Chelsey Hauge-Zavaleta spends a lot of time with clickbait. She thinks about it often, and also uses it in her viral TikTok posts about parenting. A recent meeting of the Santa Cruz Feminist Society made her question the ethics of using clickbait hooks – even if the point is to promote feminist ideas online. Here, she questions whether adopting the attention tactics of social media platforms reinforces the very systems feminists hope to resist. Used thoughtfully, she believes attention-grabbing hooks can invite deeper reflection and conversations that help parents raise critically thinking, empowered children.
