HEY! CLICK ON THIS LINK TO LEARN ABOUT CLICKBAIT! AM I DOING THIS RIGHT!?!?

While I might not have a complete and total grasp on the topic at hand, I think I can understand the idea of the “Me” and “I” well enough. In this context, the “Me” is mainly about people conforming to the norms of the society around them, in an attempt to be accepted by those others in the community. In opposition, the “I” works off of the “Me” to become more individualized, to allow people to have a more individual feel. Those are the basic ideas that I have read about in the readings for this week in class, and I can’t think of a better way to personify these two ideas than with Youtube. In particular, I really want to look at the idea of the “Me” in terms of Youtube thumbnails.

For the many years I have watched Youtube, one thing in particular has always stood out for me, and not always for the better. Whenever I see a thumbnail on Youtube, my mind immediately goes to one of two places. Either “Oh wow, that video looks kinda cool, I’d be up for watching it!” Or “Ugh, more clickbait… I’ll still watch it, just to see if it’s true or not.” The idea of clickbait on Youtube is nothing remotely new. It’s been around for years, and has continued to grow in popularity as time goes on. Some might ask what exactly clickbait is. Clickbait is supposed to “bait” you into looking at a video, a website, or more by throwing you things that you might want to see at you. For example, one Youtuber I used to watch by the name Nightblue3 has a lot of thumbnails for videos that would be considered clickbait. His content is mainly geared towards League of Legends, one of the top grossing MOBAs (Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas) in 2020. Now, what make his thumbnails clickbait is the content within them. From the images of champions within the video game to the facial expressions he sometimes chooses to use on them, to even the bold, yellow font that he chose to use, all of this is geared towards drawing you in to watch the videos. Half the time, however, these videos don’t feel as though they deliver what you want to see, or fall short just a bit of what was expected. And yet, most of the time people watch these videos all the same, simply because the thumbnail stood out so much that we couldn’t resist clicking on the video.

            In a way, the idea of the “Me” can certainly be joined together with the idea of entertainment and advertising. Many companies advertise by trying to show things that people would want to see, things that can help relate to their audiences. Sometimes the things they show have almost nothing to do with what they are selling, simply done in order to gain the attention and, hopefully, the support of their audiences. This is absolutely what clickbait does, as it is a means to garner the support of audiences without even allowing them to watch the video first. Though, there is always that “I” input that these Youtube channels use, as they customize their own clickbait to fit accordingly with what they are attempting to advertise. While Nightblue3 has one style of clickbait, another Youtuber like Mini Ladd has another form of clickbait to advertise his own videos. The incredibly powerful use of clickbait has become so strong that it is nearly impossible to scroll through Youtube without seeing at least two to three thumbnails that are clearly meant to draw in the viewer. It could be argued that these Youtubers are using this as their own form of “commercials” akin to commercials one might see while watching TV. If they don’t seem interesting enough, or if they don’t bait a person hard enough, the video won’t get as many watches as they hope for. And, as Youtube is their form of income, that wouldn’t be very good for them. Thus this need for clickbait comes up, applying the idea of the “Me” once again. If the Youtuber doesn’t follow the example of others for how they advertise their channel, how are they going to hope that they bring in more, newer people to help add on to their payroll?

            Although I certainly don’t care to see clickbait thumbnails on Youtube, I can understand the need for them, and their purpose. They’re meant, in a way, to be annoying. They’re meant to get in your face and force you to stare at them, wondering “What’s in this video?” This need for clickbait on Youtube continues to rise higher and higher, everyone following one-another’s examples in order to become popular and noticed on the platform. Even if their video is original and interesting, Youtubers would continue to create clickbait in order to draw in people, in hopes of garnering themselves more support and more viewers to help line their pockets.