I grew up in a world, where people could look like themselves.
Now we live in a data driven world, where the click-through rate of every facial expression has been measured, and even successful youtubers go with the shock face for those few percent extra views.
I feel, we are losing what it means to be real, natural human beings, when everything is decided by commercial value statistics.
@randahl "YouTube Face" is such an annoying thing in the online world and I absolutely resent seeing it. The moment I see something come up with any of the standard faces, is the moment I check out. They have nothing to tell me. Even if you did have something to say, trying to manipulate me means I am not indulging you.
Fun Fact: There are browser extensions that will replace the "YouTube Face" with a random still from the video.
Worth pursuing.
@PatrickoftheG @randahl
Many good youtubers, which I know from the past, meanwhile switched to this kind of face and these headlines (SHOCKING, HORRIFYING, ...), just to be better seen an get more views.
Their content is still is good.
Aug 4, 2026, 8:15 PM@randahl
It’s
So
Tiring
@randahl Remember when you decided to go with the "DESTROYS” title in a YT video because it would gain a bigger audience?
@WenhamToo yes.
@randahl If it makes you feel better, I just smile in mine, except for the one I made about Elon Musk's CP generator. That one just got a blank serious face.
I'd never watch one of those. It's tagged via the 'shock face' as US Junk.
@randahl well, my tiny YouTube channel won't have anything like that - it's just me playing all sorts of songs on my ukelele, and singing. And you get that. (And anyone who wants to look up Ukelele Eric can follow it, no surprises guaranteed)
@randahl “The YouTube Grimace”
@randahl It's the same with their video titles like "TOTAL COLLAPSE in the WHITE HOUSE as Donald Trump throws ketchup at the wall".
Absolute pish.
Massive channels like Meidas Touch were - WERE - great, but started down this road of click bait video titles, and I just can't be bothered with it anymore. None of the videos actually show the White House in total collapse anyway. It's bullshit.
@darkpaw that is what made me stop watching Bryan Tyler Cohen.
@randahl I don't even adhere to bullshit algorithms. I watch Youtube without account and subscribe to my favorite channels using RSS feed. I have my established feed of creators I just stick with and never fall into spiral of "doom scrolling" channels or just subscribing to them. These shocked faces have no effect on me and it's great. But I'm in a minority when it comes to this.
Aug 4, 2026, 9:31 PM@randahl Facial Clickbait. By the way, what happened to the equally annoying 'point at something' thumbnail trend? I just can't keep up.
@randahl yeah this just makes me sad, and tired… imagine being stuck with that pose on your face for perpetuity… it now makes you feel exhausted 😹
I almost avoid videos with these sorts of “clickbait” stuff, I look for the “boring images” first 😹
Aug 4, 2026, 9:59 PM@randahl what I see:
1 - LSD middle trip
2 - Valium just kicking in
3 - Realizing you just eat a gigantic red hot chili pepper
4 - XXXXL Bad Dragon dildo up in his dry arse
@petitevieille :blobcoffee:
@randahl Lucky me, I almost never see those. For the simple reason that I use the "Unhook YouTube" plugin that hides video recommendations.
Aug 4, 2026, 10:11 PM
@Lazarou @randahl what's worse is the #Hategrooming with #RageBait!
- #Clickbait has been a problem but nowadays it's getting so rampant that it's just just absurd.
Aug 4, 2026, 10:21 PM
Aug 5, 2026, 1:13 PM@SpiritualAnnie @randahl ugh, who would want to see those awful lying faces, they are physically repellent people.
@randahl I was shocked and appalled but I always have resting disappointed face so nobody watched my reaction video.
Aug 4, 2026, 10:17 PM@randahl 😆
I’m shocked 😮
🤣
The YoutTuber that I drop everything to watch his video when it drops every Wednesday hides his face behind a cardboard box, so I don't have that issue with him. Any "recommendation" that does this gets the "never recommend this channel" button clicked (with limited exceptions).
Aug 4, 2026, 10:24 PMAs I said to you at the start. Don’t chase the stats because you will just become generic. You be you. It’s all you need to be and people will seek you out and that won’t be in the stats because the stats don’t measure it.
Whatever you measure yourself by, you will be limited to. Measure well.
Emotions drive us. This is just one form and it’s just the modern equivalent of a doom based headline.
The fact you’re highlighting this defeats your own argument as you haven’t done this and you are part of our world.
All will be fine. I can promise this to everyone. The second phase of social media is coming. The fascism comes first and is peaking. The culture comes second and will take over.
@taatm what an uplifting last paragraph. I think you are right. We are living through the infancy of many new technologies, and that will obviously give us a very distorted picture of what the actual culture will be once everything settles.
When cars came, the accidents were horrific, the deaths plenty. A lot has happened in a hundred years.
You mean if you walked into a museum and saw this you would turn around and walk out?
Maralago face is a more blatant example of 'abject conformity'
Aug 4, 2026, 10:59 PM
@randahl Ugh. Shock face with red arrow. The worst.
Aug 4, 2026, 11:52 PM
I delude myself in telling myself that it I'll make a difference if I will click these videos away with " Don'tt recommend this channel". Then I'll delude myself some more in thinking this will hurt the channel in the long term. Then I realize that YT was never about thinking long term.
@randahl I am glad that I learned to read in school, so I do not have to watch all the "news" or "how-tos" as videos in the YouTube madness. School education is so important. 😀
I seriously don't click on videos with the YouTube face or the "I'm done with" "Why I quit" any of that nonsense.
If I saw someone being really obnoxious and attention getting in real life I wouldn't seek them out for conversation, not sure why I would do that online.
@randahl To me, these people look kind of stupid. But then, I am rather face blind and have problems to read feelings from faces. It simply doesn't work for me the way it works for other people.