PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — They come at you fast. Hyperlinks like, "What are the top 10 NFL teams?" or, "What does a famous actor or actress look like today?"
These hyperlinks are called clickbait, and they usually send us on a path to relatively worthless information. According to a Psychology Today article, our brains are hard-wired to respond to links like these.
In our earliest stages of development as a species, we were programmed to learn all we can about our environment. The hormone dopamine plays a key role in this process. Clickbait actually triggers dopamine and creates a natural desire to follow these electronic paths to new information.
Psychologists say you should not beat yourself up if you fall into a clickbait wormhole, but reducing your time online can help reduce the temptation.
Get more medical reports from Dr. Brian McDonough.
KYW Newsradio's Medical Reports are sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
