Hello! I'm not sure I am the right person to be writing this post as a blogger opposed to a YouTuber, but I am an avid YouTube viewer subscribed to 94 channels most of which I will watch on a regular basis and I'd say I watch YouTube for at least an hour everyday often more, I 100% watch YouTube videos way more than I watch actual TV. However recently beginning with a Sprinkle of Glitter YouTubers have been making videos about the community often what they see is wrong with the community as their channels increase in size, most notably Zoella who recently reached 5 million subscribers, and how overwhelming they are finding what they are doing. I think the most on the money video is Pointless Blog or Alfie in 'We Need to Talk'.
Other YouTube culture videos:
My first point I would like to make is YouTubers vs Celebrities
Whilst some would differ them to celebrities, they have huge fan bases, appear in magazines... does this not happen to celebrities? Therefore I would consider them as so. I feel an argument against them being celebrities is they didn't set out to become famous, as it began as just a hobby. However actors, musicians etc I don't believe set out to be famous, but do their job because they love it and are passionate about it, personally I want to go to drama school to become an Actress because I love acting not because I want to be famous, I just want a career I know that I would love. On the other hand their are people who are famous for being famous the Paris Hilton's and Kim Kardashians of the world who make money by their name being attached to something. Is this not what YouTubers are now beginning to do with books being published, realistically are large portion of their sales are going to be from their fans, not so much because they are well written pieces of literary arts - I'M NOT SAYING THEY'RE NOT GOOD BOOKS- John Green is a best selling author and a YouTuber, I'm not condemning them!
Going on from the celebrity point... not expecting their Channel's to take off
Way back in 2007 Charlie McDonnell aka Charlieissocoollike appeared on BBC Breakfast to talk about his videos that were taking the world media world by storm link here for the interview, this I personally think is the turning point when it became possible for a YouTuber, to become someone (especially in the UK), he now has nearly 2.4million subscribers. When you have other YouTuber's such as Jenna Marbles with 13 million subscribers, I think that we can all see if you make content which is enjoyable channels can grow massively.
Role Models
The jist I'm getting is some YouTubers aren't comfortable with viewers having them as role models as someone to look up to, as we don't see the whole image of their lives online. But a large majority of people on social media only share the good and exciting parts of their lives, I am going to use facebook as an example when people upload pictures its generally of events such as holidays and parties for example not a picture showing your day when you've been down, this is our internet persona, so it's only normal showing the good and exciting parts. I think in Alfie's video he puts it well you can look upto those who's video you watch, the people in the video are probably going to be the same in real life, but to be aware to an extent this is a persona and they may be going through things they don't want to share, but you can still look up to them.
Charity
Personally one of the most positive things to come out of this raising money for good causes. Out of my sub box Tyler Oakley stands out with his recent Birthday collaboration with the Trevor Project which in brief 'The Trevor Project is the leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth.' Find out more about the charity, Here, definitely worth a read. Tyler has been involved with the Trevor Project for a long while, making videos, interning in 2009 and hosts their annual red carpet event. This year for his birthday he asked fans and views to donate to the charity with an initial aim of raising $150,000 which is already a huge amount, the final amount however was $525,704 which is astonishing and will go towards helping a large amount of young people.
This website here, has other examples of fundraising achieved on YouTube. Here is an article on the Guardian website about PewDiePie's latest fundraising this time with charity Save The Children
Why do I watch YouTube?
I feel like some of this post has been a bit anti-YouTube, but I've tried to take a step back and had a look back on the whole thing. Therefore I think I need to say why I personally watch YouTube. I began by reading blogs, which lead me to Essiebutton aka Estee and she had a YouTube channel which I clicked on, and loved the video I watch God knows what that was, and I watched YouTube for pretty much the same reason as I read blogs for beauty, make up and fashion, something I was and am still interested in, and that is predominately what I watch, I have branched out since to cooking channels and comedy channels, but my favourite videos are 'follow me around' vlogs - I just find it interesting to see what people are doing I guess. I also like YouTube because you can watch it for hours on end, or just use it as a stop gap for a short time
Some of my Favourites
Estee from EssieButton
Fleur from FleurdeForce
Grace Helbig from ItsGrace
Zoe from Zoella
Lexi for So Totally Vlog/Lexi A-N
Jessie from Sunbeamsjess
Ingrid from MissGlamorazzi
and that is just the tip of the iceburg!
Thank you for reading if you got to the end!!!
What are your thoughts do you disagree, agree or have I missed anything out?
What are your thoughts do you disagree, agree or have I missed anything out?
xxx
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