Opus 2025-121: Click Bait: Out of Reach

I was glancing through the offerings that the algorithm of YouTube was putting up and I noticed a bit of click bait that represents a common genre.  It had to do with people telling you what is the best.  In this case, it was the best tasting ground coffee.

I have no problem with people posting these things and entertaining the general population.  That’s what free enterprise and entrepreneurship is all about.  I don’t spend a lot of time with them because their conclusions are meaningless to me.

The first reason it’s meaningless is that we all have different taste buds and different preferences.  The video declares what they claim to be the best in their opinion.  I’m not sure what value their opinion is because I know enough about how we experience sensory stimulation to say that my results would be different on different days.  For instance, I make coffee every morning.  I make it the same way as far as I’m able.  It taste different every day.  And for that matter, first taste is often different than the last cup.

Some differences will never be over.  For instance some people swear that French roast coffee is the only way to drink.  If enough of my taste buds die, then the bitterness may be overcome by whatever it is they see in it but for right now it’s not on my agenda.  I was having a discussion this week about how to cook a steak.  I prefer my steaks to resemble charcoal briquettes.  Anything less is like going out and chewing on the cow while it’s still in the field, in my humble opinion of course.  I have tried medium and rare.  I have not had the nerve to try it “cooked” blue.  Even well done isn’t enough for me.  Viva la difference.

The second reason is that often the brands and products that they are talking about are not available in my area.  I can usually see that by looking at the pictures.  We are getting more standardized in our culture and losing a lot of variety, but there are still brands that focus on one part of the country.  There are some stores that have very little variety.  I can only assume that the people shopping there are content with what has been forever.  And coffee, I can drink your Folgers and Maxwell House with a smile on my face.  I don’t get ballistic about it.  I have instant coffee on my shelf.  As long as I acknowledged to myself that it is instant coffee, I can enjoy it.  However I have gotten to the place where I like to get whole beans and grind them and experiment with different blends.  I have my preferences, but even those are limited by a lack of variety.

Click bait will always remain click bait.  Like any other area of life it might require discernment, or just to be ignored. You choose.

homo unius libri