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Veritasium made a video about this : thumbnails and title so much drastically change your view count that, even if you are against it, you would be stupid to no
by pjerem 3y ago
Veritasium made a video about this : thumbnails and title so much drastically change your view count that, even if you are against it, you would be stupid to not jump into the trend, especially if your business is correlated to view counts.
But I’m like you, I’m pretty sad about it because sometimes this pushes me back very hard and I avoided some otherwise very great quality channels for months or years because of that.
My most remarkable example of this is KURZGESAGT : YouTube algorithm was always suggesting it and my brain was always thinking that this looked like cheap animated videos with colors everywhere to catch my eyes, probably with synthetic narration. I ignored it for months until I watched one by accident. And boy did I discovered it was in fact a brilliant channel with probably one of the most impressive animation and music on YouTube, an incredible narrator, one of the rare YouTube channels which provides links to studies for anything sentence they say and all of this full of poetry.
Also a very non intrusive business model with pertinents sponsorships at the end of the videos and their own merchandise marketplace with actually nice items and artwork to buy.
The even sadder thing is that their thumbnails are in fact pretty good but they mostly suffered from the fact that my brain is now programmed to avoid anything catchy.
- brandnewideas 3y agoIgnoring the fact that KURZGESAGT is a blatant propaganda conduit, the art-style they use in their animations is so flat and devoid of any personality at all, I'm actively repulsed by it.
- pjerem 3y agoI’m open to debate but propaganda for what exactly ? There was only one of their video I felt awkward was their video about the fact we will tackle climate change, I felt like they were I little too techno optimistic. But given that they have a good history in this subject, I just felt their goal was to provide optimism. Also, I’m sorry if I’m overly paranoid but I feel strange that you created an account just to make this comment.
- brandnewideas 3y agoPropaganda for billionaires and the various methodologies they use to control and slowly reshape society. The following video is a good start: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjHMoNGqQTI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjHMoNGqQTI The optimism you mention in your comment is key. Conditioning the public to perceive and blindly accept the ideas and procedures commonly discussed in many of their videos as something net-positive seems to be the primary goal. The art-style I think plays a very well-defined role in that: yes it's bland, but it's the most unlikely one to offend any one average viewer, irrespective of nationality or culture. It's just cute 2D flat birds after all.
- mlrtime 3y agoSo it is "blatant propaganda" but you can't come up with 3-4 bullets explaning your reasoning? If it were so blatent I would need to watch another video.
- imtringued 3y agoVeritasium is the kind of guy who makes a video explaining how his titles aren't clickbait, yet he optimizes thumbnails and video titles after the video is published to maximize views more than anyone else.
- pjerem 3y agoWhich at least is … honest.
- bitcharmer 3y agoHow do you know he does that more than anyone else?
- octacat 3y ago> In 2015, the channel received a 570,000 US dollar grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, who later became one of their key sponsors. Kurzgesagt have made videos calling for investment in novel technologies the foundation also supports, such as carbon capture and artificial meat. There is one good way to solve climate issues: consume less. Instead, kurzg says "we could consume, but someone will solve our issues with new great tech, like carbon capture". Still, people like it, because it "sounds good".
- bitcharmer 3y agoThat's extremely disingenuous way to describe Kurtzgesagt. The channel offers high quality educational content.
- octacat 3y agoThere are channels without propaganda like ScienceClic/pbs space time. Good propoganda would not work if it would be too obvious. But once you read Kurtz story and try to reevaluate their "proposed" solutions to eco issues, you can see how it aligns. It is "technooptimism". Like similar to "invest into AI, it will solve all of our problems". Sadly... Ok ok, so it is basically science video channel with sponsored content where they don't say it is sponsored content. Better description?
- uranusjr 3y agoThey offer educational content. From limited consumption I would not rate it as high quality. More like acceptable I guess.
- sgift 3y ago> There is one good way to solve climate issues: consume less. Instead, kurzg says "we could consume, but someone will solve our issues with new great tech, like carbon capture". No, kurzgesagt says that given that people won't be willing to consume less to the required degree novel tech will also have to play a role. It's disingenuous to run around and say that 'consume less' is the solution knowing that people won't do it. At least not if they aren't forced to. Do you want to argue for forcing people? Then say it. Don't hide behind "oh, just consume less, it's the only thing that works".