This guy always has such dramatic YouTube thumbnail image face
this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2024
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Man, you must not be on YouTube much
Not the garbage that goes down this hole. Steve does good content but it's a choice.
It's also numbers. YouTube has given creators tools to literally benchmark thumbnails. You can just see which one does better. The vast majority of people unfortunately are susceptible to the same patterns. In the end, you need people to click on your video or they can't watch it (which is the point here, to inform people). So here we are.
For example, thumbnails with faces work much better than without (doesn't really matter what or who the face is). I find that monumentally stupid and weird, it just is what it is.
Oh no the horror. He makes good content and then ads a thumbnail so people watch it.
I would say that's YouTube in general, but even that's not true. Practically all media frequently focuses on faces.
YouTube thumbnails, social media, the rise of selfies, video calling, portraits (always been one of the most common forms of art), film posters (disproportionately feature the faces of their characters), etc.
Humans love seeing faces. We are drawn to faces, it's linked to us being an intelligent social species with complex social and familial structures. It's ingrained in us to place great attention and recognition on faces, and to glean information from them.
In fact, our brains are so obsessed with facial recognition, that we often see faces where none exist (pareidolia). That's how strong this effect is.
I get that people on Lemmy/Reddit act like seeing a face in the thumbnail is the worst thing ever, but creators do it because people want to see faces. All the data points to people being more engaged when we see faces.
And honestly, compared to other forms of trying to get people interested, such as using misleading or untrue titles, ragebait, failing to mention the video is sponsored in a way that undermines the integrity of the video, etc., including a face in a thumbnail is just about the least troublesome avenue. A face in a thumbnail is completely and utterly harmless.
Eh, I just ignore thumbnails in general. If I'm subscribed, it's because I like the content, so only the title matters. If I'm looking for videos to watch, I actively avoid the ones with click-bait thumbnails because I know it's going to be a bad video.