Headlines are sometimes more important than what lies beneath them. In this era of short attention spans, everything and the kitchen sink fighting for 3 seconds of our time (this could make a great headline too, I bet), the short, sweet, and shocking bit of media is there to keep us informed of the happenings of the world.
However, sometimes the information provided fails to compute with any sense of logic and sensibility, making us question whether anything is even real anymore. It does also make for a hilarious list as well (wink wink). The Twitter page “Insane Internet Headlines” is to thank for it! They seem to have been sharing quality content since August 2022, and we’re proud to showcase our favorites for you.
“Clear, specific, and interesting” are some of the criteria for a quality headline, but did you notice something missing? How about the word truthful? Although clickbait has been severely criticized in recent years, there’s still heaps and bounds of it around. Why? Because it works! It may not seem all too ethical, but what is true in the broader sense of the word anyways…
According to Simon W. Blackburn, Encyclopædia Britannica, truth, in metaphysics and the philosophy of language, is the property of sentences, assertions, beliefs, thoughts, or propositions that are said, in ordinary discourse, to agree with the facts or to state what is the case. Lots of words make my brain malfunction, so let’s try to simplify that into human language.
Truth is the aim of belief; falsity is a fault. The classic suggestion comes from Aristotle (384–322 BCE): “To say of what is that it is, or of what is not that it is not, is true.” In other words, the world provides “what is” or “what is not,” and the truth corresponds to the facts that are so provided. In modern terms, that would refer to common sense, but as we all know, that right there is very much not common.
Many philosophers doubt whether an acceptable explanation of facts and correspondence can be given. Facts, as they point out, are strange entities, as they are very much dependent on what people see to be true. Thus, what tells people what to believe is not the world or facts but how they interpret the world or select and conceptualize the facts. That of course can be changed as any belief can be, making truth one flowy and unstable entity in its own right.
The problem of truth is in a way easy to state: what truths are, and what (if anything) makes them true. So maybe what needs to be established is the opposite side of the spectrum and what we consider to be untrue. But even that has no clear-cut answer, as there is no universally accepted definition of lying to others, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
To lie—to make a believed-false statement to another person with the intention that the other person believes that statement to be true. There are at least four necessary conditions for lying, in this case. A statement has to be made; this statement has to be believed to be false by the person making it; a person to give the statement to; and, most importantly, the intention to make the receiver believe that the statement is true.
So where do we end up when it comes to headlines, as they seem to delve into both truth and falsehood. Whether or not the creator of the headline was aiming to lie can only be figured out by reading through the provided material, which directly fulfills the headline’s purpose—to grab your attention and make you click. However, a lot of us simply don’t do that.
Researchers have found that 60% of posted links, including many that received comments and re-postings, had never, not once, been clicked on and opened. According to Roy Benaroch, people are sharing headlines and posting comments about them, but most of the time, they haven’t read the actual stories. That doesn’t bode well for our critical thinking skills or our ability to tell the truth from lies.
Critical thinking requires effort, sometimes more than we’re willing to give. We all live busy lives and, with the information overload, we can’t be expected to analyze and peer review everything we see. However, being aware of this, as well as the sensationalism that makes the world go round, will make us all the more better off when it comes to avoiding misinformation.
As you continue scrolling through this list, dear reader, I would like to encourage you to upvote your favorites, leave some comments, and tell us the most ridiculous headline you’ve ever seen or can come up with. Toodaloo ’til the next one!
