Lesson One:
Click-baiting titles.
Got you, didn't I?
𝐒 𝐌 𝐀 𝐒 𝐇 𝐋 𝐈 𝐊 𝐄
When people ask what I do for a living
Older people basically.
And I say I do YouTube
I'm always met with:
"Oh, that must be amazing, you must earn a lot of money," or..
"It must be so cool to have an audience that love you."
And yes, yes, of course.
But..
He's gonna complain about YouTube again, here he goes. *dankest cloning meme ever*
There's a side to YouTube..
That, I think a lot of the time, isn't addressed.
Or at least in a way that is understandable for someone that doesn't make videos
Or for someone that doesn't really get YouTube.
Cuz the only people see is really the fame and the money
And that's all that matters.
But we started to see more and more YouTubers
And streamers and online entertainers come out and make videos saying:
"Oh, I'm feeling really down," or..
"I'm actually going through depression," or..
Maybe just completely manic.
If fame and money,
Means you have to be happy and you can't complain about anything.
Are all of these people just lying?
Michael, Vsauce here. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡° )
Let's investigate.
I'm sure there's gonna be some people that don't agree with me on this
and I don't think this applies to everyone.
It's not some rule or whatever.
But it's very easy to be a YouTuber Or a new upcoming YouTuber.
If you watch YouTube, I'm sure you can relate
to stumbling upon someone's channel for the first time,
you binge watch all their videos,
you just want more and more and more and you watched
all the videos that they produced and then after a while,
you get kind of tired of it
and what was
once very engaging and captivating
suddenly doesn't seem as interesting anymore.
I think this applies to literally anything
EXCEPT MY CHANNEL.
But this is the reason why some YouTubers or some channels
can rise so quickly
and still go down equally fast.
A tired example of this, I know
LeafyIsHere, for example.
Maybe people don't wanna give him discredit
but he really pioneered the commentary genre on YouTube.
At least in a way people that haven't seen before
at least introduced it to a lot of people.
But once,
it was all revealed that it was clear that there wasn't really much depth to his content.
or his chin, for that matter.
Smash like.
And all of the sudden,
this channel that was exploding,
people didn't care anymore and it just disappeared.
I think every YouTuber
that is recognisable has gone through this phase
of the boom of their channel.
Mine occurred, I think in 2015 or maybe before, I don't know.
I do remember that when my channel really blew up for the first time,
it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life
because it was all positive,
I didn't have any haters at the time.
It was just me and my audience sharing this journey
and it was just incredible, I felt unstoppable
I was getting all these numbers and it was just- I didn't get it
Like, how is it even possible?
But what comes up must go down
And if you watched literally any other youtuber that has been the biggest youtuber on this platform
My future doesn't look very good
Let's say you're a youtuber
Let's say you've gone through this big youtuber movement
And you've finally got what you wanted.
You finally got recognized, you finally got an audience, you finally got a lot of money
All these things that you always wanted
But then, people that already watch your channel and they're starting to lose interest
Which is inevitable for everyone on- that makes videos
And suddenly the statistic that was bragging rights
They're not as impressive anymore
If anything you might be better off if people- people didn't see the statistics
But they're all there, the views are all there. Everyone knows if your channel is doing good or bad
And once your fans start noticing that you channel isn't as doing as it used to be
They're quick to point out why
You know, "it's not because I got tired of your content it's because of you"
"You've changed man"
It's easy to shift blame on others so this is only natural.
But this of course leads to less appeal to your content, people are noticing
less people are watching which,
Spirals downwards that
people lose even more interest, because other they- notice other people aren't interested
And then you feel down thinking, "What am I doing wrong?"
I'm making the same content as I've always made.
Uhhh, eh. I don't understand.
tHis is- yA don'T understannd.
But despite feeling down. You still have to maintain this persona.
That everything is fine, everything is great. People are drawn to this persona,
where you're energetic and uh..
Hyper like all the Youtube videos are.
Cuz that's what people like to watch. No one likes someone mop away, being
negative on camera. So you feel bad about your content,
You feel bad about yourself and you realise:
"Wait a minute, I'm not in such a good place as I thought I would be."
"I'm told that getting money and fame is the end goal to all things, that's how you get happy. That's what everyone wants."
"People literally kill to be in my position"
"So what's wrong with me? Why am I not as happy as I should be?"
It's uh- Which makes you question your self even more and make you feel even worse,
for not being as happy as you think you should be. And you ask yourself:
"Was I, was I even.."
"Happier before I started all of this? Was it even.."
"Worth it?" But hey. You just gotta work a little harder.
You gotta suck it up and get on that grind,
you just gotta keep making videos.
YouTube is all about quantity. If you keep uploading
people will keep watching. But now you have to work twice as hard to get
people engaged. But wha- before was so easy.
When people watch you for the first time. They'll watch another video,
another video, another video. Now you have to try a lil harder to get
people interested, or twice as hard. And you realise
You- You can't take a break. Because
if you take a break your numbers will fall.
If your numbers go down, people will notice that you're failing and you're not doing as well.
Or they'll forgot about you, or maybe
they just won't care if you comeback. And YouTube analytics
doesn't tell if, you have to go on a break or-
And YouTube analytics doesn't say if you go on a vacation,
so you have to keep making videos
and you're stuck at constantily producing content
because you have to keep the numbers up
'cause otherwi- if you don't, then your numbers will go down
and if your numbers go down, that means you are failing
and it will just keep on going that way.
What if my friends notice that my channel is doing poorly?
Are my friends even my friends with me because
they like me, or because
I have a lot of subscribers?
You notice a lot of people online have the same amount of views
and subscribes as their friends.
I don't think this is a coincidence.
A lot of people collaborate on Youtube and they build each other up and get viewers from each other,
but that only lasts as long. That also has a lifeline on it.
So to maintain what you had,
the numbers that you got, you've got to compromise on a few things.
Just a few things.. It's fine.
Maybe.. I'll drop the façade, you know..
Maybe I'll- maybe you can- maybe you can drop the façade
Maybe you'll uhh.. express honestly to your audience that
you know, I feel really bad about my channel not doing as well..
Uhh.. Maybe you can cry on camera
People love that.
That will definitely get even more views.
That would be great for the channel
Maybe I can share more personal stuff in my life, people like that.
It's not really what I wanna do, but no one seems to complain and
it gets me what I want so..
Maybe I can share my relationship or maybe I can share my breakup.
Maybe I can share my personal fight with friends or..
or anything really
People like to know so there's nothing wrong with this, right?
Any values that you previously kept get thrown out the window
as a desperate attempt to keep getting views.
Maybe some friendship shade- fades
You star asking yourself.. well, wer- why were we friends in the beginning?
Am I even likable as a person?
Well..
Of course I am. I'm a youtuber.
theh
Maybe getting a few hundred subscribers makes you feel terrible
when it used to make you feel so good about getting it,
but because you used to get so much more..
it means nothing anymore.
And just the numbers at this point have just completely taken over your life
But maybe, thanks to all the expensive items you've got,
the car, the house
you can show off that lifestyle.
That's really popular on Youtube
Kids love that, and it doesn't matter who watches my content
as long as I get more numbers, it doesn't... Who cares?
Kids love to see what a great lifestyle a youtuber has,
how rich they are, what- what girlfriend they have,
what house they have, what cars they have.
They want to know what it's like to be famous,
they want to know what it's like to have money.
And you're just selling the same lie that getting all these things
are somehow going to make you happy,
when it's just a lie.
This story is a mixture of uhh..
Other youtubers that I've seen, other streamers that I've followed and other online people in general
Uhhh.. And my own experience as well
of uh.. Of what it's like to...
Go from that boom to..
Ehhhh.. Maybe people don't really care
laughs
And this isn't even acknowledged in the people that don't make it.
The people that put their heart and soul into making Youtube videos,
grinding harder than anyone, just to...
get the feeling and taste of what that's like, you know.
So if it's bad for a lot of big youtubers,
just imagine what it's like for the small youtubers..
that don't make it.
I almost think Youtube in a way is an addicton
You get all these numbers that make you feel good, but as soon as they go down, which they will,
people just don't know how to handle it.
They get really sad, or they could just go crazy.
And we really started to see this more and more.
People making desperate attempts to maintain an audience,
doing crazy things, just anything,
just to get more fans, just to stay the way they are.
So my tip for anyone that wants to start making Youtube videos,
is just the same boring reply that I've always given,
which is: do it because you enjoy making it.
Because if you enjoy making them, people will enjoy watching them.
And if people don't watch them,
then you're hav- at least having fun making them, so you can't lose anyway.
In my hundred subscriber special video that I made 8 years ago..
I said this:
Like, what's the next thing, do you want to be on Machinima,
do you want to be famous..
Okay, I guess- I guess it's a little early to talk about those kind of stuff but,
I just want to address uhh, this and say that
ehh.. No! No I don't want to- *laugh* I dont want to be famous, uhh..
And I really meant it.
Youtube has brought me more things than I could've ever imagined
So much joy and so many experiences that I never thought that I would have-
and for that I really really am truly grateful.
But it's definitely been one of the- some of the worst parts of my life as well. *laughs*
But it's a great learning experience!
You may not believe me when I say this, but I truly am so grateful,
to say honestly that
I still really enjoy making videos even eight years after doing it.
So thank you for watching
and have fun with it
BYE!