My senior year of college, I starting noticing these funny articles on Facebook, things such as "If "Parks and Rec" Were An Old-School Nintendo Game" or "19 Signs You Might Be Comet From "Full House"" and obviously, since I was probably writing a creative brief Duck Brand duct tape, I kept clicking on these links.
Then one day I did the unthinkable, and honestly, the end of the world as I knew it... I went to the source itself. I went on buzzfeed.com.
I must have gone from article to article to article. I couldn't believe the amount of unnecessary articles that I felt compelled to read. I really probably could have lived without knowing the nine celebrity tweets I missed that day. But for some reason, I need to know, and it is usually very funny and makes me happy.
Buzzfeed also shows real news. They had minute by minute coverage of the Marathon Bombings, and they keep updates on the Government Shutdown. But for a website with so many useless articles, why do we feel compelled to read them? Even if I am not on Buzzfeed's website, I find these articles on Facebook or my Twitter, sometimes even my Instagram. I even just googled "why we are compelled to read buzzfeed" and my results included "32 Reasons Robert Downey Jr. Is The Most Perfect Man In The Universe." Obviously, this is true, and yes when that popped up I read it. Buzzfeed uses their headlines to grab the attention of various consumers. When people click on their links it adds to their website referrals, especially when after reading these articles we are compelled to share them with the friend we feel most relates to these articles. They amount of referrals Buzzfeed receives a day is probably astronomical, and honestly the more popular Buzzfeed, the more useless articles we get to enjoy.
Buzzfeed, while also having writers on staff, allow their fans to submit these articles. That is right, you too can submit to this tremendous time waster! I haven't tried it, but it seems rewarding. You should try it. Tell me how it is.
So my fellow Buzzfeed addicts, read on friends, read on.
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