A YouTuber: a job that now exists. If done correctly and professionally, you stand to earn millions of pounds, thousands (if not millions) of viewers/fans, and brand recognition. Are these rewards justified for the job that these YouTubers do?
YouTuber is such a broad term for the thousands of people who upload videos on to this platform, and so I have categorised them into 5 different types; Artists, Teachers, Gamers, Vloggers and Wannabes. For me the only types that deserve the success that they have been given are the Teachers and Artists.
Let’s begin with the Teachers. There are many channels that create content based around sending the right messages to younger people and teaching them about all kinds of topics. An example of one of these channels is Hannah Witton. She teaches her audience about sex, the body, confidence, topics surrounding the LGBT community and many more. As well as this the various channels as part of the complexly.com movement also seek to help inform and educate the next generation. They deserve the success that they have had as she is creating content that will benefit her audience greatly. Some of her viewers may not have anyone to ask about such matters and so by her having created this channel she has created an outlet for them.
Artists’ success is also justified in my opinion. YouTubers that come under the Artist umbrella are short film makers, comedy sketch producers and special cases such as The Michalaks, who are Vloggers, but they take hours and hours of their week to create stunningly beautiful footage for their viewers (just check out a few of their videos!). A good example for this category are a comedy duo called Jack and Dean. They create many comedy sketches, and from the success of these they were given the funding to create a song about consent that was played on BBC Radio 1. This success to me is well and truly justified.
However, there are some creators on YouTube at the moment that I believe do not deserve the success that has been bestowed on them. The creator that inspired this post was the Beauty Vlogger Zoella. Zoella, or Zoe Sugg, would fit under the Vlogger and Wannabe category. Before her books, beauty range and million pound mansion, Zoe created videos, that were for the majority, very superficial. I don’t believe someone should earn millions of pounds from speaking to a camera about what their favourite things are that month. I don’t deny that she has made positive impacts on the community, she does make content about her anxiety and panic attacks, but I believe she is taking advantage of her success as well. She published her first novel in 2014 claiming that she was the sole author. It then emerged that a ghost writer had written this novel for her and she hadn’t released this information to her millions of viewers. She doesn’t deserve the success from this novel as she didn’t write it; she shouldn’t be famed for writing this novel or reap the profits from it. This is why I don’t believe Zoella’s success is justified.
Last, but not least, are the Gamers. I think this type of YouTuber is the least deserving of them all. Let’s take Pewdiepie, who has over 48 million subscribers and a net worth of $12 million, and all he does is create videos of him playing video games whilst shouting at the camera. How does that warrant him being a millionaire? How can anyone say that his success is justified?
It depends on which type of YouTuber these content creators are when it comes to how justified their success is. Teachers and Artists need more credit than they are getting now because the Gamers, Vloggers and Wannabees are all gaining more success than them when they don’t work as hard as the deserved YouTubers.
5 Comments
Personally I disagree with this. I think that anyone who has taken the time to make a video for YouTube deserves the success they get because they are making people happy and what is wrong with that? Yes I get that youtubers from the teachers and artists categories may put more effort for their videos and probably deserve more than they get but that doesn’t mean the people who do earn more don’t deserve that.
My point may not have been clear, yes they deserve success but not on the scale that they have. How does Pewdiepie have $12 million from just shouting at a camera?
Though I understand your point on a larger scale I disagree with this particular example and many which are similar. Pewdiepie and the multitude of other similar youtubers have earned their success through clever branding and an understanding of his audience. You’re reducing his entire career to ‘shouting at a camera,’ which is far too simplified.
I disagree with a lot of this post. You may find the Michalaks’ videos “stunningly beautiful” and a form of art – just like I do; they’re the highlight of my week – but others may find them totally boring and a waste of their time. These people, however, may love watching gamers. They might find gamers’ videos hugely exciting and fun to watch. Therefore, the Michalaks bring joy to some people (like you and me), and gamers bring joy to thousands of other people. Who’s to say that one form of joy is more “justified” than others? And then there are the beauty “vloggers”, like Zoella. I agree that she probably shouldn’t have her own books, beauty and homeware range, but you can’t say her YouTube success is “unjustified”. She works hard to create content that her young viewers will enjoy, putting out a video every week and sometimes more on her “vlog channel”, as well as writing blog posts, having regular meetings and responding to hundreds of emails. I’m not a fan of her videos, sure, but she’s undeniably a great entrepreneur in that she saw an opportunity to make some money while entertaining thousands of people. I wouldn’t be so dismissive of youtubers like that without knowing the hard work that goes into it. Don’t resent others for their success, just focus on making your own.
I understand that they do work hard but do they deserve millions of pounds for what they do? The artists and teachers don’t make half as much as beauty vloggers like Zoella which is the main point I wanted to get across.