I've been watching youtubers for a very long time. Much like many people my age. In fact if you look back in my archive of posts you'll even see some youtuber's that I've watched in the past or likely present. I've been watching youtuber's since 2007 or 2008, which is either two or three years from the time that youtube became a thing. I love youtube, I love a lot of youtube culture and have even tried my hand at vloging a few times. In fact in my now copious amounts of free time, I have considered re-starting my channel again.
When I started watching youtube, a good number of people on the site were not just viewers but in fact were also creators themselves. That has since changed as youtubers have become more mainstream. I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. It means that people like me who aren't and have never been a part of the youtube creator community are much more a part of the community now. However with this there has come a myriad of problems, that perhaps I'll talk about in a different post.
As I've been watching youtubers for so long I have been greatly influenced by some of them. Some have been fantastic influences, such as the vlogbrothers, others I probably shouldn't have been watching at such an impressionable age, ShaneDawson for instance. However, I truly think that youtube has helped me immensely in learning about the world and the spectrum of different people that live in this world. I don't think I could be as informed as I am without youtube.
Not just in the traditional education sense of the word informed either. Youtube has many fantastic educational resources, but they have even more resources that tell other people's perspectives. Vloggers share themselves and their perspectives with the world. They tell us what they are thinking and in general don't sugar coat anything. It has made me better aware and more understanding to things from American tipping culture to LGBTQ+ rights to politics to racism.
Youtube is a safe space and hateful place all at once. On the one hand most youtubers who would like to stay in the mainstream have to adhere to a certain set of standards that have been established over the years otherwise they will be ostracized by other youtubers. This ultimately makes them unable to grow their channels with the way youtube's search algorithms work these days. I think that this is a good thing because the set of standards that youtubers are held to is high. The days of unregulated hate speeches on youtube are over. Well, except, not really. People still can and do upload hate onto youtube, but generally they cannot get a large audience if they do so.
Being just a viewer of youtube is an odd place to be. You get to know people through their videos. It's more intimate than TV, even reality TV, in my opinion. I am very aware that youtubers edit their vlogs and videos not only does this make them look better but it also allows them to decide what they share with the world. They generally don't show the bad days. The days they don't put on real clothes, cry and call their parents. But despite all of that, they still seem like real people, people that you could hang out with and be friends with. I think that's why youtube has held me captive through all these years. Because when I don't have real people or the energy for real people I can turn to them, watch them goof around with their friends and laugh with them.
Best wishes,
Leah
btw: I'll be making more posts about youtube in the future, stay tuned for that. I love youtube and I'm very passionate about it.
No comments:
Post a Comment