90% of youtube thumbnails have a face in them, usually of an exaggerated emotion, and that goes for both male and female youtubers. Many youtubers have confirmed time and time again that the algorithm favors faces by a pretty wide margin, and thus most play that game.
I’m not a fan of it, I wish they didn’t or the algorithm was changed to not favor it, but I understand why they do it. Though I don’t think it’s particularly gendered as your image claims.
CrystAAHHL, just to show that I’m not cherry-picking, yes, she does the reaction face way too much
Meanwhile, LaurieWired’s entire catalogue is “look how attractive my face is!” This one doesn’t even have the subject in the thumbnail! It’s just her walking in a park. Also, what’s up with her videos from two years ago? Did she completely change her makeup style just to look more attractive in thumbnails?
90% of youtube thumbnails have a face in them, usually of an exaggerated emotion, and that goes for both male and female youtubers. Many youtubers have confirmed time and time again that the algorithm favors faces by a pretty wide margin, and thus most play that game.
I’m not a fan of it, I wish they didn’t or the algorithm was changed to not favor it, but I understand why they do it. Though I don’t think it’s particularly gendered as your image claims.
Having a face on them is one thing. Sometimes the person is the subject of the video, and it’s worth highlighting that in the video.
Having the person making the video staring at the camera, in a pose that says “look at how attractive I am” is another.
Also, this is not as hard and fast as you make it out. Here, I’ll post some random examples in my feed:
In fact, I had to dig to find videos that would really qualify:
Even (most) of the female YouTubers on my feed aren’t falling for it:
Meanwhile, LaurieWired’s entire catalogue is “look how attractive my face is!” This one doesn’t even have the subject in the thumbnail! It’s just her walking in a park. Also, what’s up with her videos from two years ago? Did she completely change her makeup style just to look more attractive in thumbnails?