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YouTubers in their thumbnails
(lemmy.ca)
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this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2025
773 points (98.0% liked)
Trippin' Through Time
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I really, really hate "YouTube face", it's so annoying. Maybe it's overkill, but I actively avoid the videos and channels where they use it. Oh, your clickbait thumbnail is more important than the content? Guess I'll check out other sources then...
Seems they all have to do it or the algo will punish you.
Fucking disaster.
No they don't. There are plenty who don't.
And they probably get less views because of it. I respect their integrity.
I block every channel that does it, even those that I've been subscribed to for years because it's a harbinger of quality decline.
There's always DeArrow
Relevant Last Place Comics
That's actually amazing. Thank you for sharing!
Glad to see i'm not alone. It's for me a sign of, uh, .
I used to think they were all "phone Shrek at 3am" kinds of jackasses but have since learnt that they all do this. "Phone Shrek at 3am" was still the first impression I had though and I honestly think it's really fucking weird that apparently doing this gets them more views. Maybe this is what getting old is but sometimes it feels like half the world has been replaced by pod people over the last 10 years.
I recommend a Firefox extension called DeArrow, it replaces all the thumbnails and titles to be less clickbaity.
It gets them more views when they use it. I hate it, too, but human psychology is to blame.
I believe youtube algorithms are playing a bigger role than human psychology here.
People have to choose to watch it, regardless. Many creators have said they get more views with the stupid faces than without.
Every couple weeks my recommendations gradually turn into mostly this crap and I don't even know what I'm doing. I literally never click on them and pretty much only watch the same stuff but still the algorithm somehow is like... no this must be just the thing for him. I've started just running it in private window so it wipes my cookies and shit whenever I close out of it.
Same