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Welcome to the world of vids, subs, vlogs, clickbate and trolling. Not sure what the heck I’m talking about? Just ask your tween or teen. Once they are done rolling their eyes and/or laughing, you may get your answer.
OR, just stick with me a few minutes as we jump into this world together. I’m talking of course, about the world of YouTube.
Since its launch in 2005, billions of people have liked, commented, uploaded and watched vids (videos). It’s become part of our everyday pop culture. We’d be hard pressed to find someone, anyone, that hasn’t clicked on at least one adorable cat video, music video, or instructional video of some sort.
And just like Netflix binge-watching, it’s easy to get sucked into the vortex of YouTube videos. One of my children confessed he once spent 12 hours in a row watching Minecraft videos! (I know. Awesome parenting!) One click leads to another. And another. But wait, what’s that? Oh, and there’s a recommended video!?
CLICK!
CLICK!
CLICK!
But what has recently piqued my interest has been the constant conversation among my kids of wanting to become a famous YouTuber. You know, like Faze Apex, PewDiePie, KSI, Scarce, ERB, and Dude Perfect. Never heard of them? Neither had I.
What I thought was merely another form of media entertainment, turns out to be a money-making, lifestyle sustaining business… for a lucky few. So I conducted a select focus group of tweens/teens, (which consisted of my kids and their friends), to try to understand the lingo, the lure and the likelihood of a career as a YouTuber.
The Lingo
Like every other industry, there is specific jargon known among frequent users. It was all foreign to me until my focus group enlightened me:
Vids- videos
Subs- subscribers
Vlog/Vlogging – video blogs or video blogging
Clickbate – a misleading picture or title that makes someone want to click on it
Trolling – when someone says something negative to get you fired up
Bell – notification alert
Channel – a users own personal page for their videos– kinda like your Facebook profile page
Meme – a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations)
The Lure
I can’t pinpoint when the shift happened, but at some point my kids’ dreams of being a professional athlete, rock star, dolphin trainer, pilot or priest changed. So I probed a bit deeper to find out what it was about a YouTube career that was so appealing.
For my small focus group, it boiled down to doing something they love. Right now, my boys are super into video games, and the YouTubers they follow record themselves playing video games… for a job. So part of the lure, is the desire to spend their day, doing something they love, with friends they enjoy hanging around. Hmmm… Sounds pretty much like what we all look for in a job, and not a bad aspiration!
Of course, the other side of the lure is the lifestyle that is flaunted. Life as a famous YouTuber looks pretty awesome: large mansions, expensive cars, and money! But my wise group advised not to go into a YouTube career with the expectation of making money; rather, do it because you love it, and if you’re lucky, the money will follow.
The Likelihood
This of course led into a frank discussion about the likelihood of ‘making it big’ on YouTube. With over 100 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute and well over 1 million content creators, what would it take?
“Patience, some skill, and a lot of luck!”
At least they are realistic.
I don’t see YouTube leaving anytime soon. And I don’t know how long the desire for a career as a YouTuber will last. And really, I’m okay with them pursuing that, if that’s what they want to do. I tell my kids all the time to ‘dream big’ and ‘you can do anything you put your mind to’. So I guess for me, it’s time to stand by what I say.
And I will. As long as they go to college too. :)
NOTE: As a way of researching the content for this blog, I set up my own YouTube channel. Click here to check it out! Make sure to subscribe to my channel, smash that like button, and leave a thumbs up! I know my kids are rolling their eyes right now saying how ‘cringy’ this is! Love it!
CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY OWN YOUTUBE CHANNEL VLOG!!
Thanks for reading. I’ll see you in the next blog… or vlog!
