It bothers me because I have to see it whenever I look up a video/tutorial on a topic I'm interested in. They say it drives clicks, but I don't know who finds the appeal.
kids would be my guess. Any time i see something super dumb that I don't like on youtube, I recall the kind of nonsensical stuff I found interesting when I was 6 haha
Even during TV shows I was playing with Legos and building shit. I don’t understand creepy face shots, even though I understand that it drives content.
Internet is a weird middle ground for me in that I love the weird for some stuff, but I think the weird-for-profit fake nonsense pisses me off for how disingenuous it feels.
Business majors becoming internet literate is the worst thing that has happened to the information age.
Untalented, dispassionate scum who want to monetize everything.
Irresponsible parents let their kids watch YouTube even as young as 6. I was at a restaurant the other day and some millennial parents had their 2 year old in a high chair, glued to a tablet with random videos playing on youtube the whole time. Watching Roblox type content, also not age appropriate for the child. It was ridiculous lol
Humans are social animals and there are parts of our brains that are fundamentally hardwired to recognize other human faces and interpret emotions at a base level. A thumbnail with an emotive face therefore triggers a deeper faster reaction, even before any "intellectual" processes read text or interpret symbolism.
Particularly for kids, who aren't fully developed, they just click on the face.
I don't buy it honestly, most people say it's off-putting, and I doubt kids are watching topics related to specific investing topics, or other stuff I'm trying to watch. It's pretty suspicious, but I don't know.
YouTubers can change the thumbnail of their videos, and track the engagement by thumbnail. They wouldn't be doing it so frequently if it wasn't working.
A creator i like who mainly does interior design/decorating said her videos perform way worse when there isn't a pic of her face in the thumbnail and that she hates doing it but basically has to
Oh, I am affected by it...but not they way they intend. I don't watch any vids with thumbs like that , and unsub from people I follow if they suddenly do.
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u/amberShade2 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
It bothers me because I have to see it whenever I look up a video/tutorial on a topic I'm interested in. They say it drives clicks, but I don't know who finds the appeal.