I hate YouTube - a response

This is a script to a YouTube video that I might still record/make at a later time.

Hi,

I am Iluzon and this is a response to 17s YouTube video titled I hate YouTube.

The way I see it,

your goals do not align with the goals and practices of YouTube. When you started making videos, you were inspired by seeing Digi stubbornly grinding out video after video despite seeming pathetic (even though I would tell people who have considered Digi at that period a total loser that they severely lack both experience and imagination) and decided to do something.

Since if someone like him can, anyone can.

And thanks to YouTube, that is true.

If you have at least a smartphone, a computer, stable electric grid and at least a decent internet connection (and the money to maintain all of that).

It is understandable that you have started creating in the same medium as your main inspiration at the time.

However, that platform was probably not ideal for you.

If your main (and as you say, practically only) creative skill is quality writing, then you should´ve probably started a blog.

There are different motivations for both creating and consuming media.

It can be remarkably therapeutic to get ones thoughts and ideas out of their head, no matter who might see them. Talking about them with a few trusted friends that can hold a conversation at your level is one of lifes true joys. Inspiring others and receiving life energy in response can be immense.

Those are all valid and wonderful motivations without needing to have your creativity monetized.

But, if you want to make money off of video (or, as is often the case, just audio), YouTube is a miracle.

Video is humongous. The only media that can come close to its size are videogames. The fact that YouTube can store unlimited amount of it without going bankrupt is almost incomprehensible.

On top of that, YouTube is waging a legal cold war with corporate copyright holders and all kinds of other interested parties.

And despite that, it still offers incentives that are rarely seen in other types of media. It pays creators directly on top of providing free storage, and, if creators play ball with its interests, it massively boosts their visibility through internet enabled scalability.

Its equivalence IRL is if someone rented you a concert venue for free and let you do anything you want with it. When they´d see that you are getting buzz, they´d advertise you on other venues and on peoples phones etc. for free. And if you get even more people, they´d let you decide if you´d like them to put TV screens in the lobby showing corporate ads

 and giving you a cut of the profit without you having to do the legwork yourself. No creator would be able to get big enough numbers alone that would attract the big money (except maybe for the biggest ones).

It is a foolish endeavor, trying to decide what video is “quality” enough and which is not. Especially since they are used for different purposes - some videos are for relaxation of ones mind (because yes, the brain does actually get exhausted), others are for learning and some for creative engagement and investment.

Naturally, the videos that serve the purpose of mindless relaxation are ideal for YouTube - they are the kinds of vids that you can play in almost any situation, letting them autoplay one after another without risk of having to engage with them or having them offending others - they are the safe option in most situations. Their purpose is to kill time, and since YouTube (and Silicon Valley in general) values engagement with the platform above all else (except stuff offensive to their advertisers), they promote these videos further.

One must be in a right mindset to play a highly edited, dense, visually engaging YouTube video.

The issue of what to keep and what to boot out is a broad issue that is fought about everywhere across the internet (Steam etc.)

The internet was created with the mindset of being the great equalizer, letting anyone create for the network, no matter what they are doing. It is the basic tenet and axiom of the web and tension between unlimited access and quality of what is being created is being felt since its inception.

However, big tech largely abandoned the idea of having a competitive advantage of being the greatest personal curator of content and instead more and more promotes primarily stuff that fits their agendas, since they already have captured their markets through recommendation.

It can be argued that almost all videos are important to someone. After all, family videos are often only any good for viewing with family - but for those few people their value is immeasurable.

YouTube fosters and promotes a strong bond between its creators and their fans - without YouTube, the term parasocial relationship would probably never become popular. However, it is true that it does not promote creative discussion - that was what the video response feature was for and it is no longer a thing.

It is much harder to reach fans outside the internet - when I buy a book, I do not expect there to be a phone number or address that I can use to start talking with the author. You can have a book signing as a meetup with the artist, but without an advertising budget, how would you organize one or let people know about it?

Engagement and fandom of a creator is, I believe, even less common IRL, since there is no immediate expectations of being able to hop on social media and see what the author has to say.

If something is exceptionally good or connects with someone on a deep personal level, they might go and look at the authors other works, but most the time there so much different media of all types that consumers will go to something else after they have finished a work by an author and have to be at some point reminded of the authors work again in order to return to him.

Regardless of if they paid for something or not. Yes, payment for media could create a sense of sunk cost fallacy, but, the bookshelves full of new books that haven´t been read yet and the Steam libraries full of cool looking, unplayed games say otherwise. Without marketing, people do not know about a piece of media or art. They cannot know.

Word of mouth can only go so far. Yes, us nerds could go on for hours and hours imposing on others our personal tastes, but we don´t, because that usually ends up being quite awkward.

YouTube offers the possibility of getting an audience without a marketing budget. It is one of the avenues to get creatively successful - having a personal platform and an audience that cares about you that you can sell your art to. It is one of the possible routes, but one that is most accessible to someone who lacks social skills and social capital.

It takes either large sums of money or years of social grinding and networking to get stuff out there enough to make a living off of.

Or, you can take the route of having a day job. That is something done by many creatives and can be quite the viable option, but, not everybody is able to stay motivated to have two jobs at the same time.

Especially if a crucial component of ones motivation is the release of art and talking about it with other people.

Being able to hone ones craft years upon years, waiting until the are good enough to show it to anyone or to even publish it in any way is an admirable way of going about being creative.

A way that I probably won´t ever be able to take.

However, perfectionism is also a dangerous monster. It is possible to eternally revise and remodel ones creation in a vain attempt to make something perfect NOW, no matter ones ability or resources.

I don´t see how your YouTube career could´ve crashed and burned after only 20 videos. If you let it, then sure, that is what happened, but please, do not blame other forces for your decision.

I am quite glad that you have gotten yourself out of your lives rut. However, I believe that doing anything at least somewhat significant would´ve helped you. YouTube just seemed as the path of least resistance to you at the time, and so you took it.

And one last thing - I do like the sound of your voice.

P.S. I also hate YouTube, for many different reasons. I have a video in my mind that I do want to make about that.