Before getting into this article I have to admit that this is rather incomplete. The reason I’m choosing to publish it is because of that—it’s incomplete and I feel the only way to think on this subject more is to solicit discussion around it. So here it is:
I feel there’s an intellectual disconnect in the content primarily found on YouTube. This seems to be both a flaw and to work in its favor.
Part of this thought stems from the question I’m constantly asking myself: Why are YouTube titles written in all caps? It’s the residue—or I would suggest, the blind regurgitation—of other YouTubers’ success. It seems that it’s less of a conscious decision and more of an expectation at this point. To that, I’d be interested to see if there are conversion rates (if a YouTuber could A/B test a title) to determine if following such a formula yields better results. More so, even if results showed it yielded more views, I would then begin to question the effect it has on the viewers, their expectations, and their mode of thinking.
Then again, I’m less interested in metrics as I am in deliberate thought. I feel as though I can’t help but question, how can we foster a more intellectually driven YouTube community? With the constant rise in vlogging, it’s influence on main stream media is inevitable. So this question stems less from a position or fear of what it means within the realms of YouTube and more so how might it affect advertising, copy-writing, graphic design, film, poetry, etc.
Needless to say, this is an incomplete thought and most of what’s here is simply skepticism and questions I don’t know how to answer or even ask properly. I just know that YouTube is such a massive platform and it’s influence has been heavily on the rise, so I can’t help but think about the content found on it. Have you thought about any of this stuff? Do you watch any particular YouTube channels? Does this even matter?