Have you ever looked – and I mean really looked – at YouTube thumbnails? They are surreal.
Someone noticed at some point that videos get more clicks than the miniature contained a human face and even more so if that face is make an intense facial expression. Armed with this knowledge, people started doing it more… and more… and more. This got them those coveted clicks, which drove other people to do it. Over time, the facial expression evolved until it settled into ‘Youtube Face’. You’ve seen it, even if you don’t know what it is. The current master of this kind of thumbnails is MrBeast:
![Three thumbnails from YouTuber MrBeast's YouTube page, showing his exaggerated smile, an expression known as YouTube face.](https://www.popsci.com/uploads/2023/07/22/MrBeast-YouTube-Face.jpeg)
Imagine, if you will, someone making this facial expression on public transport or in the supermarket. You would be scared (and you should be). Joel Veix, writing for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, called YouTube Face a kind of “clickbait in human form‘, which I think is best. Humans are subconsciously tuned in to human faces and these kinds of thumbnails take advantage of that, enticing you to click videos you otherwise wouldn’t.
If you’re feeling exhausted by all this, don’t worry: a free browser extension can replace any thumbnail on YouTube with a frame from the actual video. This tool also removes all CAPS and other clickbait tactics from the video headline. The result: a much quieter YouTube experience. For example, here are the same three MrBeast videos I showed you above:
![Removed three MrBeast YouTube video thumbnails with his chosen thumbnails and replaced them with stills from the video by the DeArrow browser extension.](https://www.popsci.com/uploads/2023/07/22/DeArrow.jpg)
Download to get started DeArrow, which works on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera (or any browser that supports Chrome extensions). The extension works immediately: open YouTube and you will immediately see the quieter thumbnails.
You don’t have to set anything up, but you can. Go to the extension’s settings by right-clicking on its icon and clicking Institutions.
![The settings interface for DeArrow, a browser extension that removes](https://www.popsci.com/uploads/2023/07/22/DeArrow-Settings.jpg)
There you can disable the replace titles or thumbnails feature. You can also choose how capitalization should work in video titles. This is standard Main thing but there is also Sense case, where only the first letter is capitalized. I recommend capitalization – I find it calmest. There also is a Channel admission listwhich is useful if there are a few channels that you actually want to see the original thumbnails and titles.
I’ve been using the extension for a few weeks now and I find myself wasting a lot less time on YouTube. Thumbnails are less likely to catch my eye, which means I’m more likely to leave after watching the video I opened the site for. This probably isn’t good for YouTube’s bottom line, but it’s very good for my personal productivity.
[Related: 3 ways to avoid falling down a YouTube rabbit hole]
YouTube face is a reminder of how algorithms distort human behavior over time. It happened slowly, starting ten years ago, but over time Lovecraftian forces grip. The weirdest thing is that many just accept it. The almighty algorithm demands distorted facial expressions and crowds go along with it. As the DeArrow website puts it, “It’s nobody’s fault. It is a system that creates a race to the bottom.” Well, we’re at the bottom and it’s time to fix things. DeArrow helps.