Welcome to the digital barnyard where the crops are clicks, and the livestock is YOU - the viewer! A disturbing trend, I call "gullibility farming", is sweeping across social media platforms like TikTok and YouTube, particularly in niches like the lucid dreaming community.
These viral scams fool millions of trusting minds and cumulatively waste thousands of years of human time and effort.
Don't waste yours...
What Is Gullibility Farming?
Gullibility farming is when content creators post videos making outrageous claims and false promises designed to lure in gullible viewers, I call "Gulli-Bulls."
Common gullibility farming tactics include:
Promising instant lucid dream induction methods
Offering "reality shifting" instructions to "change universes"
Offering manifestation shortcuts to magically attract anything
Selling miracle cures and magical thinking
Promising to contact the dead
Predicting the future
Once hooked by the too-good-to-be-true bait, these Gulli-Bulls are then milked for as many views, likes, and shares as possible by the creators. These creators are not looking to educate, but to expand their own fame and profit - at your expense!
To be very blunt and to call it for what it really is, gullibility farming is little more than people telling appealing lies for their own personal gain - be it attention or money. It's a story as old as time, but in the digital age, it's a very lucrative business.
The Dangers of Falling for Gulli-Bull Traps
People who fall victim to gullibility farming often become overly defensive of these manipulative and underhand creators, promoting their work to others, often in order to avoid admitting embarrassment about being duped.
This creates a self-perpetuating cycle.
Many Gulli-Bulls are afraid to face the truth and instead prefer to continue believing - and blindly sharing - the unattainable claims rather than acknowledging they were misled by false promises.
Why?
Well, a little cognitive dissonance is much easier than accepting the personal embarrassment and bruised ego of being fooled and farmed by self-serving charismatic scammers.
More immediate dangers include:
Wasting your hard earnt money
Wasting your valuable time
Being seen as gullible and foolish by others
Supporting and funding immoral people
Having your trust in others eroded
Helping to further spread misinformation
Eroding your critical thinking skills
Don't Be Naïve - Think Critically About Viral Scams
As a social experiment, last year I created a video to demonstrate "Gullibility Farming", this video was filled with clearly ridiculous claims and promises.
Despite obvious disclaimers that it was all fake, thousands of Gulli-Bulls were still hooked and fell for the fabricated content - totally ignoring the warnings!
If these tactics can still fool people when it is designed to warn them of such things, imagine what damage it can do when used by genuine Gulli-Bull farmers!
This example shows how easy it is to implement gullibility farming tactics and how effective they are at exploiting naïve viewers simply by making wild promises that are too enticing to ignore.
To avoid being harvested by gullibility farmers, always think critically and stay skeptical of any outrageous claims or get-rich-quick schemes you see online.
If something seems too good or too easy to be true, it likely is. Use your best judgment to identify gullibility traps.
Don't let gullibility farmers take advantage of you for profit.
Stay alert, stay skeptical, and don't be a Gulli-Bull! 🐮🐮🐮