I recently conducted a small social experiment by writing two articles and then compared the amount of views each received. One, Running for Diabetes, was filled with a heart opening inspirational story, which was relatable. The other, Things NEVER to Forget For An Ultra-Marathon, was written with an all-or-nothing absolute in the title and contained my opinions throughout. I was shocked by the results. One story received 498 views and the other received a scant 15. Can you guess which one received more views?
Chocolate Bar
In his book, Why Buddhism Is True, Robert Wright enlightens as to us why we crave a bar of chocolate. He explains, we don't really crave the chocolate it self, rather, we crave the feeling associated with wanting the bar of chocolate. As we pass by the table where a bar of chocolate sits, our mind is flooded with justifications as to why we able to have just one bite of the chocolate bar. Agreeing with our thoughts, we reach for the bar of chocolate. As we bring the chocolate bar closer to our mouths, we feel intense emotions of satisfaction due the release of dopamine. Just before we bite into the bar of chocolate, dopamine spikes, and the intense emotions of satisfaction radiates our brain. The bar of chocolate enters our mouth, we bite down and then in one false swoop the dopamine cascade plummets and dopamine is flushed away leaving us wanting more. We attach to he feeling of satisfaction and again take a bite of the chocolate bar until we are satisfied with having enough satisfaction.
Feelings and Opinions
We often hear of fights in marriages being over the stupidest things. Stand-up comedian Nate Bargatze once got into an argument over the phrase in one false swoop. In his latest stand up he explains that after double digits years of marriage you sometimes thrive on wanting to be right when you can. This obsession for being right caused him sty up late thinking about the reasons why he was right. He even told the audience he wanted to wake up his wife mid sleep to justify his rightness. Why would anyone want to be right this bad?
There is satisfaction with being right. We smooth over our egos with being right and are left feeling vulnerable when we are wrong. We like being right, not because of the opinion itself, but rather we crave the satisfaction felt with being right and validated. When we attach to these feelings, we seek out instances to be right again, not solely give our opinion, but rather to cultivate the feel good feelings (dopamine) associated with validation.
Correlation?
So what the hell does chocolate and opinions have to do with how well my story flourishes on the internet? When your audience seeks out an article to read, they often unconsciously seek writings titled a certain way to cultivate certain feelings. Don’t believe me? Why do you think articles on “How To Get More View” or “How To Write Better” often have “create an illusive title” on their list? Because words ignite emotions. Certain words bring about an opportunity to cultivate feelings, for instance, absolutes. All-or-nothing words like always, never, or ever provide an opportunity for the reader to give their opinion and, as discussed either, feel a certain way.
How often have you read an inspirational story and then felt motivated to do something yourself? Or maybe were feeling down so you found a sad story to validate your feelings. Whatever the situation is, our feelings direct us more than we think. They are often powerful motivators and in the same regard, can be of great hindrance. Does this back and forth pull with emotions always have to be the case? No.
Now, to answer the question I initially asked. The inspirational story received 15 views and the opinionated story received 498. Both stories were posted to the same social media websites. Each post asked a question for the reader to respond to and asked to post an answer to the question asked above the medium article link. Each article written had pictures taken by myself without editing. There also no quotes used in either article. Both articles had the concept of running at their core. So why such a vast difference in the number of views each article received?
My thought
I used a bold uppercased NEVER in one title. This may have gave an opportunity for the reader to agree or disagree, which most ended disagreeing or having their own opinion. Weather they agreed or disagreed wasn’t my focus for learning why, rather, I learned that this style of writing allowed for the audience to give their opinion making them feel a certain way. This makes me ponder a few questions:
- Does it matter what I write about or should I just ask questions to include others opinions?
- Does the time of day I post matter? One was posted at 9 pm and the other around 6 pm.
- Does my narrow focus on amount of views hinder the purpose of me writing?
Breaking the cycle
The brain is an interesting tool. As I get older and have more experiences I learn more about how my brain operates and they ways I can manipulate it. . We are feeling machines and attach to feeling good when we can. On the contrary we can also feel bad emotions as well and often attempt to avoid feeling bad by replacing the bad with the good. However, its this exact repetitive cycle that inevitably causes us to mentally suffer. We can break this cycle by observing our emotions objectively without judgment. When we do this, we see our emotions as not apart of us, but rather things that are in a constant flux. The analogy for life I like to use is a kayaker at sea. Regardless of the weather and how violent the waves maybe be, the kayaker understands they cannot control the weather and the storms it produces, so they keep paddling into the unknown with a smile on their face towards their dreams.
