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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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sigh - unzips
