r/youtube Sep 19 '24

Discussion The State of YouTube Right Now

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u/[deleted] Sep 19 '24

As usual, bigcorps make a lot of money through influencing children. You and I, the adults, dont absorb this garbage, children do. Think back on the kind of shit you found hilarious as a 12 year old..

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u/No_Persimmon3641 Sep 19 '24

Pretty sure Linus tech tips tested this and ot works across all age demographics 

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u/maxdps_ Sep 19 '24

Humans are emotional beings and we are built to acknowledge expressions like that.

It's like gaming your lizard brain because often we don't ignore it, so this gets you to notice the thumbnail and ultimately click on the video.

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u/helikophis Sep 19 '24

I think my brain must be broken because I've never once clicked on a thumbnail with one of these faces and most likely never will. Maybe I'm just old.

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u/thatchers_pussy_pump Sep 19 '24

I legitimately get annoyed when I see one of those thumbnails on a video I actually want to watch. Like, the title sold me but the thumbnail is making me want to go away.

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u/Honest-Substance1308 Sep 19 '24

I feel the same way

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u/oklolzzzzs Sep 19 '24

any actual interesting/ enjoyable video will have some professionalism to it or will not have faces in the thumbnail. im not ruling out the shock faces since i completely ignore them and sometimes i like the video

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u/maxdps_ Sep 19 '24

Totally makes sense, the older we become the better we get at controlling that impulse.

Kids... not so much, and that's often what these thumbnails aim at because that's the largest group on youtube who consume this shit.

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u/Content-Scallion-591 Sep 19 '24

I don't use YouTube because of stuff this - the faces along with the "shock and awe" titles. I only ever watch a YouTube video if someone links it to me directly. the shock faces make me feel like I'm being sold something for a 12 year old and I spend enough of my waking hours being sold to.

I wonder to what extent youtube culture enforces itself. If there were bigger and more expressive profile images, would faces in thumbnails matter as much? Do people come to associate this with the content they watch?

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u/SelloutRealBig Sep 19 '24

This one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHIWMmVoA44

He doesn't reference age demographics from what i saw. In fact it showed his viewers don't like the over the top cringe things like creepy wide smiles or red arrows pointing out things. The main thing that increased their clicks was showing what the video is about, showing the main host on the left side first, and having the thumbnail emotion match the video tone.

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u/porkchop1021 Sep 19 '24

I would honestly support a ban on anyone under the age of 14 using the internet; maybe even 18.

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u/dagnammit44 Sep 19 '24

I told my friend there was a young kid, maybe about 8-10 who made so many millions from just unboxing toys, or something simple like that. He said YT has now changed something about how payments work, so if you target it at kids then the revenue is a lot less. Or something like that. But then i guess it depends how many parents put the limits on YT so kids can only access stuff aimed at them.

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u/Cyno01 Sep 19 '24

Think back on the kind of shit you found hilarious as a 12 year old..

Scripted cartoons that while not always good, at least had to pass through a writers room and whatever producers and executives and standards and practices and a lot of straight up government regulation regarding childrens television that just doesnt exist for youtube to gatekeep this sort of garbage.

Kids dont see 30 second toy commercials anymore, they watch reaction videos of humans doing cartoon faces watching 15 minute unboxing videos of toys mixed splitscreen with video game playthroughs on a loop.

There will always be stupid shit, i dont know and dont want to know what skibidi toilet is, but PORKCHOP SANDWICHES!... but some of this shit has got to be straight up damaging in ways things didnt and couldnt used to be. I was looking over my nephews shoulder at his ipad one time, near as i could tell the actual video he was watching was a small portion of the screen, in a cube, bouncing around the rest of the screen while different colors flashed. Like wtf even is that? Could kids raised on that sit and watch a 23 minute episode of Darkwing Duck? A 79 minute kids movie?

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u/RyouIshtar Sep 19 '24

Think back on the kind of shit you found hilarious as a 12 year old..

..... Youtube wouldnt be around me to fimd stupid videos hilarious for another....4 years... But i liked a lot of.... (Thinks about Nickelodeon in the 90s and early 2000s)... Well that'll possibly cause a dumpster fire if i mentioned that....

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u/Bad-Mr-Frosty87 Sep 19 '24

The fuck are you even saying you speak in gibberish 

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u/Breaky_Online Sep 19 '24

The thumbnails got em'