YouTube’s biggest problem isn’t ads — it’s trust

YouTube has grown tremendously over the years and has become a popular place to earn a living for many talented creators, while others use it for entertainment.

They complemented each other and helped YouTube grow the way it did since its inception.

In addition to this mutually beneficial relationship, Google’s algorithm deserves credit for YouTube’s meteoric rise to become one of the best streaming platforms.

However, it isn’t immune to criticism. YouTube gets plenty of it, and for the right reasons, especially for its dismal AI strategy.

The answer to why YouTube isn’t their favorite streaming platform or why it’s lost its shine can vary depending on who you ask. The answer might also depend on which YouTube client they use to watch videos.

However, when someone asks me what’s wrong with YouTube, I answer them with just a word: trust. Here is why I think so.

YouTube makes it look like creators are at fault

To become a successful creator on YouTube, the mantra is to create videos that users want to see and not ones you want to make.

While it sounds empowering on paper, creators need to rely on YouTube’s data for what’s working, and therein lies the problem.

Instead of encouraging creators and providing them with better means to understand what viewers want to watch, YouTube offers “best practices” articles. It fails to help creators get anywhere close to understanding the rules hidden in the algorithm.

It’s frustrating, particularly for new creators, because they have to rely on trial and error to figure out what the algorithm will reward. This pushes many to resort to making sensational and emotionally manipulative content for a particular demographic.

You’ll find channels with just a few hundred subscribers and videos with triple-digit views suddenly drop sensational content that gets lots of eyeballs. That’s how YouTube rewards sensationalism.

YouTube also recommends consistent posting to get better visibility for your channel. So, instead of encouraging creators to show the world what comes naturally to them, it forces YouTubers to churn out content.

The lack of a solid best-practices guide, combined with algorithmic pressure, creates a fertile ground for sensationalism. The pressure to keep up or risk being invisible is even greater for channels that cover niche topics.

These creators are particularly vulnerable to mental fatigue, stress, and burnout, and fail to reach their full potential.

Talented creators trying to create something honest get lost in the noise. Their story ends before it begins.

YouTube mistakes viewers’ behavior for what they want to watch

The urge to click is often impulsive and doesn’t necessarily imply genuine interests.

Curiosity, surprise, or even fear of missing out are some of the triggers that one can tactfully use in thumbnails and headlines to lure viewers to click.

To be fair to YouTube, clicks aren’t the only metric for any video to go viral. It also takes into account a healthy watch time and the number of shares to judge the content’s virality quotient. However, these aren’t super helpful, either.

Viewers can be tricked into interacting with misleading content without realizing it.

Unless it’s politically sensitive or pandemic-related, YouTube is usually slow to take action on this type of content. Worse, YouTube itself sometimes recommends or notifies users about it.

One of the latest examples I came across is an unofficial fan-made trailer video for Avengers: Doomsday. The title sounds misleading because it doesn’t mention that it’s an unofficial trailer, nor does the thumbnail.

Viewers in the comment section reported that YouTube sent them notifications about the video, even to those who aren’t subscribed to the channel.

Casual users, who make up the vast majority of YouTube’s audience and trust YouTube’s recommendations, are most likely to fall for it. I’m not a casual user, but I don’t track every upcoming movie release, and I fell for it a few times.

For someone who has just joined YouTube or is exploring the internet for the first time, it might turn out to be a monumental task to find trusted creators, not because there are a few of them, but because of Google’s lack of enthusiasm in effectively counteracting misleading content.

YouTube must redefine engagement to restore trust

If you go by YouTube’s official words, it discourages fake news, removes content that violates the company’s policies, and moves authoritative content to a higher position.

These all sound great on paper, but the problem lies in their implementation, and in many cases, the lack of it, especially for “borderline content.”

YouTube struggles to take decisive action against content that doesn’t fully violate its policy. In the case of such pieces of content, YouTube reduces their visibility instead of fully removing them altogether.

As a result, YouTube can’t fully get rid of misleading content from its platform. Google’s lackadaisical attitude makes it worse, allowing creators to exploit users’ emotions for easy engagement and get away with it.

By the time it decides to reduce its visibility, millions of users would have fallen for the misleading content.

YouTube needs to learn that engagement and trust aren’t mutually exclusive. If YouTube doesn’t, it’ll lose this battle to someone else that doesn’t compromise on credibility to drive engagement.

If not for all, it should make things better for Premium users, or risk losing them to a better alternative.