Why are you so keen on playing the click to read full text game in your circle of friends?

Recently, you may have discovered that your Moments have been more or less dominated by the “click to read full text” game. There are even quite a few answers on Zhihu and quite a few questions like “What do you think are the funniest “click to read full text” games in Moments?” This question alone has attracted nearly a thousand responses, and some answers have even received more than ten thousand likes. In the foreseeable future, it is estimated that there will be more advertisers using this method to carry out promotional placements in Moments.

You’re having a blast, but maybe you haven’t given much thought to why you enjoy this “click-to-read” thing so much.

First of all, you can play this game. This is a big premise, which is determined by one of WeChat's product principles. WeChat hopes that the carrier can present valuable content in the most cost-effective unit time, whether it is text, pictures, links, or short videos. Links have the most information, pictures have the best cost-effectiveness, and videos have a relatively large amount of information but are also the most cost-effective (because they need to consume traffic and time, they have always adopted high compression ratios, unclear videos, and short videos of only 6 seconds, and WeChat is unwilling to compromise and make more optimizations).

Examples of this principle include the folding of long text in Moments, the automatic playback of short videos in Moments without clicking, the weakening of links (you can only see thumbnails and titles, and you need to jump to see the linked content, so it won't take up too much space on your timeline and your time and energy to read and browse), and you won't see the avatar in your timeline when you like a post in Moments until you click on it. Single-image thumbnails are larger than single images in multiple-image posts, so multiple images give people more overall information. The other party has to read the post before deciding whether to click on it, which is one more step than a single image directly conveying the information of the image.

However, under this rule, WeChat itself probably didn’t expect that such a popular game would emerge in the circle of friends. Countless people enjoy teasing and counter-teasing.

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I think the root cause is simply boredom. You may think I am talking nonsense, but I will explain it in detail later. I have summarized the following small contributing factors and analyzed them from the perspectives of both the creator and the reader:

Creator:

The cost of original creation is very low. This type of "click to open the full text" game often consists of two sentences. The first sentence sets up suspense, and the second sentence is the answer to the turning point. And the overall tone is often mean, relieving boredom and teasing others without hurting anyone. Even the cost of rewriting and disseminating is very low. Copy and paste, send it out, and you can even quickly change a few words to re-create it.

Reading:

If you analyze your behavior, under the WeChat rules I mentioned at the beginning, you will first see the folded brief information, and you will click it if it arouses your interest. In fact, this kind of game abbreviated information is often to set up suspense, so before you click it, because of the rules of WeChat, you will be guided to think very briefly about what the answer is, arousing your curiosity, and the cost of solving the puzzle is very low, just click it (imagine that when you are very busy, will you really play things that require complex problem-solving steps), so you will click it with a curious mentality to give it a try, and the feedback you get after clicking it is often a result that is beyond your expectations and reasonable, completing the sublimation of the entire product experience process. It has led to a slight teasing and self-mockery of you, and you are a little unwilling but more of a fun one. The interactivity is also very good. And a very important point here is that there are often only two sentences, so the reading pressure on you is also very small, catering to people's reading habits in the information explosion environment, making the whole experience relaxed and interesting. Every time I post text in Moments, I will artificially reduce, reduce, and reduce it as much as possible, based on this consideration.

Overall tonality:

Cheap, boring but interesting, full of self-mockery and teasing, it just fits the self-identity of the young group. It can be compared with those Internet words that have become popular among young people in recent years.

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I will now explain why the root cause is boredom but not nonsense.

Almost everyone feels bored, but to different degrees. The following paragraph explains well why the "curiosity hunting psychology" arises. In 2005, Vodanovich and psychologists J. Craig Wallace of Oklahoma State University and Steven Kass of West Florida pointed out in the BPS (Boredom Proneness Scale) analysis that boredom is mainly due to two factors. One is external stimulation, or the desire for novelty, excitement and change. The second is one's own ability to adjust. Vodanovich believes that men are generally more likely to be bored than women, and they also score higher in the BPS test. Extroverts tend to score higher, and they need continuous external stimulation to get rid of this boredom. So if you are interested, you may want to see if men and extroverts in your circle of friends like to play this game more.

If you can’t find sources of happiness and satisfaction, you’ll get bored. In 2007, John D. Eastwood, a clinical psychologist at York University in Toronto, Canada, and his colleagues reported that students who scored high on scales of alexithymia—the inability to understand and describe one’s feelings, as well as suppressed emotions and imagination—also scored high on the BPS.

In non-extreme situations, people will spontaneously find ways to get rid of boredom, seek fun, and react chemically with the psychology of curiosity. Fundamentally, this is a kind of protection for themselves, preventing themselves from becoming distracted and having weaker emotional awareness, and ultimately becoming disconnected from the world.

But boredom is not completely harmful. Boredom is a good opportunity for people to think and reflect. In addition, boredom is also a sign of whether the work is valuable. There is no need to waste time on worthless work. Out of self-protection, you will seek ways to break this boredom and make positive changes.

Having said so much, the reason why everyone loves to play the "click to full text" game is not only due to the product logic of WeChat, but more because of survival issues.