'Get Up' Has an Addiction to Eyeballs

How do you get your content to stand out in a crowded marketplace? How do you get people to stop scrolling and click? What can you do to make people stop and look? These are the questions that content creators struggle with on a daily basis. When it comes to sports media, we have been able to identify one brand that has a plan you can see clearly from post to post.

Get Up loves the eyeballs emoji. 👀

You often have to look no further than @GetUpESPN's latest post. Like this one promoting Louis Reddick saying that he wouldn't be surprised if J.J. McCarthy was drafted ahead of Drake Maye. It's a total coincidence that this tweet was up for at least an hour with a typo in one of the names. It's almost as if the only thing that matters is that the tweet ends with 👀 because it certainly doesn't matter if what Riddick said was 👀 -worthy. McCarthy has long been a possibility to be drafted ahead of Maye. When Mike Tannenbaum was on Get Up talking about McCarthy going in the top five a few weeks ago they also used the eyeballs emoji.

As of noon Wednesday, seven of the last nine tweets from the Get Up account featured eyeballs. The account had been light on them late last week, but if you scroll just a little further you'll find them punctuating such takes as dial back expectations for Joel Embiid coming off an injury, the Caitlin Clark-Paige Bueckers matchup should be good, and the Bills could use a new receiver.

What's the standard here? I know there's nothing in the AP style guide about tweeting emojis, but maybe there should be. Dictionary.com says that the eyeballs emoji "serves to draw attention to something the user wants to highlight, especially in situations that involve drama and interpersonal tension." I"m not sure Josh Allen needs someone to catch the ball qualifies. Nor does a graphic showing that Michael Jordan and LeBron James are good.

Look, Get Up isn't alone here. All ESPN's Twitter accounts are addicted to emojis and they all use 👀 , no matter how pointless they are. Here are a few examples.

John Cena, the professional wrestler, will probably continue to wrestle professionally:

The same Warriors hot take you've heard every other day this season:

Snoop Dogg mentions something that was announced four months ago:

Someone needs to intervene. ESPN needs to be cut off and it has to start with Get Up. How can they not see that with all those freaking eyeballs?