Sometimes I don’t really understand the point of certain news articles, or reports. There’s a recent article published by the World Economic Forum where the headline reads “At least half of people who have a job fear they’ll lose it in the next 12 months”. This article is making the rounds on LinkedIn and news sites. People are re-sharing the article like there’s no tomorrow.
The article further goes on to say that while people are scared, many believe that this is a good time to learn new skills and finally concludes that we need to subscribe to life-long learning to succeed in the job market. Okay, now I understand the point.
They are trying to tell us that we need to devote more time to learning new skills to keep up with the times, which is understandable. But, the way the news is getting circulated, it’s only the first part of the message that everyone is reading.
In a world where we are dealing with daily uncertainties why would you be publishing headlines that are so depressing. We are already fearful of losing our jobs, so why are you rubbing it in?
I feel like they used such a title for the shock value. It worked. It did grab my attention. But, sadly we should expect better from such organizations. They could’ve titled the article with something like “learning new skills is the way for the future”. I suppose it wouldn’t be shared as much if they’d done that. So they used a click-bait title.
I recently wrote about why I feel there’s nothing wrong with using click-bait titles. But, that was in the context of blogging. What the WEF is doing is nothing but creating further panic in an already anxious world.
Looking through a frosty window... 