Interaction bait is killing social media

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OK, I’m going to say it: interaction bait is killing social media. You know what I’m talking about. Those posts that are designed to get you to comment, like, or share. They’re everywhere, and they’re getting more and more annoying.

I never cared much about timelines. Almost all my social media interaction is posting things, and answering people who commented. Or direct messages. People I follow are creators, makers and people I worked with and respect for what they published over the years.

However, I see the same pattern in my timeline. People are posting things that are clearly designed to get a reaction. And it’s not just the posts themselves that are annoying. It’s the fact that they’re so obviously designed to manipulate me into interacting with them. I wouldn’t mind if it was a genuine question or a conversation starter. But it’s not. It’s just a ploy to boost engagement.

Here’s a quick list of what just clogged up my timeline:

  • “What’s your biggest tech hot take?”
  • “How many lines is too many?”
  • “Kanban or scrum?”
  • “Anyone still actually using GitHub Copilot?”
  • “As a developer what feels illegal but isn’t?”
  • “vim or emacs?”
  • “If Chuck Noris was a programmer what language would he use?”
  • “vim or nano?”
  • “How do you exit vim?”
  • “Do you actually write tests for your code?”
  • “How many columns is too many for a database table?”
  • “Do you take part in hackathons?”
  • “Are you a Linux fan?”
  • “Progress over perfection?”

These are not taken out of context – these are genuinely the full posts. Many by people who I interviewed in the past, saw as presenters at conferences, watched their tutorials and read their articles.

All of the above questions are – well, let’s not mince words – horseshit. There is no genuine interest in the answers. It’s just a ploy to get people to interact. And it’s working. People are falling for it left and right.

How many more times do we have to repeat the “joke” that people find it hard to exit VIM? How many more times do we have to have the amazing “vim or emacs” debate? How many more times do we have to pretend “spaces or tabs” does still matter? How often have you seen a post today that showed windows XP and asked you “you are old, but are you that old?”. To me, XP was a revelation after suffering 3.11, 95, 98 and NT, so, yes, and fuck you for mistaking ageism for humour.

I get it. Social media is all about engagement. But there’s a fine line between encouraging interaction and being downright manipulative. And I think a lot of people who know better have crossed that line to feed Elon Musk’s addiction machine.

To show just how piss-easy it is to flood your own timeline with this, I opened the Microsoft Edge Copilot panel and asked:

Generate a list of one line questions about technology that will get a lot of attention and interaction on social media.

Here’s what it gave me:

  • “What’s one technology you’re really excited about for the future?”
  • “If you could have one futuristic gadget right now, what would it be?”
  • “What’s your biggest hope for the next decade?” 1
  • “What’s the most underrated tech gadget you own?”
  • “If you could invent a new app, what problem would it solve?”
  • “What’s the weirdest tech glitch you’ve ever encountered?”
  • “iOS or Android? Why?”
  • “What’s the best tech tip you’ve learned recently?”
  • “Is privacy dead in the age of smart devices?”
  • “Should AI have legal rights?”
  • “Are self-driving cars safer than human drivers?”
  • “Is social media making us more connected or more isolated?”
  • “Should we regulate tech companies more aggressively?”
  • “Is cryptocurrency the future of finance?”
  • “Should we be worried about the impact of 5G on our health?”
  • “What’s your take on the ‘right to repair’ movement?”
  • “Are smart homes making us lazier?”
  • “Will quantum computing revolutionize our world?”
  • “Is social media addiction a real problem?”
  • “Should AI be used in decision-making processes?”
  • “What’s the most overhyped tech trend?”
  • “Do you trust facial recognition technology?”
  • “Is virtual reality the next big thing?”
  • “Should robots have emotions?”
  • “What’s the dark side of automation?”
  • “Is open-source software always better?”
  • “Will AI replace human jobs?”
  • “What’s the future of cybersecurity?”
  • “Is there such a thing as too much screen time?”
  • “Should we fear the rise of deepfake technology?”
  • “What’s the most useless tech gadget you’ve encountered?”
  • “Is privacy an illusion in the digital age?”
  • “What’s the next big breakthrough in tech?”

Looks familiar? Go and use them, add a script and post away. Hooray engagement, hooray social media!

So what can we do about it? Well, for starters, we can stop engaging with interaction bait. If you see a post that’s clearly just trying to get you to comment, like, or share, don’t give in to the temptation. Instead, call it out for what it is: a cheap ploy for engagement.

And if you’re the person, maybe it’s time to rethink your social media strategy. Instead of relying on interaction bait to boost your engagement, try creating content that’s actually valuable and interesting to your audience. Trust me, they’ll appreciate it.

In the end, social media is supposed to be a place where we can connect with others and share interesting content. Let’s not let interaction bait ruin that experience.