Lesson one
Clickbaity titles Gotchu! Didn't I?
Smash like
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..
*But am I gonna? version of a cute skrattar*
He is gonna complain about Youtube again. Here it goes
There's a side to YouTube
That I think a lot of time, isn't addressed
or at least in a way that is understandable
for someone that doesn't make videos
or for someone who doesn't really get YouTube
cause the only thing they'll really see is 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:
'I'm feeling really down' or
'I'm actually going through a depression'
Or maybe just completely mad
If fame and money means that you have to be happy
and you can't complain about anything
are all these people just lying?
Michael, V-Sauce here
Let's investigate
I'm sure there are 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, and want more and more and more
You watch all the videos that they produce
And then after a while, you get kinda 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! *some weird face tf*
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 want to give him this credit
But he really pioneered the commentary genre on YouTube
At least in a way that people hadn't seen before
or at least introduced it to a lot of people
But once it was all revealed,
It was clear that there wasn't really much depth to his content
Or his chin for that matter
Smash like *laughs* *a virtual audience claps and cheers*
And all of a 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 the 'boom' of their channel.
Mine occured, 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 almost the most amazing experience 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 this just didn't get it
like, how is it even possible?
BUT what comes up must go down
And if you watch literally any other YouTuber that has been the biggest YouTuber on this platform,
my future doesn't look very good! *chuckles*
Let's say you are a YouTuber, let's say you've gone though this big YouTuber 'boom'
and you finally got what you wanted.
you finally got recognized, finally got an audience finally got a lot money, all these things that you always wanted
but then... people have already watched your channel and they're starting to lose interest :(
which is inevitable for everyone on the- that makes videos.
and suddenly the statistics that was bragging rights, eh,
they're not as impressive anymore.
If anything it 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 you channel is doing good or bad
and once you fans starts noticing that your channel isn't as doing as well as it used to be...
they're quick to point out why, you know *not us pewds, we love you*
its not because i got tired of your content, its because of YOU 👉
*serious look*
You've changed man!
Its 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
*brief pause*
spirals downwards that...
people lose even more interest because they notice other people aren't interested
and then you feel down, thinking what am I doing wrong?
I'm making the same content, I've always made.
uhh *camera zoom = self-realisation*
I don't understand
Man : This is... You don't understand.
But despite feeling down, you still have to maintain this facade
that everything is fine. Everything is great.
people are drawn to this persona where you're energetic and
hyper like all the Youtube videos are
cuz that's what people like to watch
no one likes someone mope 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."
Now im told like getting money and fame is the end goal to all things. That's how you get happy
thats what everyone wants
people would literally kill to be in my position, so
what's wrong with me, why am I not as happy as I should be?
which makes you question yourself even more and make you feel even worse
for being not as happy as you think you should be
and you ask yourself :
"was I.. was I even.. happier before I started all this?"
"Was it even worth it?"
But, hey
You just gotta work a little hard. 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
with- what before was so easy when people watched you for the first time,
They watched another video, another video
Now you have to try a little harder to get people interested or twice as hard.
And you realize you can't take a break, because
If you take a break your numbers will fall.
and if your numbers go down, people notice that you're failing and not doing as well.
or maybe they'll forget about you or maybe they just won't care if you come back.
and YouTube analytics doesn't tell if you've to go on a break, okay.
YouTube analytics doesn't say if you go on a vacation
So you have to keep making videos and you're stuck at constantly producing content.
because you've to keep the numbers up cuz otherwi- if you don't, your numbers will go down
and your numbers are going down, that means you're 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 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 subscribers 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 already had
the numbers that you got, you gonna compromise a few things
just a few things..
Its fine *trust senpai with this :)*
Maybe I'll drop the facade you know. Maybe you can drop the facade,
Maybe you'll express honestly to your audience that, you know
I feel bad about my channel not doing as well
Maybe you can cry on camera
People love that
That'll definitely get even more views. That would be great for the channel
Maybe I can share personal stuff in my life, people like that.
Its 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 anything really.
people want to know, so, there's nothing wrong with this right?
Any values that you previously kept get thrown out the window
as an desperate attempt to keep getting views
Maybe some friendship shade- fades
You start asking yourself... well why were we friends to the beginning
Am I even likable as a person?
Well...
Of course I am
I'm a Youtuber ;) *teeth sparkle with a ding, just because*
*classic PDP chuckle*
Maybe getting a few hundred subscribers make 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 I've 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 girlfriend they have
what house they have, what cars they have. They wanna know what it's like to be famous
They wanna know what it's like to have money
And you're selling the same lie that - getting all these things are somehow gonna make you happy
when it's just a lie
This story is a mixture of, uh
other YouTubers that I've seen, other streamers that I followed and other online people in general
uh, and my own experience as well of what it's like to
go from that 'boom' to...
uh, maybe 'people don't really care' *chuckle*
and this isn't even acknowledging the people that don't make it
The people that put their heart and souls in 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 that's like for the small YouTubers
that don't make it
I always think YouTube in a way as an addiction
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 either get really sad, or they could just go crazy.
And we're really sorry to see this more and more
People making a desperate attempt 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
the same boring reply that I always gave 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 at least having fun making them
so you can't lose anyway
In my 100 subscribers special video, that I made 8 years ago
I said this :
Felix voiceover : Like, what's the next thing? Do you wanna be on Machinima?
Do you wanna be famous?
Okay, I guess, I guess it's a little early to talk about those kinds of stuff but
I just wanna address this and say that :
No, no I don't wanna be famous and
and I really mean it
YouTube has probably many things than I could ever imagine
so much joy and so many experience that I never thought I would have and for that I am really really and truly grateful
but it's definitely been one of the- some of the worst parts of my life as well
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 enjoying making videos even eight years after doing that
So thank you for watching
*a pause for you to cope with the feeling that this conversation has actually come to an end :(*
And have fun with it.
BYE <3