elon Musk post and crying over it. They cannot stop falling for bait.
Also people with 1m followers who quote retweet obvious bait from a 500 follower account
And every person in a comment section saying "don't feed the troll" are probably far worse at spotting trolls than they would like to think.