Screamers - Why I Have Trust Issues

An old prank that was on the rage in the early 2000s, is now kind of a footnote in the history of the internet.
I decide to think back on my experiences with them, and give a little history as well.
This is obviously not a screamer video, but I can understand if you don't trust me considering the topic.

Regardless I hope you enjoy, sorry for being gone for 2 months, I really dislike summer, and it heavily impacts my ability to work on videos.

Additional music:
Papov - Yung Logos
Luxery - Causmic

[borederlands]

There's something existentially scary about thinking that anytime anywhere on the internet you could just get jumpscared through no fault of your own

[ventoventi]

screamers have literally gave me a permanent fear of the dark lmao. because most of the backgrounds of screamers (when the face pops out) are dark / black, i now associate any dark screen, tv or background with something that’s going to pop out at me. lord help me

[sleepyashu]

You said you wouldn't scare us, but growing up as an early 2000's kid... I trust no one.

[NotJarrod]

Idk if anybody would count this, but my first "screamer" was the butterfly episode in Spongebob. The part that shows the butterfly super zoomed in and really loud buzzing audio plays.

Idk why but that shit traumatized me so much as a kid.

[woollycabbit]

The screamer era of YouTube was the most annoying, imo. But I think back then it was a little easier to tell if it was a screamer based on how many stars the video had (I miss the 5-star rating system).

[NoperKSKx]

This video made me realize something. I have this habit of always checking the comments of a video while the first few seconds are being played. It's been so long that I misremembered and attributed this habit to hyperactivity, but watching this made the memories flood back.

No... it wasn't because of hyperactivity, it was to search for the scare's timestamp in the comments, if the video had any. I guess I was traumatized too and didn't even remember LMAO.

P.S.: My first jumpscare was the daisy circuit shortcut for MK Wii. The video is still around to this day iirc!

[purplegalaxies]

I remember watching AFV as a kid and they pulled up the “what’s wrong with this picture” screamer and it gave me nightmares for weeks!

[airex]

Screamers are like a rite of passage. A coming of age ceremony to teach kids that “hey, not everything and everyone on the Internet is good / for your benefit”

[iitim]

I fully expected a screamer immediately after the "I promise you".

[StanleyMOV]

I remember being 14/15 years old and looking up "ghost chair.mp4" on a public library pc with headphones on, and when the screamer showed up I jumped away from the pc while screaming, and EVERYBODY in the library was looking at me. It's one of those memories that suddenly pops up at 3am when you can't sleep

[khakisohn]

as someone who has SERIOUS paranoia issues, I really, really appreciate you slowing down and muting the actual scares. I've always been fascinated by screamers and other popular horror in older media, but ofc paranoia gets in the way of all that.

[koenko]

scariest time of my entire life was the screamer era of the internet. you couldn't watch ANYTHING, even if you got really good at telling when it was about to happen, the really smart ones gave you NO warning

[EduardoIsSmiling]

This video is based. I love how you had all the oportunity to traumatize me once again, you literally had me in your fucking hands the entire video, but never pulled a screamer. I feel you are the only person i can trust and i can trust you in everything, i wish you were my brother or something

[noinfo]

When I was little my aunts thought it would be funny to play a prank. So they sat me down and had me watch hours of screamers, every screamer they could find (they all blend to gather now but the library one is so vivid) it went tilI I stopped reacting, no yelping no flinching no wincing no blinking. it was mentality scarring, I wish I could say I got over it but I didn't and even over a decade later it still keeps me up at night.

[briandiomede]

The screamer that got me is a club penguin video that advertised an infinite money glitch. It said watch until the end, but I hadn't encounter too many screamers before so I didn't catch the hint. The evil thing about it was the video seemingly buffered and then gave the YouTube "this video is no longer available" error before screaming, so everytime something buffered after that I would take my headphones off or mute the volume before making sure the video was actually buffering. Screamers are a trend I won't miss.

[kurocomics]

The fact I instinctively yelled "NO!" and jumped back when I saw the K-fee car ad near the screamer portion even though I knew he would edit it to make it not scary at all just shows the level of childhood trauma these things can cause someone

[NekuZX]

When I was a kid I played this one flash game called "the upgrade game" that was actually genuinely fun because you played to gain money and upgrade not only your character but basic features of the game. Like adding music or a better pause menu.

One of the available upgrades however was "increased heart rate" which was vague, so I bought it to see what it meant, But nothing would happen. However, 2 minutes later, the game would be interrupted by a flashing image of a fat kid screaming.
That was the most terrifying screamer I've ever got.

[CarlosRoyalTiger]

The ghost girl comic is such a classic. I remember my browser having an issue when "playing" the animations, so it kept scrolling up and down instead of just doing it once. It happened in the middle of the night when I was using the computer in complete darkness. Clicking on the x to close the browser didn't work, but alt + F4 did. It was one of the best scares I ever had.

[BitBlush]

I remember my uncle would hit me with these constantly because I had "funny" reactions. Eventually he dressed up in a monster costume and chased me down in my house. I was maybe 8 years old.
Now, over a decade later, I have trouble looking out windows or mirrors in case there's something there. Even when it subsides enough, I can't enjoy horror content half the time because it'll make that paranoia resurface again.

It's not like a hallucination, it's like, something in my brain *knows* this is exactly how the jumpscare goes. I look in the mirror, my reflection opens its mouth and climbs out and gets me. It feels silly but it never really went away for me.

[flame]

My first screamer was the maze game and goddamn i'll never forget how Reagan's image made me cold sweat everytime i saw it. Fortunately i got over it when i got older and even watched the Exorcist which turned out to be a banger horror movie, but yeah, the memory still lingers lmao.