Michelle Lin
YouTube is a magical place where literally anything can be found, from parodies to cat videos. Many average people have been shot from obscurity to fame because of YouTube, and this has encouraged others to attempt to create a name for themselves as well. However, because of the relative easiness and accessibility in creating YouTube videos, there has been an increase in YouTubers, but a decrease in originality and creativity.
For some of the most famous YouTubers right now, their videos comprise of mostly challenges or random rants that are basically just complaining. Many videos along the lines of “What I Hate About School” have the potential to be funny, but aren’t because they simply repeat common complaints that have long lost their funny factor.
Youtube is supposed to be a place of innovation, but there is way too much repetition. Gone are the days of distinctive YouTubers who were known for specific things and made their unique mark on YouTube, and the content of the video was more important than the quality of the camera. For example, Ryan Higa’s original series “How to be a Ninja” had bad video quality, but amazing content. Now, there is a plethora of similar teenage and young adult YouTubers who make enough money off of their videos to drop out of school and even travel the world, becoming celebrities in the process.
It seems as if YouTube is obsessed with challenges, and some YouTubers seem to want to complete every single challenge out there on the internet, including guys doing their make-up, guys waxing their legs, smoothie challenges, and drunk challenges. It is one thing to put your thoughts into it, but the content is so homogenized and there is no originality. And honestly, would these people be so popular if they weren’t so attractive? Probably not, especially when a lot of the male YouTubers have a demographic of mostly teenage girls. They know their audience will, and can cater to their interests by liking their same interests, such as Justin Bieber and One Direction. I know that these YouTubers have great personalities and the ability to make people happy, which is great, but I just don’t think they deserve to be rich and famous.
However, the type of Youtubers I dislike the most are those who do prank videos. I’m not talking about the cool magic trick prank ones, or the cute pick-me-up pranks that make you instantly happy. It’s the ones that are mean, dangerous, and basically public harassment. It is one thing to prank your friends or family, and another to prank random strangers, and the line between funny and dangerous seems to be always getting crossed, with pranks getting continuously more scandalous in order to get more views. Often, unsuspecting pedestrians become the victims of pranks involving stupid stuff such as placing fake spiders on people or tying a pretend hanged dead man on a tree. Viewers laugh at the expense of these innocent people, and the YouTubers make money off of this as well, which is just wrong.
It might just be me, but I think that there is a lack of creativity and imagination on YouTube recently. Maybe it’s just the fact that YouTube has changed so much from when I was first exposed to it, but despite this, I am still an avid YouTube watcher.
