Netflix's "Clickbait" Makes You an Accomplice to Murder

Warning: Contains major spoilers from the show "Clickbait"

"That absolute a-hole!"

Following this proclamation from my couch, I had stomped off to the kitchen to rant to my partner about the show I had been watching and how the male lead totally deserved what he had coming to him. My partner could not understand why I was so angry at a character from a television show and what in the world could have convinced me that they should kill off said character.

"He's a cheater, liar, and a MURDERER"

I was so confident in my conclusion and the hatred I felt towards this character, that I felt myself sympathizing with the mistress, feeling sickly for the wife, and understanding the betrayal felt by the sister. I consumed each episode with a vengeance, cheering with the crowds as the view count skyrocketed, sealing the character's fate. The more revealed about this man from each character's perspective, the more I felt distain for him.

I watched as he cheated on his wife with multiple women, downloading dating apps and carelessly manipulating several woman into falling in love with his online persona. He had a family and a wife whom he was continuously betraying without a second thought. He deserved everything that was coming to him.

Then, the bombshell hit.

The last two episodes made me feel such shame for my participation in gunning for this man's life (even if it was fictional). It's revealed that several of the perspectives shown were lies, that he never cheated on his wife, that he did not in fact cause someone to die. I had fed into public image created by social media and if I had been in this show, if this had been in fact reality, I would've been compliant in this man's death. I ACTUALLY had thought that there was going to be a twist where it was revealed that he had a secret twin! I was so deluded by the image social media had created that I couldn't even stop for a second to believe that this man could be innocent of all charges that I had conjured up the oldest twist in the playbook. I was that under the spell of my own perspective.

You could say it had definitely made me shift my opinions.

I began to think about the assumptions I make every day based on what I see on social media, read on Buzzfeed or see posted on the DailyMail on snapchat. So much of it I read and then gasp, wondering how "he could have said that, who is dating who and how awful a person could be". I make these opinions every single minute.

I would consider myself to be a very unbiased person, a kind person, someone you can trust and who has a positive mindset. But, after watching "Clickbait", I need to take a step back and be reflective. How much information do I believe before doing research or considering the other sides of a story? I thought about the way that I use social media and the types of stories I had been gobbling up. Were any of them based in facts or were they attention grabbing clickbait?

I did not thinking that binging a series on Netflix would lead to a significant moment of self discovery but it did. It made me stop and think about what I was partaking in and the easy, careless way that I chose to believe public opinion without so much as a second thought. From now on, I will need to make sure to be careful of the information I receive, who it comes from, what I believe and how this can effect others around me.