Clickbait Culture: The Dark Side of Kashmir’s YouTube

By Maroof Lone

Kashmir’s YouTube scene has seen an unprecedented boom in recent years. From

vlogs to music videos, talk shows to tutorials, comedy sketches, dramas; you can find everything on the platform. However, with the rise of this new medium, there is also a darker side that is emerging – the rampant use of clickbait titles and thumbnails.The use of clickbait titles and thumbnails has become a trend in the Kashmir YouTube community. With the increasing number of content creators, it has become a common practice to use exaggerated titles and irrelevant thumbnails to attract views. 

However, this trend is causing more harm than good. Clickbait is a term used to describe content that is designed to attract attention and encourage people to click on a link, often with the use of sensational or misleading headlines, thumbnails, or descriptions. The purpose of clickbait is typically to generate more website traffic, social media shares, or video views, rather than to provide valuable or informative content. Clickbait can be found across a wide range of media platforms, including social media, news websites, and video-sharing sites like YouTube and A clickbait thumbnail is an eye-catching image or graphic used on social media or websites to encourage viewers to click on an article or video link. It often features bold, exaggerated, or provocative images

that may not accurately represent the content. 

The goal is to create a sense of curiosity or intrigue in the viewer to generate clicks and views.Many of these content creators use this crying emoji “” and provocative thumbnails, which are misleading and have nothing to do with the actual content of the video. These techniques are used to lure viewers, but often the content fails to live up to the expectation, leaving the audience feeling cheated. They also use sad background music and other emotional triggers to lure viewers into watching their videos. Additionally, many of these creators use viral videos from social media platforms and add their own face cam for a few seconds, which does not add any value to the video. They then present it as their own content and use clickbait titles to attract views. 

This practice undermines the value of original content and contributes to the spread of misinformation. The consequences of clickbait titles and thumbnails are significant. It causes good content to be ignored and overshadowed by the fake, provocative ones. The focus of these content creators is to attract views rather than providing quality content, leading to disappointment for the viewers who end up being misled.Furthermore, the clickbait titles and thumbnails can negatively impact the overall perception of the YouTube community in Kashmir. 

As a result, the audience may lose interest and trust in the platform, leading to the loss of valuable content creators and viewers. Creators should focus on producing high-quality content that is informative, entertaining, and engaging. Clickbait tactics should be avoided as they are harmful to the community as a whole. Instead, creators should rely on their skills and creativity to attract views and build a loyal audience. In conclusion, the use of clickbait titles and thumbnails on Kashmir YouTube has negative consequences for both the content creators and the audience. It is important to focus on quality content rather than misleading techniques that undermine the credibility of the platform. Instead, content creators should focus on providing value to their audience through original, informative and engaging content that keeps the viewers coming back. The Kashmiri YouTube community has a lot of potential, and we should strive to make it a place where quality content thrives and clickbait is left behind.

Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer 

• The author is a blogger and tech enthusiast 

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