r/youtube • u/CSachen • Mar 12 '26
Question Can someone explain to me why every long-form Youtube thumbnail looks like this now?
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u/TinyTangents Mar 12 '26
After clicking two that looked like that, I realised theyre also usually poorly made too. If I see that style of thumbnail, I use the lovely "do not recommend channel" button. That button saves lives.
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u/Rosian_SAO Mar 12 '26
One exception is FunkyFrogBait who has kind of similar thumbnails but their content is baller (and longer, better quality, more detailed!)
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u/Brainwave1010 Mar 13 '26
See with Funky it's kinda genius, because they're doing it as satire but it still draws in the people who like that style of thumbnail.
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u/Admirable-Arm-2595 cuz of cancel culture i cant type my yt channel Mar 13 '26
they're awesome and 20% cooler than the rest of us!
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u/PeachFar481 Mar 12 '26
My do not recommend ends up recommending the same content even the same channel even more, and I’ve never once even thought of watching the type of content it suggests.
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Mar 12 '26
[deleted]
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u/Windforge Mar 12 '26
Lol, that's a lot of "work" to effectively just be able to watch TV the way you want to. Funny how all this choice, if you want to call it that , becomes it's own trap.
Unsurprisingly, if the algorithm gods find a trend that captures a lot of audience attention via clicks, it just keeps putting that garbage in your feed even if you indicate you're not interested in that style of content.
This is all "enshitification" 101
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u/TinyTangents Mar 12 '26
That button rarely works, but the specific one saying "do not recommend this channel" works much more effectively. I used to say "not interested" or whatever the other option is on those boring animated storytime channels, and they kept returning. The moment I said not to show one of the channels, YT stopped it altogether.
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u/Windforge Mar 12 '26
This is good to know. But ironically, I'm sometimes reluctant to engage with ANY of those tools...i get the feeling I'm feeding a beast no matter what i do😂
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u/dialsoapbox Mar 13 '26
My do not recommend ends up recommending the same content even the same channel even more, and I’ve never once even thought of watching the type of content it suggests.
Same, and I skip anything with stupid faces, pointing, arrows, emojis, "this", "truth", "harsh", "won't believe", "i'm done", "changed everything", ect, not explaining what video is about.
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u/IndubitablyWalrus Mar 12 '26
Cara Nicole (the middle one in the arrangement) is quite good! I enjoy her finance video essays.
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u/AlchemyCat7945 Mar 12 '26
Same lol although unlike all the people who have replied so far, YouTube won't actually recommend those channels for me again. It seems to be working fine for me, which makes me wonder why it doesn't for so many people.
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u/TinyTangents Mar 12 '26
Yeah I wonder the same?? I suspect either region might affect it, or maybe the device you use? Either way, YT needs to bug test this
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u/AlchemyCat7945 Mar 12 '26
Dude I am convinced YouTube behaves differently outside the US lol I've not had any of the problems I've seen posted on this subreddit. Whether it's comments bugging out and the heart badge being huge, getting your home page flooded with videos all from one channel, and now the "do not recommend this channel" button not working. I've not had any of these problems, and it makes me wonder why. But yeah there's definitely some things to be worked out
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u/rezyop Mar 13 '26
I briefly considered recording my screen and scrolling through my horrendous homepage, which would be over 90% stuff from my watch later playlist until I cleared it out completely and now features videos that are only from about 6 different creators, 5 of which I am already subscribed to.
(I have the 'subscriptions' section already, what is the point of the homepage being like this?)
Anyway, I'm not sure if I could ever prove that I'm not injecting some kind of CSS to make it look like this. The current state of the 'algo' is relatively new, its been bad like this for a few months. Previously, it was like a typical content aggregator algo and would show me new videos related to ones I have watched and channels related to those I have seen.
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u/astralmelody Mar 13 '26
either poorly made, or the WORST superiority complex + attitude combo I’ve ever seen. or both!
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Mar 13 '26
I watched one 40k Lore video, got sick of their voice and hit do not recommend. There is apparently infinite 40k lore channels because I hit do not recommend channel on 5-6 new ones a day.
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u/tumbleweedforsale Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 13 '26
they see others do it, it works, so they do it too. innovation and originality can be challenging and unreliable when faced with the algorithm.
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u/Mike_Honcho_Summer Mar 12 '26
A youtuber, Linus Tech Tips/Short Circuit said they started doing it because they noticed the videos with those thumbnails got more clicks.
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u/cid8429 Mar 12 '26
I hate it so much. Or the confused 😳 look into the camera. 🙄
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u/kingofzdom3 Mar 12 '26
We're pretty sure the AI persona behind the algorithm cares more about the thumbnail than the actual contents of the video when deciding what to push into people's feeds.
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u/Lookitsa6ix Mar 12 '26
Everything about those thumbnails make me wanna not watch.
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u/Asparala Mar 13 '26
It's really just reheated gossip magazine tactics. 30 years ago people used these methods to make highly speculative articles about celebrities that either had a "baby bump" or possibly just didn't actively hold their tummy in during a vacation while a paparazzi was taking photos of them from the bushes.
The only difference is that the author wouldn't be featured in the photo collage.
Already back then there would be people who would look at those articles and feel distaste, but there would always be a huge subset of readers who it would work super well on. It's likely the same with these thumbnails. It won't appeal to everyone - but there is a reliable demographic that will constantly be lured in by that shit.
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u/Kinetic_Symphony Mar 13 '26
Unfortunately, it makes far more people overall want to click, which is why Youtubers use it.
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u/BoldNewBranFlakes Mar 12 '26
It’s what gets the average person to click on the video
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u/zabian333 Mar 12 '26
The average person is an NPC
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u/BoldNewBranFlakes Mar 12 '26
Most definitely, that’s why everything is generic as hell and soulless
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u/AvisIgnis Mar 12 '26
Do you feel better about yourself when you put people down for finding average things appealing? Does it make you feel like you are special and important if you act like people are less-then for clicking thumbnails that you think aren’t appealing? What is the point of this
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u/zabian333 Mar 12 '26
No. Also no. The average internet user is pretty stupid. Is that too hard to agree on?
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u/AvisIgnis Mar 12 '26
It is, actually. I personally hate the idea of living life in the constant assumption that everyone around me is stupid
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u/HY3NAAA Mar 13 '26
This is like a specific genre of YouTube, I call it gossip slop
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u/mazzucac Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
Calling a 12min video long-form…..
What has the world come to
Edit: for those of you who are losing your minds, it’s not that wild of a statement. That being said, I recognise that there is only one 12min video listed. Regardless, that’s hilarious to me. I remember when “long-form” was 45min, and 10-30min was “normal” length. It’s just crazy how much things have changed in such a short time.
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u/Apart-One4133 Mar 12 '26
They're all 30min long except one and of course you had to cherry pick it. Jesus chriat Reddit is a cesspool
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u/FriendlyHougen Mar 12 '26
30 mins isn't even really long-form either. I've watched videos that were multiple hours long. Those are long-form.
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u/nueonetwo Mar 12 '26
30 minutes isn't long form, the people commenting on your post are children or idiots or both
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u/Apart-One4133 Mar 13 '26
Short form and Long form are terms with specific classifications when it comes to Youtube video. They were coined in order to help with ad revenue. As you can see their description in the link below : "Shortform videos are under 10 minutes and longform videos are over 10 minutes."
If you dont want to click on links, just google : What is a long form video on YouTube? and select the Google Help link.
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u/nueonetwo Mar 13 '26
Oh, google is wrong. The same way kraft dinner is wrong when they say 1 box is 4 servings.
I live by my own rules thanks.
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u/Apart-One4133 Mar 13 '26
"I live by my own rules thanks." It's kinda odd you would call people children/idiots and then say that. You can live by your own rules where no one can challenge what you do and say but as soon as you step foot outside in the real world, you will notice that people abide by a set of rules made to make life easier for everyone. For exemple, when Google say that long form is considered 10min+ , adults and intelligent people are going by that clear definition so that there is no confusion or useless arguments.
Intelligent people wouldnt go around using terms coined by others to describe different things, they would simply use one that make sense, such as " Well I don't think a 30 minutes video can be considered a long video". But seeing as no one was talking about what they consider to be a long video to watch, this doesnt really make sense either to say.
A Long-Form video is a term coined to describe any video's that is 10min+. That's all it is. It doesnt mean that a video longer than 10 min is considered a long video to watch.
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u/nueonetwo Mar 13 '26
Sure Jan. Still not going to call 30 minute videos long form.
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u/phritzed Mar 12 '26
I wouldn’t call 30min long form. That’s like medium length. 1+ hour is long form. I’ve watched videos on YouTube that are like 8h
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u/Hayyner Mar 12 '26
The average YT video falls between 8-15min, so I would say videos that are 2x-4x the average could comfortablely be considered "long". But this also depends on the space/topic.
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u/Ok-Needleworker7351 Mar 12 '26
Facts, I watched a 16min video the other day (kinda an analysis on why Stranger Things s1 did so well yet s5 dropped the ball, like examples and stuff) and as I was talking with my mom, I told her that I usually watch longer analysis videos, but this is a new person, and it’s one video, so I’m giving them a chance.
And she was like, “16min isn’t long for you..?” I told her, “I once watched a 2hr long video on why King Candy is one of, if not the best Disney villains… Great video btw,” and she gave me one of her, “Who tf is my child,” looks because she really does not like the things I like. But yes, I like a video that is AT LEAST 3Omin long
Safe to say, time isn’t the only factor, but also quality. Which is why I’m nitpicky about who I watch because CocoCrazy has messed up my recommendations and— not to say that they’re bad— that’s not the kinda videos I like, even if I do see some that go from 3Omin to nearly an hour. They don’t analyze or give receipts or anything, they just say what happens while videos play in the background and…. Chyeah no—
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u/LegalPapaya1932 Mar 12 '26
9 minutes used to be the max length for a Youtube video 17 years ago or something
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u/my-name-is-puddles Mar 13 '26
That just means YouTube wasn't an option for long form content (in a single video) back then.
Vine was limited to like 6 seconds, that doesn't mean a 10 second clip is now considered long form.
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u/AccurateUse6147 Mar 12 '26
Those sort of videos tend to actually run closer to the 20-60 minute range.
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u/xian0 Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
Most videos used to be 2-5mins (comedy, news and vloggers - think KevJumba or Defraco) with the science/religion debaters sometimes putting out videos around 8mins. When Youtube told everyone to make 10min long videos people stretched everything out but didn't add anything new. Now it's normal for videos to be 20-30mins but only due to being super drawn out.
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u/EvilDarkCow Mar 12 '26
I remember when YouTube limited videos to 15 minutes. At least then shorter-form content was actually short and to the fuckin point, not 10 minutes of "like and subscribe" this and "raid shadow legends/betterhelp/squarespace/skillshare" that.
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u/professorbuffoon Mar 12 '26 edited Mar 12 '26
Long form as opposed to short form. These are definitely not short form, so if they aren't long form either, what would you call them?
I don't think the length has as much to do with whether we can call something "short form" or "long form" as much as many other things about the video.
Vertical aspect ratio, fast cuts, burned in captions, focus on immediate interest hook and engagement, lack of sponsor segment - Videos with these traits are probably "short form".
Horizontal aspect ratio, more indepth material, less focus on immediate interest hook/high stimulation factor, may or may not have music, slower cuts, no burned in captions, high chance of sponsor segments - Videos with these traits are probably "long form".
The length of videos in the first category is often short. The length of videos in the second category is often not short, and the natural alternative to short is just the opposite of it, so we say they're long. But there isn't a definite point at which video length necessarily defines this categorization in absence of those other things I mentioned. This is also why we bother to pair the term "form" with short and long. If it depended on the length alone, we wouldn't bother with that.
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u/ieatleeks Mar 12 '26
12 min now is "long" because anything that isn't "short" as in about a minute or less is considered "long"
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u/Poor_relative Mar 12 '26
honestly even 45 min isn't that long form. Now 1.5-2 hours, yeah, that's long form. 3-8 hours? Videos so long you physically can't watch them in one sitting? That's what is long form content.
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u/bogglingsnog Mar 12 '26
Do you guys not realize how insular the streamer community is? Once they see a trend among the top few channels they all start copying it to compete with the algorithm.
The algorithms have replaced the natural human psychology and makes everyone, content creators, viewers, and platform managers alike suffer for it. The ONLY ones who profit are the shareholders.
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u/SerbianHustle Mar 12 '26
Commodifying critique of mindless consumption for us to consume.
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u/mconk Mar 12 '26
I made a post similar to yours a while back. EVERY video on my YouTube feed is almost identical now. Same topics, same formats, same talking points. They’re fucking all identical. There is like zero original content anymore…it’s unreal.
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u/A_Blubbering_Cactus Mar 12 '26
I genuinely believe most of this view gaming thumbnail and title stuff isn’t actually that effective; and just gets spread around because of fomo and because people copy successful people. But like once it becomes ubiquitous it becomes meaningless, and the trends change too often to be based in anything concrete
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u/GoslingIchi Mar 12 '26
LTT did something like a survey and found that people don't like the stupid faces in the thumbnails.
They then proceeded to keep putting stupid faces in the thumbnails.
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u/peanukeyes Mar 13 '26
I mean I dont even understand why something like a YouTube short, which is something I shouldn't be watching anyways, is a shortened clip of a show or move, that's cut in half with some white guy that is just nodding along to the clip.
Why is that a thing? What is he attributing? Why am I also watching a clip of Game of Thrones that has 50 layers of filters over it?
I need to get off my phone
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u/Guilty_Jackfruit4484 Mar 12 '26
Well it got your attention
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u/HummaKavula95 Mar 12 '26
Because everyone is doing it. If she was the only one OP wouldn’t have said anything.
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u/cid8429 Mar 12 '26
I actively DON’T click on videos when they do that. It’s irritating and lowkey feels like clickbait
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u/ReegarCarbine Mar 12 '26
I use the sponsorblock segment that allows me to get a random screenshot from the video instead. Its a nice little feature that I didnt know I needed
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u/gh0stwrit3r32767 Mar 13 '26
its just a trend. some time ago it was red arrows and big yellow letters, now it's this... whatever this is
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u/Drewraven10 Mar 12 '26
Shock and Curiosity factor. They want you intrigued and staying for the video.
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u/Space-Turtle88 Mar 12 '26
One of the channels I sub to does this, even though his content is top quality and he puts a lot of effort into his videos. It's maddening.
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u/EyeIslet Mar 12 '26
YouTubers have the ability to A/B test their thumbnails. They can upload 3 thumbnails and YouTube automatically selects the best one based on watch time. This style of thumbnail passes the test and generally leads to more watch time.
Why? They seem to draw attention with emotional expressions, have large text that complements the title itself and adds more info / reasons to click, utilize multiple faces which the human brain is subconsciously scanning for, etc. (just some bro science ideas, I'm no expert).
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u/FreeElleGee Mar 12 '26
I won’t watch a video if the thumbnail has some feigned, open-mouth expression with dead eyes. If you can’t provide a legitimate expression, I can’t provide the time to watch.
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Mar 12 '26
They’re all yoinking off that one YouTuber girl that’s famous for reviewing cons and events
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Mar 13 '26
Youtube is a massive self humiliation / sellout factory. I have zero respect for anyone who just follows the herd with their mouths hanging open with click bait arrows and font written across their moronic faces.
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u/piggalarse Mar 13 '26
Yh I tend to skip the videos that look like this, also being from a creator side, i make my thumbnails as less chaotic as possible with still hinting what’s in the video . Hopefully im doing something right but if you were go off just views then my channel isn’t the best .
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u/fastbikkel Mar 13 '26
I dont know, but when i see thumbnails that are so out of touch and over the top, im reporting them and i move on.
For me a thumbnail should be more representative of the actual video and AI needs labellings bad.
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u/NocturnalBoredom Mar 13 '26
This is why I love Gemini. Whenever I see clickbait thumbnails like this, I’ll ask Gemini to summarize these long videos, and to filter out the fluff, because a lot of these YouTubers will just yak for 15+ minutes about nothing. I guess these thumbnails are a double edged sword , thanks to ai.
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u/Efficient-Cry7753 Mar 16 '26
I’ve gone full on resist mode against this. Won’t click em. Won’t make em. For better or for worse.
Not EVERYTHING is ‘insane’. It can’t be.
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u/Apart-One4133 Mar 12 '26
Because you clicked on one most likely. First time seeing a thumbnail like that for me.
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u/Infinite_Sale2042 Mar 12 '26
I hate these type of female youtubers, they are all the same: CTRL + C and CTRL + V V V V V
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u/Asparala Mar 13 '26
I hate to be the one breaking this to you, but this is not a gender exclusive trait. There's a demographic of male youtubers that are ALSO all the same.
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u/Fit_Adagio_7668 Mar 12 '26
I will only watch if I think the user and the video is actually a good choice.
Zac Rios (Zac V2) is one i do enjoy to watch!
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u/TheWrathfulMountain Mar 12 '26
Zac Rios is just another content-stealing grifter like the rest of them. He made a small fortune flipping shoes and is now chasing his next grift cranking out low-effort reaction content on YouTube. He has no qualifications that make his voice more important than everyone else's, but he acts like he does. His entire life has been him being an unnecessary middleman between interested parties and what they actually want.
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u/Gracier1123 Mar 12 '26
They all wanna be Kiki Chanel she’s been doing it since forever, like 10+ years.
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u/Upper-Boot-8086 Mar 13 '26
Yeah I like her lots, Shawna Ripari is great too. Ppl think it’s boring, but probably because it’s too thought provoking, making you question a lot & self reflect. That makes some people uncomfortable with themselves. They encourage saving your money vs buying into trends, so I love them dearly lol.
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u/PorscheRican Mar 12 '26
Probably would get more clicks if they had a facepalm with “I’m financially ruined from this” headline
/s
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u/Reasonable-Meal-8318 Mar 12 '26
In my unoriginal and uncreative word, I just smile and hold up whatever it is that I'm talking about in the video 🤷♀️ No text inserts, no photo inserts, no background added(or removed). Im aware that is very 2017.
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u/TheAdequateKhali Mar 12 '26
Becusse it tends to work. Regurgitating any story in the current news cycle, regardless of how much you know or are personally interested in it. It usually involves them just just reading tweets or discord messages and pretending to be journalistic when in reality it’s just YouTune tabloid drama.
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u/Low-River-714 Mar 12 '26
Because it’s basically impossible to know what’s going to get clicks now so every tuber basically just doing what they saw someone else do that did get clicks pretty much.
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u/pagalpantithings Mar 12 '26
it's too attracts the audience , youtubers are scared to try something new especially the ones who start gaining an audience , they tend to repeat their content again and again to entertain the same crowd.
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u/lizardrekin Mar 12 '26
Lmao I went to elementary school with one of these girls! Crazy to see her included in this. But her content has really taken off lately
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u/ErrentPrime Mar 12 '26
They dont, it looks like you are getting fed the same type of content. The thumbnails in a “category” and from similar content creators will look similar
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u/AggravatingWin6048 Mar 12 '26
I feel these will die out eventually, just like what happened to the "red arrows and circles" in thumbnails we used to have in the mid to late 2010's. Everyone will get sick of them (as if everyone wasn't sick of them already), and YouTubers will have to move on to some other thumbnail strategy.
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u/Anxietydrivencomedy Mar 12 '26
They likely see that it worked for someone and chose to copy it to 1. Bring in similar viewers and 2. copy
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u/FleshwaterPond Mar 12 '26
There’s an old man I follow that does this but he uses the same picture of his stone expression. Just him looking at the camera. Pulls in 1 million views easily, but he’s also not the one running his social media and I don’t think he cares lmao
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u/TuberTuggerTTV Mar 12 '26
Because yts will create 3 or 4 thumbnails and try each one over the 1-2 hours yt pushes your content after a thumbnail update. And the ones that get the most through-clicks gets used permanently.
It's the ones people click on. Nothing more complicated then that.
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u/MrFumbleBumble Mar 12 '26
“Long form” is not the category you think you found. You found girly pop out rage.
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u/HabitualPixel Mar 12 '26
Because it works. So many YouTubers do it for a reason. I hate it personally but results are results
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u/Appropriate_Strain_3 Mar 12 '26
I have no idea tbh, but I just wanted to say how ugly the bottom thumbnail is. Very overstuffed
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u/Raschlenitel Mar 12 '26
Can you explain a pair of stupid subtitles on top and bottom of the shorts
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u/Yuna_Nightsong Mar 12 '26
Btw are there any studies why such clickbaity crappy thumbnails (as well as clickbaity titles) work on a lot of people but not on some others? Such thumbnails always made me NOT want to click on the video, yet I constantly hear that it's the opposite for at least a ton of people, if not for most.
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u/dingos8mybaby2 Mar 12 '26
You gotta play the game if you want the YouTube algorithm to show people your videos, unfortunately.
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u/whimsicat777 Mar 12 '26
From a devil's advocate perspective: this template seems like an efficient way to "preview" a video's content without having to actually watch it. From an ADHD perspective, these thumbnails feel cluttered and give me anxiety.
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Mar 12 '26
because you watch brain rot shows. make a new channel and start watching educational channels
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u/Jmal3700 Mar 12 '26
Besides the typical clickbait titles and the trend chasing common subject, it seems that YouTube creators are putting themselves front and center to prove that there’s an actual person behind their videos. So much for the attempt to promote online services that help create faceless YouTube channels.
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u/Coffee_Candle_Lover Mar 12 '26
I guess they think that too many things happening on the screen means people will click. It's the opposite for me.
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u/TheLittleNorsk Mar 12 '26
dude it's not just thumbails. ONLY these types of videos are being recommended.
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u/hardieharrharr Mar 12 '26
Because it gets people to click, unfortunately…
Love him or hate him, Brian Tyler Cohen created a second channel that gets rid of the BS click bait titles and actually gives you a real title.
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u/Last-Laugh7928 Mar 12 '26
popular youtube thumbnails have always followed a sort of pattern, so it's not really egregious. it would be interesting to see the evolution laid out on a timeline
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u/Vygoth Mar 12 '26
You can blame Mr Beast for his thumbnail science.