Downworthy plug-in offers Upworthy headlines without the hyperbole
You won't believe how much this plug-in will protect you from clickbait
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Your support makes all the difference.If you've spent longer than five seconds on Facebook in the past year you'll probably be aware of feel good viral content site Upworthy's sticky headlines.
They usually centre around the overblown reaction the story will supposedly have on you – all 'restore your faith in humanity' and 'stay with you every minute of the day' – or else harness the curiosity gap, providing next to no information in the headline so you have to click through to find the unbelievable, mind-altering, self-defenestration-worthy story.
Well now there's a way to combat them, with a Chrome plug-in created by Alison Gianotto replacing headlines' hyperbolic devices with something a little more accurate – and it works surprisingly well.
Gianotto posted some screen grabs from testing on her website, with "This Guy Was Exploring His Grandpa’s Attic. What He Found Is Mysteriously Awesome…Whoa," becoming: "This Guy Was Exploring His Grandpa’s Attic. What He Found Is Mysteriously Probably Slightly Less Boring Than Working…Whoa".
Elsewhere, "literally" is revised to "figuratively" and "Can’t Even Handle” appears as “Can Totally Handle Without Any Significant Issue”.
Gianotto commented: "These articles are, in general, not nearly as bad as their titles - but the titles have become SO overblown, they're meaningless and annoying.
"But people still click, so the trend continues. Consider this me doing my part to stop the insanity."
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