YouTube Click-bait

Above is a PrtScr capture of part of a page from YouTube.

Of course we are attracted. We can imagine being able to pull scads of robust carrots for free, instead of lugging a 5-pound plastic bag from the supermarket.

But then, If Something Sounds/Looks Too Good To Be True, It’s Probably Not True.

Look again. When did you ever see carrots so clean (“…Every Season Has Clean Carrots To Eat”) and large protruding about six inches above the ground?

Now this screen-grab is a little closer to the truth – but it is not yet necessarily the truth.

Centre we see that the carrots do NOT push up six inches above the soil level, and to the left we see that, naturally, they arrive coated in soil – not laundered at the farm before being packed.

Do yourself a favour and head over to YouTube and examine the first nine images that appear; quickly decide whether or not they promotional image is likely to be accurate, then watch a few seconds of each video and see how well you did.

In the example shown above I decided within one second that something was wrong.

The promotional image would NOT be found anywhere in the nine-minute video.

Rephrased: The promotional image is a fake. It has been fabricated from at least two images.

Which is to say that the promotional image is a false promise.

I wrote above “it is not yet necessarily the truth” because I believe that very rarely does a job work out perfectly the first time. I was raised skeptical, and at times paranoid. Here I suspect that the actual video, including the version which produced the first image above, was not the first effort at growing carrots in blue plastic tubs.

I grant you that in warmer climes than Bonavista it is possible to plant carrot seeds in blue plastic tubs every two weeks for three months, and thus have three months of harvest later in the growing year. Then you can choose the best of about six to eight videos for your submission to YouTube.

But beginner’s luck? No!

Enjoy YouTube with your skeptical mind.

I do!

(Later)

Spot the clue in the bolded text in this promotional image, and don’t waste eleven minutes of your life.

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