YouTube Cannibalism

[#HBC | Acrostic]

Cannibalism in the most literal sense is the action of a human eating another human. This post isn't about gore in the literal sense, but rather the metaphorical. YouTube started off as being a platform where users could post videos on any topic on any matter. It had a similar sort of appeal to the start of bulletin boards being released in the early 2000s with videos having an appeal analogous to the types of humorous videos you would see on America's Funniest Videos. At its infancy, there was no base formatting that appears in current YouTube video formats e.g. a central narrator, intro/outro music, pre-bought designed slides/graphics, and title cards to link to other videos. Much of what YouTube now is highly formulaic, I believe this was inevitable with Google purchasing the website in 2006 and accelerated with the increased throughput of online web services enabling streaming services to become less of a novelty and more of a basic convention. Another accelerator came with the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007 resulting in video viewing having a mobile platform base rather than being solely restricted to just a desktop environment resulting in more concurrent viewers who were being supplied by a service that was acquiring more servers to meet the consumer demand.

It's important to discuss Google's place in YouTube as Google is an incredibly data driven company. In another post, I discussed how intersectionality & analytics has greatly changed the landscape of the internet over the past decade. Combining Google's analytical models with compensation from Google adsense, there's always going to be an attempt for people looking for financial compensation to try to figure out the analytics Google is using to determine trends, recommendations, and advertisements. A notable trend among prominent content creators on the platform is to release videos on a weekly or a biweekly basis. Such a frequent upload schedule is a gesture for such users to stay relevant not just to their user base, but to the algorithm so it continues to push the user in recommended feeds to people who may be watching similarly themed videos. However, being able to push out such content in 2019 is a commitment. It's a commitment in so much as the expectations for quality and throughput are much higher than they were five or even ten years ago. Anyone who works in a high performance job understands that the hardest expectation to meet from a consumer base is not just quality, but consistency.

I have noticed a rather disturbing trend in the growth of popularity in both commentary and commentator channels. These channels are primarily concerned with "reviewing" the content on someone else's channel that has garnered attention. However, this "review" usually boils down to a criticism of common consensus that is leveraged against material that is would agreed by most to be outlandish. Most recently, commentary in fashion channels usually dedicated to hair, skin, nails, & beauty products have gravitated towards drama regarding James Charles & Tati while gaming channels when not reviewing the awful state of Triple-A games have been discussing the polyamarous relationship between ProJared, his wife, his friend, and all his fans on the internet. This is not going to actually touch upon either of these cases, because this isn't about these granular instances of drama. As these instances are simply a means to an end for users to not actually have to invest in creating content about the initial material. I think that fashion and video games suffer from a common problem as they are empty, consumer products that are continuing in a downward trend to become more vacuous with less & less passion being poured into them.

Fashion as a field in and of itself is one of the most subjective and least substantial fields with trends being copied, knocked off, and in vogue from one day to the next. Recent designs are so ridiculous that naked models are "wearing" another naked model draped across them like a piece of clothing while they walk down a runway. Kanye's clothing brand literally looks like clothes for homeless people. And it's always been the case that higher price point jeans for some indescribable reason has to have holes in them compared to buying whole jeans at a much lower price point. Furthermore a Louis Vuitton cotton canvas bag is covered with... polyvinyl chloride (PVC) which is the same material as shrink wrap.

Videogames on the other hand have not aged well with the triple A industry using the live service model to release some terrible games that are arguably still in a beta like state like Fall Out 76 and Anthem. Literally gaming channels seem just as dedicated towards trashing new games as they are about going into nostalgia mode about playing the Legend of Zelda on the NES. It seems like there is little to no passion for the specialty they are in with many channels seemingly more interested in discussing the downfall of Game Stop with its recent changes in administrative leadership rather than covering any indie games that have come out of the pipeline within the past 5 years.

These are aspects where if one doesn't diversify, then there isn't a lot of variation from one channel to another. However, YouTube's algorithm is still looking for weekly/biweekly submissions to meet its criteria that a creator is still relevant. When there's no other material to release or when the slow burn of burnout is working its way into the creative processes, it becomes tempting to highlight other people's epic failures as content material when it feels like you are working so hard to stay afloat. I think a catch-22 with content creators is that YouTube is not favorable to pivoting. Pivoting in business is the act of going into another product line or business when the initial sales of a product isn't meeting the intended market. The issue with dedicated content material is that it's easy to form growth around a target demographic to gain initial steam, however it's difficult to transition out when there is too much at stake e.g. financial livelihood which results in diminishing returns for continuing to go down such a path. I would actually identify this mindset as being analogous to a sunk cost fallacy, if personal growth suffers and content is related to personal growth then that individual is losing out in terms of human capital and long term growth by depersonalizing themselves.

Criticism on other videos has become common with other YouTubers highlighting the lack of effects, audio quality, visual presentation, and other factors that are on another person's video. I believe that a large part of this criticism culture stems from creator burnout. It's very hard to be a performer, game the algorithm, and also to have a fan base that can come one day and leave the next if their base expectations aren't met. What fails to be understood is that by virtue signaling disgust, it makes the bar for performance even higher for creators to actually meet. And in truth, although presentation quality is important it is not the main point. The main point is to have content or a message to share with other individuals. However, what I see trending on YouTube's trending are people who are very good at guessing and gaming the algorithm's metrics which are honestly... superficial. Perhaps I'm a little touched in the head, but when YouTubers refer to themselves as independent content creators, the key words are not "content" "creator" or "content creator." The key word is being independent, having a unique and individual outlook that isn't tied to trying to game a system or an algorithm by covering trash content. There are enough official outlets for trash material like that such as TMZ which fulfills its purpose to people who get off on that sort of content. Videos with great production quality are wonderful, but what I'm observing from many of these videos is that they have a hired production team, bought designer slide assets, and merchandise of services. When people are committed to imitating a business, you may present the material as an individual but you become essentially nothing more than a mouthpiece for collective interest.

The biggest issue for me is for young consumers who are introduced into this existing medium with videos that are basically at production quality with high views, high likes, high trends, and highly appeals to the masses. There are so many ecosystems that mimic this statistical analytical game where people are socially trained to treat these platforms as actual platformers. It's insane. Normally such a mindset to treat social interaction as a means to an end was considered to be something analogous to sociopathy/psychopathy as these individuals were divorced from any interest of establishing a genuine connection. When twitter, instagram, and YouTube are played for a formula because they run an actual formula, what is getting lost is the actual process of socializing as an independent thought process. And the reason why cannibalization of socialization is occurring is because its far more easy to sell advertisements and products to people who have been conditioned by pattern learning than to attempt to sell to someone who is independent and will buy whatever the **** they want to buy.

Writer's Post-note: Sorry, I made a mistake. Products that feature on beauty YouTube channels are not about fashion and more about cosmetics e.g. makeup and skin supplements. I actually think that makeup application can be considered technical enough to merit consideration for being a substantial topic of interest. The difference between well applied and poorly applied makeup is noticeable and discernible. In addition, products like makeup can have a significant impact in how people are physically viewed, evaluated, and also begin to see themselves. However, the main point of the post still holds.

 

[staindgrey]

As someone with a channel sitting at 5k subscribers and not fitting Youtube algorithms due to our infrequency of posting (our 16-20min episodes take a LOT of effort, time and money), I've been struggling with this notion as we decide how to further our channel by playing nice to Google's standards, making much easier "pump out" content and not watering down the full experience that we want to create.

I don't have much to add that wasn't already said in the OP's verbose thoughts. Just wanted to say that I agree with them. I'd probably have more to say if I didn't spend the better part of 15hrs yesterday hunched over a computer desk trying to get our next episode out by the end of the week. My brain is fried.

 

[Teran]

The growing criticism of things such as low production quality etc I feel are entirely contrary to the spirit of YouTube. Not sure if "Broadcast Yourself" is still the company slogan, but I feel that perfectly sums up what made the site successful, and what it's all about. It's a platform where people with little technical knowledge, equipment, or financial resources can create and upload content to be shared online. In theory, just the market itself should be the deciding factor as to what is "good" content. If a teenager in their bedroom doing funny commentary about current events with low production value manages to garner a huge following, why should the unimportant aspects of their channel be an issue of contention? In fact, one could argue that the low budget nature of the channel ADDS to the charm.

The algorithm and the developing culture around YT are pretty much there to try to twist the platform into the old media model imo. Why is regular, consistently themed content the most important part of the algorithm? It makes it easier to place targeted ads. Why are higher production values and a sense of "professionalism" seen as important? It gives organisations greater confidence in direct sponsorship of channels. Streamlined, maximum efficiency monetisation tends to create an ironclad formula and culture. What's most worrying to me is the potential loss of that spontaneity and free spirited content creation that used to define the internet, because of younger people's perception that you have to go the extra mile to make "acceptable" content.

 

[#HBC | Acrostic]

As someone with a channel sitting at 5k subscribers and not fitting Youtube algorithms due to our infrequency of posting (our 16-20min episodes take a LOT of effort, time and money), I've been struggling with this notion as we decide how to further our channel by playing nice to Google's standards, making much easier "pump out" content and not watering down the full experience that we want to create.

I don't have much to add that wasn't already said in the OP's verbose thoughts. Just wanted to say that I agree with them. I'd probably have more to say if I didn't spend the better part of 15hrs yesterday hunched over a computer desk trying to get our next episode out by the end of the week. My brain is fried.

For anyone who is forced to make a living out of life, over having a life to live there are big trade offs when nailing something that will bring personal satisifaction is at odds with cold pragmatism. I have always been bad at drawing a line between myself and my business, with failures in the latter definitely resulting in major reflection moments on my lack of worth as a human being. I would also state that my personal hardships have defined how I operate with other people, the philosophy I have and the aspects I emphasize. I think that the situation you brought up is difficult because there is a fragile balance between you representing yourself as an individual, meeting the expectations of the audience, and making content that will attract more viewers.

Idealistically there ought to be no compromise in how we format what we want to write and how we express ourselves. However, these considerations get meticulously formatted when it comes to pragmatism and I have felt that it is very easy to lose yourself in creating content of what they want to see from you rather than what you want to show to them. This issue becomes even more difficult because I feel that there is a certain "lock in" that happens when content is published. Humans are error driven and make mistakes to learn from, I think though that when you gain followers it's hard for you to publish a piece of content that you aren't fully happy with and want to addendum it to align with two or three things you thought up later despite it receiving largely positive feedback. When there's no incentive to put in that extra effort, then you simply hope that the thoughts you presented or material you published will be good enough to stand the test of time, however you know that this piece of content doesn't sit right with you. Making practical decisions over personal decisions can have a gnawing like effect on you as a person and can result in depersonalizing yourself from your work as you approach an uncanny valley of being a channel mascot v. a human being. [Post-note: I brought this up because I have felt this many times in my own area of work. I didn't mean to strongly imply that it was a dilemma brought up in yours as I am not familiar with your channel.]

Finally, I have been in that area many times where I've been working 15 hours (my actual job) and there's something I want to write (usually a response to a stupid comment on the internet), but I'm not sure I'll do it justice after 15 hours of exhaustion. I think that I used to suffer from being a perfectionist and then from also being a pragmatist. Wanting to get something absolutely right when it's something you feel strongly about is something I can relate too (eg you typing more about being a content creator). I think that once you feel so driven to push out something of high quality you begin to weigh it with an internal compensation model (eg I want to nail down a perfect response... wait this is a waste of time/energy!). Are you going to ever be compensated or appreciated for typing something baller? No, never. However, I would state that I have grown immensely from putting in energy into fields that have no visible cost appreciation by figuring out my own process and also gaining a serious amount of self-introspection. I would argue that there is something to gain from pushing a flawed perspective that you've made an honest attempt at if you are willing to see it as an opportunity to see it as a possible moment of growth.

- Before I write another six paragraphs, I'll stop myself because the finger I sprained on my left hand is starting to hurt.