Ever seen a headline on your social media feed or in sponsored content on a website thats probably not legit, but you click anyway. Such sensationalized headlines are called clickbait and they're designed to tempt you to click on them. Why? Because clicking generates ad revenue. Though the term fake news may be reasonably new, clickbait is not For years, people have created intentionally sensationalized headlines and photos that bait users to click through to read what ends up being a pointless story (hence the term clickbait). Similarly, sensationalized stories (referred to as fake news) are posted on the social web in the hopes of going viral. Viral stories increase website traffic and that in turn generates income. Given that sites such as Facebook and Twitter can reach billions, clickbait and fake news have become social media plagues. Facebook has taken strides to curtail the distribution of fake news by providing additional fact-checking information about potential fake news stories and has also cut back on the ability for clickbait sites to use Facebook advertising services, Google has also instituted a policy disallowing fake news sites from using AdSense. These policy changes may help to limit fake news and clickbait, but are we also responsible for the proliferation of this content? If we didn't click they wouldn't post. Where do you stand on clickbait? Question Q1: Have you been enticed to click on a false story? Which of the following answers applies to you? Briefly describe your story: 1. Yes, I was tricked, but read the story anyway 2. Yes, I was tricked and was mad it wasted my time 3. No, I can recognize a trick headline and know not to click on it