We all know the classic truism to not judge a book by its cover, and yet we continue to do so. Even if we move past the cover, the odds are we still judge the book by its title. In our world of ever closer connections and abundance of information we have to use some clue to filter the wheat from the chaff.

Today I found myself doing that very thing on micro.blog. As I scrolled my timeline I saw a new post and didn’t immediately click. I looked at the title, considered what it might be about and weather that would be relevant or interesting to me. Of course I also weighted the profile who was recommending this post into my equation.

I am incredibly thankful that microblog hasn’t descended into linkpost, clickbait and their ilk butit doesn’t change the fact that headlines and titles are still one of, if not the key factor in me choosing to read a post or not.