Don’t Click

Photo by Aislinn Menke, story by Lydia Underwood

As soon as I type “www” on my computer, YouTube appears automatically. I scroll through the YouTube homepage, and my eyes are immediately drawn to video titles: “You’ll never believe what he asked me,” “This made her cry” and “Storytime: My Psycho Ex Roommate.”

But when I click on the video and watch it, I find I’ve been swindled. In truth, he asked her to prom, she didn’t cry, and her roomate used her fork. I find have fallen victim to the ultimate villain: click-bait.

If catfishing had a twin, click-bait would hands down be her. Essentially click-bait is a tool that YouTubers use to lie to all of their viewers and help them make more money by tricking all their subscribers into watching their video. Whenever I watch a video with a deceiving title, I feel scammed and inexplicably disappointed. It’s similar to the feeling I get when I think a parking spot is open only to discover a smart car has taken the spot. It’s like a friend told me a story that “changed their entire life,” only to find out it was all a lie. I’m cheated from an out-of-this-world experience.  

When YouTube was in its prime, people shared their lives and expressed themselves through videos. Which only fed my curiosity for how college students, other high schoolers, or young adults live and what they do each day. Now, YouTube is a world of click-bait.

All through middle school, I’d watch YouTubers like Danielle Carolan and Jeanine Amapola while doing my homework. Their beauty and inspiration videos, always motivating me and giving me new ways to be productive and things to for myself that will make me happy everyday.

Amapola’s beauty and inspirational videos were often personal. She made a video about her ex-boyfriend she’d secretly married then annulled the marriage. I was instantly hooked.

    I was amazed by the way she shared everything from her dating life to her workout routine with 1.6 million subscribers. I can’t even play a harmless game of “never have I ever.” In a way was living vicariously through her. But like almost all well-known YouTubers, she caught the fatal click-bait virus.  

She was now posting videos named “Opening Up or “I Had One Shot and I Ruined It” that were actually about what she did that day and an awkward conversation with someone in an elevator. By the end, I was only watching to see if I could bust her for using click-bait.

Now, I can barely stand to support someone who is manipulating me, whenever I go onto YouTube I will oftentimes choose to watch Danielle Carolan and Eva Gutowski because they are among the few who don’t use click-bait.

Popular YouTubers that once genuinely cared about their content, like the storytime queen and vlogger, Taylor Skeens titled her video “My Family Poisoned my Boyfriend over Christmas” when really he just got the flu. They lie just to make money while still claiming YouTube is their passion. YouTubers get paid per view, so by using click-bait they can make way more money and earn sponsorship deals.  

Click-bait turns YouTube into an unfair playing field. With the overly dramatic titles such as “I Got Trapped in a Mall for Hours” and “My Mother In-Law Caused my Divorce,”people will be more likely to click on them, even though they are not true. The YouTubers who are actually using YouTube to share their lives with a group and don’t use click-bait are at an unfair advantage because they are getting less views, and ultimately money. The fact that people who are lying can make more money shows how corrupt YouTube has gotten.

So next time you are scrolling through YouTube’s video recommendation looking for a video to watch, I would suggest avoiding titles in all caps, thumbnails with people holding scissors up to their hair, and anything involving the words “storytime.” They are just lies and exaggerations to draw you in.