I used to occasionally enjoy watching random videos online. But this trend of people attaching their annoying and obviously FAKE reactions on top of the video is happening a lot lately. Aren’t people bothered by this ? How is that even supposed to help with the content of the video ? I understand if they own the content of the video, but lately I see a lot of people doing it on completely random content.
In order to use someone elses content under fair use you have to make “meaningful commentary” so they do the bare minimum in order to use other people’s videos.
This is the correct answer here! People copyright strike reposted videos all the time, but turning it into commentary makes it a new artwork so it won’t get removed. They also often insert the commentary over the sections of video that include copyrighted music.
I had very recently come across a reactionary content left-wing YouTube channel, reacting to Rachel Maddow of MSNBC reacting to Elon Musk’s interview… I thought that was pretty bizarre. (link).
It was a 30 second intro segment, then a 8 minute clip of the Maddow show, followed by a 1 minute outro commentary segment.
One of the ways to avoid a copyright strike is if you copy other people’s work, then what you upload must be “transformative” i.e. you have alter that source content significantly. Satire / Parody are two ways to do that.
But the cheapest, laziest way to “transform” content is to do reaction videos to it. And some people don’t even do that. They’ll just sit there, eating their dinner . . . occasionally glancing at the screen and going, “huh.” Lazy jerks.
I actively avoid videos with those awful thumbnails, but I figure it must result in a net gain in clicks.
I will sometimes watch them on YouTube as it’s a compilation of a certain kind of goofy video. Otherwise I’m getting random clips from all kinds of genres.
It’s absolutely awful and if I get clickbaited into one such videos I let it play for a few seconds before clicking it away. I hope this makes their bounce rate drop.
They steal content and provide nothing of value besides their fragile and fake personalities that a few people might like because they’re lonely.
Small correction: Bounce rate going UP is what you’re trying to achieve
Oh yeah right. My bad.
Narcissism
You should make one of those video with your reaction to the fake reaction videos
easy way to steal content, and enough people don’t care it’s happening, so they get away with it
That’s one of the reasons I stopped using YouTube. I don’t want to see people’s stupid face, it adds nothing and it detracts from the video.
If you’re referring to the youtube thumbnail trend, it’s because it helps people choose videos without reading channel names. You know who it’s from just by looking, you see the title, you’re more likely to click.
In other words, the office nerds at Mr. Beast Inc. crunched the numbers and discovered that they get ??% more viewers by putting Jimmy’s face in the thumbnail, and every other youtuber took that as gospel.
It boosts engagement. Anything you see trending is because it boosts engagement. Social media pays for engagement, content creators min max for that.
Are there people who specifically watch these videos for the reactions? I can imagine some enjoying it, but I thought the general consensus (at least among my friends) is that it’s annoying. I was hoping the trend would die out at some point, but the opposite seems to be happening.
Reaction videos have been for many years always very profitable. I mean, you can easily find creators/channels that have millions of views and they just film themselves reacting to a video. As a creator, you can incorporate a bit of that into your content and you’ll likely see people engaging more. I personally never understood what’s the appeal of watching somebody watch something instead of me watching that directly. I think it is something that goes in the direction of a para-social relationship, but I’m no expert.
Edit: I think I might be thinking about a different kind of reaction videos mind. Sharing an example of what you were referring to?
It is gross, but watch a child watch the video. They look to the talking head to interpret what is happening and to tell them how to react.
Sounds like boomers watching cable news to me.
Some people like wwf wrestling, some people like fake reaction videos.
“Look at this old lady. She wake up everyday to do old lady things. Like if you think that the old lady is doing great”
As in most social media apps, downvote and move on. Personally, I have a list of channels I subscribe to and mostly just stick to watching the content they produce. None of that is reaction videos, which I agree are lazy and stupid, but I guess some people like them or they wouldn’t keep making the rounds.
I’m not sure what you mean… I haven’t really gotten much of that at all, thankfully, as it does sound pretty annoying.
Not sure why that people do it, and yes it is annoying.
