The wealthy and their gophers first WANT you to feel discomfort and then SELL you something that will help you avoid it. The shorter the effect that something has, the better. Like sugar, ketamine, cocaine, or pornography, these products have an effect that quickly subsides and that you want again soon, you know things that might make you feel good enough, loveable, thin, muscular, or rich (loans) for a while. The church makes you feel guilty and then sells you forgiveness!
In fact, the product, the clickbait, isn’t even that important. What is important is that you want to escape your present situation by leaving your body and reaching into an imagined future. It could be porn, a scandalous story, a long piece of news, or a ballgame to watch on TV.
And what about social media? Do you think posts, conspiracy theories, video shorts, or video games would attract you so much if you were having an interesting life? All these things take our attention away from the feeling that we are not okay. They give us a like, a heart, or a short fix and then we return to feeling bad again and look for the next fix. ADDICTION.
They keep you online sucking as much from you as they can as you keep scrolling for your next fix, a little like or love.