what if...linkbait had existed in 1914?
Click on image for larger version. Don't click on it expecting to go to any of these stories. Foods you shouldn't eat. Celebrities you shouldn't care about. Items that could change the destiny of humanity. Forgotten child stars as they look now. Sensationalistic photo galleries depicting people who require quiet, sensitive help. You know what I'm talking about: those squares of content, usually at the side or bottom of a webpage, which drag you into an infinite hole of linkbait. There are whole sites whose grand purpose is to link you to links that will link you to links that will link you to linkbait links. The depths you can plumb are depressingly impressive. After seeing one roundup o' linkbait too many, a light went on in my head: what if this stuff had existed a century ago? The result: the collage above, based on what a websurfer might have run across had the internet existed in January 1914. Some of the faux links are based solely on...