I disagree.

A click bait, is a bait, a lure in all instances to get something different what is expected.

A fish wanting the worm gets the hook, a fox wanting the meat, gets the snap trap. The clicker wanting the content promised in the title, gets something different, not what is expected.

> ... wearing a funny hat ...

An instructor still delivers all the details and content as expected with or without the funny hat. Not so for click bait videos.

If that's the definition, then the thumbnails we're talking about aren't click-bait.

The thumbnails are doing the funny hat thing.

You're correct. Now imagine that the vast majority of teachers focused more on wearing funny hats to engage students than teaching them the material - because schools paid them more for that.

Parents would probably be interested in alternatives.

> Click bait isn't different than wearing a funny hat to engage students in class.

what are you talking about?

a student gets stuck going to class regardless of how goofy the teacher dresses, whereas I feel an extreme sense of revulsion when I click on a YT link with a meme-thumbnail or a clickbait title.

your analogy fails since in this instance the 'student' gets to decide whether or not they participate in the course.

If I had had the chance to walk out on goofy teachers through high school then -- just as one anecdote -- I wouldn't have graduated.

so, in other words, clickbait 'engagement' style marketing will get your volume numbers up, but the hidden aspect is that there will be a market that pulls entirely away from you -- 'teachers' on YT will need to understand these market dynamics if they're really interested in teaching the masses rather than making money on viewership.

If teachers K-12 were paid according to their student throughput that'd turn into a major humanitarian crisis, imo.

You’re baking in the assumption that goofy hat is 100% correlated with bad content, but I’d say 30% of my YouTube subscriptions do the goofy hat thing (usually just having somewhat baity thumbnails / titles) yet deliver great content.

And honestly? I don’t care. The content is good, and if the hat gets them more viewers then all the better.

I'm not who you replied to, but I do care, I don't want to be made to feel stupid, I don't want to think that people are stupid, I want things to be presented as they are even if not immediately understands them.

In the UK we see this with nonsense talk of 'the [energy] price cap' being some £ figure per year - when it's not, it's a £/kWh cap, but the media can't cope with that, we're stuck with what it means for 'the average household'. Even comparison sites refuse to compare what you actually pay, £/day and £/kWh, and instead insist on asking you about number of bedrooms etc.

I'm sick of everything being dumbed down.

Ok well that’s a different scenario. I mean I agree some things are dumbed down way too much.

I’m just saying there’s a decent reason for some of it. A huge audience on YouTube are children, teens.

Good example of clown being educational is ElectroBoom. He constantly keeps "accidentally" electrocuting himself and goofing around. The videos have very crisp editing and baity thumbnails. At the same time a lot of the content is deeply informative and educational.

I'm not sure you can call his series a curriculum, yet I think I learned a lot more from there than from my university classes, despite watching it primarily for the fun and not for learning.