You must log in or register to comment.
I know it’s a minor thing, but “YouTube face” annoys me so much. DeArrow is a godsend…
a YouTuber I’m following started with this some time ago. somebody asked him what’s suddenly with the goofy faces and he explained how he made a couple of experiments and those thumbnails always caused higher viewer numbers… this stuff is seriously letting me doubt humanity as a whole. i don’t blame him at all, he is making a living with it. but I’m seriously concerned about the average consumer…
Random goofy faces where the person just does the same face everywhere is terrible, but if it’s a channel I know is serious about what they do (not necessarily serious as in never make a funny), I can understand that putting on an appropriate face for the content does send an easily understood message about what kind of video it is just by scrolling quickly. It’s not a bad thing to tell if it’s going to be a complaint video or a happy news video and the likes. Of course, the face value drops pretty quickly if it’s a random channel I’ve never seen, because I don’t know how relevant it really is and if that random person’s alleged feelings will inform what I can expect to feel in that video, or if it’s just random engagement bait that I don’t resonate with.
If the channel works for me, then making the goofiest joke face possible isn’t nearly as off-putting to me.
The view count was likely children. Look at cereal boxes. Look at what’s targeting kids and what’s targeting adults. Take that, apply it TicTok/YouTube/whatever. The higher view count was kids.
Alanah Pearce has talked about this a bunch too, she uses the A/B system to try accurate vs. clickbait title/thumbnail combos, and without fail the clickbait ones do better.
https://bsky.app/profile/alanahpearce.bsky.social/post/3miu2as4ln225 https://bsky.app/profile/alanahpearce.bsky.social/post/3mrb7yhd5hc2l https://bsky.app/profile/alanahpearce.bsky.social/post/3msedlnxrls2o
I hate it, she hates it, everybody else hates it, but viewers love it.
Veritasium did a video all about this. I never figured out why he delivered all the dialogue standing on a ladder being blinded by a projector, but it’s interesting anyway.
Sigh - unzips
