it’s also crazy how so many people have a million+ followers and i stumble upon their channel, and never heard of them, it’s a very competitive environment
Thats because if you're not interested then the Algorithm won't suggest it. Not into true crime but listen to a few one day? They'll suggest it and bam! There's a niche with horror and crime you've entered and find the comment section is very humble and kind. I didn't like tea channels but found smokey glow and um.. Tememe? I found out not every one is tea and there is female commentary
Following the cryptocurrency scam drama made me realize just how big gaming UA-cam is. The amount of money big gaming UA-camrs make off of sponsorships puts beauty UA-cam to shame.
Speaking of ‘irrelevancy’, you should do an Evolution of Buzzfeed Creators! It’s really interesting to see how Buzzfeed went from being *the* place to be from a laughingstock on the internet when they started losing their most prominent workers. Perhaps you could analyze how these Buzzfeed stars transition from being part of a huge media company to doing their own gig.
And the whole Ladylike team, including OGs like Saf and Candance before buzzfeed really started pushing them as a brand. I really enjoy Devin's videos and Chantal on IG. Also gotta look at the Watcher boys joining the Unsolved and Worth It fanbases to make their own. Their content is entertaining and good variety.
The only thing keeping Buzzfeed alive these days is Buzzfeed Unsolved(which I love) and that’s on its final season so I wanna see what happens to Buzzfeed after that
As a 45 year old, the entire rise of the internet, social media, influencers and now the downfall of influencers has been an absolutely fascinating thing to watch.
Right!? People say a month in real life is like a year in Internet time because everything is so new and it moves so quickly that a few weeks can feel like old news... I wonder if we're going to stop saying that soon, because we'll actually have a long enough time line to look back on that makes a few weeks actually feel like a few weeks 😂
The average life cycle on UA-cam is short. It's not that it existed long enough, the audience on UA-cam shifts a lot. The young grow and are replaced a new generation with different tastes etc etc. So those who can't adapt get left in the dust.
Personally, I think younger youtubers don’t understand that this platform didn’t start out as a source of clout or money. These were just talented people who liked to entertain folks. They would’ve done it for free. But now, people approach UA-cam as a way to get famous, so they will do whatever is popular.
Very true! Remember when skits were all the rage? UA-camrs weren't making as much money as they did now, and those skits would sometimes take forever to complete and the return on it wasn't that much but so many people were just passionate for it that they didn't really mind putting in a ton of effort for little return (at the time).
Can I just say, Bunny getting on TikTok was such a good choice. She has 1.6mil on there now and the fact videos are short and easily digestible, I think that's literally perfect for her type of content nowadays.
Jenna Marbles transcends all of the boxes. She was to the point where she could post ANYTHING and was guaranteed 3 million views and a 99% like to dislike ratio. She would take a vacation and everyone would be like “Girl, you deserve it! Take a month off and enjoy it! Please do sponsors and add mid-rolls so you can go on more vacations!”. I’ve NEVER seen someone with subscribers like that. And, in my opinion, that is a testament to the brand she built. And her “brand” was just being a good, thoughtful person who wanted to have fun and laugh. I miss her and Julien so much, but I hope they’re both doing well and enjoying the step back from the Internet - and once again, Jenna is the only person who could leave and a year later be talked about and cared about so deeply. I feel like we all just want her to be happy. She’s a legend. Like, truly her Internet life needs to be analyzed and written about by scholars. It’s WILD.
Julien streams a lot on twitch now and posts videos of the streams on his Julien 2 Account. So if you miss his Aries humour or want to see the dogs, you should check it out :)
@@ZebraJess92 I have watched his Twitch clips and enjoy them, but I can’t help but miss the cooking videos and vlogs. I just hope they’re doing well and taking care of themselves.
You totally nailed it! I'm one of those people who would eagerly await for a video and knew it could be her doing "Jenna's ratchet salon" or "32 year old lady" content and or something else random but I knew that no matter what it would be a video where I can totally tried and enjoy because there was no drama, no bringing down of others, and not self deprecating (I detest self deprecating and it's why I stopped watching Colleen Ballinger vlog channel and regular channel, I didn't watch Miranda), it was just her doing whatever entertained her and made her happy. Also her and I are only a few days apart in age and both live very low key lives with our long-term partner/spouse while enjoying being furparents which felt very relatable and made enjoying her content very easy to do. I really hope she does a documentary about her time as the female with the most subscribers on UA-cam for many years and how her life was impacted during that time and also post leaving UA-cam.
This is why even popular influencers shouldn't go crazy and spend all of their money. If you fall off, you won't be able to pay your 5 million dollar mortgage girl!
That's what GloZell has been speaking about, and why some smart youtubers are branching in business not related to their inage (like H3 with Teddy Fresh)
I yell about that so loudly it's not even funny. Like save your cash, pay off debts, invest properly, buy a home that's spacious enough for you but not too big to maintain when the UA-cam revenue stream ends, buy a decent car or two with decent insurance coverage, and keep saving/investing. I cringe every time I see a UA-camr buy a huge home especially with a mortgage instead of outright buying a home that's financially theirs, along with renting luxury vehicles and having accessory closets the size of apartments. Learning to budget and live below means is a skill that'll save them all from financial ruin.
@@sersastark They could totally learn to budget while having a good life. But I have a feeling most of them are just gonna find out the hard way :/ where is the common sense
Can't believe UA-cam has been around since I was 9. Now I'm 25. Literally remember when no one did UA-cam and only a couple did such as Fred, Shane Dawson, Nigahiga, Jenna marbles etc.
I never would've made that connection honestly but now that you mention it, I really do think thats a strong argument. Bunny is still filming mostly in her house doing hauls or vlogs that were very popular until like 2015 maybe, but a lot of stuff she touches on in those videos could be tinkered a bit to make them fit the tastes and landscape of 2021 UA-cam. For context I'm not hating on bunny, I love her personality and enjoy her videos, but they are very much like a blast from the past in that they haven't really changed over the years.
Although I am a bit bored by her soap/ makeup creation content. I wish she would throw in some more fashion related content. I got bored and had to unsubscribe
She's becoming repetitive and boring too. I used to love her channel until the wave of "franken-" concoctions. Topped with the fact that she posts like once a month. She comes off as genuine though where Bunny is a try hard.
I don't think people give jackie Aina and Bretman Rock enough credit for their consistently and evolution. They both are UA-cam "ogs" and content have remained relevant while also being particularly great at responding to current trends.
I think lately Bretman Rock has had a spike upwards in his popularity because he’s knows how to cater to his audience while also bringing in a newer audience
I was done with Jackie when she accused Petty Paige of hacking her bank account and stealing her money. The fact she didn't even apologise and retract what she said about her, was the nail in the coffin for me. What a dreadful thing to falsely accuse someone of doing (and it'll be on the Internet forever). Unforgivable in my book. I used to follow her.
i feel like it would be really interesting to do a deep dive on where the “old youtubers” are now, like the golden age of youtube - the british daily vloggers like alfie and zoe, along with joey and dan & phil and ingrid and hannah hart - because they’ve all branched out rlly far from their youtube peaks
I'd love to see that. Zoe hasn't uploaded to her main channel(still uploads to vlog channel) in years and I don't think there was ever an explanation and she was getting great views, it would be interesting to see a deep dive.
I had such a phase with those British UA-camrs. I never missed an Alfie daily vlog, until one day I did. And then I just never went back and fell off of all of them 🤷🏽♀️😕
I feel like a huge outlier is Jenna Marbles. She started out huge with so many viral videos and even as she “fell off” she was consistently views and support. Idk maybe I just love Jenna and am blinded by how much I miss her
I agree with this I think pivoting to personally focused content was natural for her because that was already an aspect of her content from the beginning. However, there’s no way to know if she wouldn’t have fallen off in a couple years if she hadn’t have left.
i loved that you never knew what to expect from her. her videos were so weird and outlandish and just straight up hilarious. You could also tell she was having fun and doing stuff she wanted to do while entertaining her audience and still being authentic. I miss her so much
UA-cam recommended this video to me. I feel targeted lol. Great video by the way. My channel probably falls in to the first category, minus the attempt to try and adapt to the modern demands of the general UA-cam audience. We have kind of accepted what we do and we continue to do it for fun rather than a chase for views and money. There have been some trends we could have hopped on and we never did because we just didn’t feel like it. Not cause we thought ourselves above it, but rather we just upload what we want to, for fun.
And that’s why you are widely respected in this community. Being “on the top of your game” is only a phase (in any career), but a reputation for having integrity and taking pride in your work lasts forever.
I am quite impressed with Good Mythical Morning's evolution. Because they could have easily been part of the "aging out" category, but instead they make some more mature jokes while still being their goofy selves. They definitely had like a golden age, but they're still getting a decent amount of views!
I think that the way that they evolved by adding in more team members over time and giving them the spotlight as well is one of the reasons it's still doing so good.
Someone who comes to mind who also just 'rides the wave' is Simplynailogical and Ben- Cristine and Ben keep their day jobs to use their degrees and still encourage their audiences to go to to school or finish their education and give off that mentality of just having fun and setting boundaries.
I appreciate that from them, and it shows me how often times youtubers who grew up too quick (fame came, didn’t really finish school or hold any sort of job not related to influencing) do not understand the real world and it comes off on camera!
Absolutely! I also really enjoy that she has transitioned into posting regularly on her podcast and posting on her main channel whenever she feels like it. Her podcast has made me relate to her even more (and I was a BIG fan of her even back then lol).
I love that they’ve kept their day jobs. They’re smart enough to know this won’t last forever. I honestly get upset when I see a YBer quit their day jobs as soon as they hit 100k subs, and it happens a LOT. What are they going to have to go back to when they inevitably stop being popular, which is guaranteed to happen? Any who thinks that it’s possible to always be popular should take a look at how massive some actors are barely back-page news anymore despite being names we all still know and love. At least, we love them when we’re reminded of them, but don’t think about them otherwise since they’re really irrelevant to current pop culture.
The problem with that is that after a while you just become overworked having 2 jobs like that (after gaining a certain following you need to keep up good quality content on a schedule, it's pretty much a second job). Angelika Nyqvist used to work a full time dayjob and do youtube on top of that for yeeeears and she only quit last year. She talks about it in some of her videos from that time.
it’s important to note they don’t work full time though. christine has mentioned they work 3-4 days a week now. and if the job wasn’t as flexible she probably wouldn’t be working there
Hannah touched it a bit when she said that being "irrelevant" is natural and shouldn't be connected to their worth as a person, but I think it's important to explicitly consider the UA-camr's mental state. Maybe they're content with where they are now. Maybe they're happier now with smaller channels, maybe they don't want to evolve because they just want to make what they like and not chase trends. Treating irrelevancy as something to always fix is what brings out all the bad side of social media IMO.
Yes! I think this is something that we see a lot in the wider world - we chastise people who we don't view as "ambitious enough," who don't meet the "rise and grind" mentality that is pushed so much in the west but especially in the US. Some folks wanna be happy, get to a comfortable point in their finances / career and then just vibe out. Not everyone needs to be striving for 6 figures and getting stress related illnesses from pushing themselves to the brink in the name of success.
I feel like Safiya is heading down this path even though her videos are still really popular.. it kind of seems like she’s doing the same stuff. I would love to see more historical/informational videos from her! (I loved her fashion history series!)
I was never a fan of her, but its kinda sad to see popular UA-camrs go down and she seems like a nice person, hope she maintains her fan base as she does put in the work
As someone that follows safiya and is a big fan of her, I feel like her “irrelevancy” comes from not posting as often. Her content is still entertaining and extremely rewatchable, but there is a limit to how long you can take in between videos before (non-followers) people start losing interest in you and in your next video.
Agreed, it’s kinda weird how she’s “too on brand” that there’s not much excitement around her content, compared to the past. I also loved her fashion history series so that would be such a cool Branch to see her enter. I think the long periods of inactivity between uploads also contributes to less hype too.
Her new live stream channel is really fun! I feel like it's generally better than her main videos now. It's nice to see the less over produced version of her and Tyler now
I wouldn't count her out just yet- the reason she has stagnated probably has more to do with her break. Once they're properly settled into their new place and can do more thoroughly researched videos, I see her jumping back.
this video speaks to my soul. my channel blew up during the DIY phase of youtube. my channel clearly in a very different place now as that DIY phase is pretty much dead and gone. it was a hard pill to swallow. this video was a very interesting to watch! love your content :)
@@Danielle-Mah DIY for pre-teens and teens (e.g. locker decor, room decors etc.) probably peaked in about 2014 - 2016. There is still DIY home makeovers etc. It's just the DIY for pre-teen era is not at it's peak anymore. Many of the famous youtubers (e.g. LaurDIY, Alisha Marie, Remi Ashten etc.) in the DIY room decor phase have somewhat transitioned into lifestyle youtube (closer to Emma Chamberlain style of youtube).
Honestly, I'm really okay with not knowing a lot about youtubers' personal lives. I think the whole relatability factor is what has driven the intense parasocial relationships that seem extremely prevalent now. With the more personal info out there it's so easy to create a relationship that doesn't exist.
I would LOVE to see creators keeping up more of a wall between their content and their real lives. When they try to pretend there is no wall, it feeds parasocial relationships, which is dangerous. Even in Hannah’s comments, even under this video, you can find people a talking seriously about how she’s everything to them, people acting like she’s their personal best friend. Creators need to stop acting like viewers are their friends when we really aren’t. Creators need to do more to separate how their videos are content, and their real lives are separate and the viewers don’t get to be a part of that.
I agree whole heartedly! I think the issue the Colleen Ballinger had with this not too long ago is a perfect example of that. Our society focuses too much on relatability from Influences to politicians and frankly and we frankly need to rely less on that factor. I also think the monetization of day-to-day life really does create flimsy boundaries for content creators and I think people lose perspective between working and living life.
1000% agree! I don’t care what you ate today, I just want to know how you did the cut crease, lol. I feel like we get too invested when they share too much of their personal lives and when there are no updates or we don’t agree with their choices it affects viewership and how we feel about them versus their craft
It’s interesting to look at the Vlogbrothers thoughts on this, because they have both said they like that their views have gone down, it has strengthened their fan base and not being pushed to every user leads to a lot less negative comments. I wonder if any other of the og youtubers feel the same
I recommend checking out niche topics on YT. It's much less competitive in some ways because getting to a 1M+ subs seems unlikely. These are smaller areas and require a higher degree of knowledge or expertise to create content in. Ultimately, your audience seeks you out because you are relevant to what they do, love, care about, work at, etc. The tone of everything is very different and the audience loyalty is deeper.
i think they definitely started youtube on the side and it just blew up beyond their comprehension. especially john green, i don't think he ever thought youtube was gonna be his forever career. i read his book "the anthropocene reviewed" and he made it clear that he wanted to be an author/writer from young adulthood, he started youtube with his brother as a hobby, and it just became part of his path, just not everything he wanted to do.
They literally said they don't want to grow their channel anymore and that is so wild- but I love it. The HUGE difference though is that vlogbrothers is far from their main source of income- in fact, all of that channels revenue goes to charity. While vlogbrothers has slowed down a ton of their other channels, like Crash Course, are raking it in.
Well I don't think the idea that Emma is more "real" than the earlier batch of UA-camrs is true. In fact I'd say she has curated her personality and content more than the earlier UA-camrs. The first gen of UA-camrs (2006-2009/10) didn't set out to make a living from UA-cam, they genuinely just wanted to entertain, and that shows.
yeah but I feel like she curated her personality and content to allow herself to be "real". If you look at older UA-camrs (usually women) who were around her age but in the 2010's-2015's time period, like LaurDIY and people like that, they were super bubbly and supersaturated and super "fake" (even in their twenties they were stuck in a rut of making super "kid-friendly" monetized content where they couldn't actually be themselves, even they say that now on their channels). Emma would post videos with a crappy camera in her apartment with no makeup and wearing a hoodie while failing at baking, there wasn't this idea of her being "perfect", because she wasn't trying to make money either. Obviously, most brands back then would sponsor people like LaurDIY because they were cutesie and sweet, as opposed to Emma who would like to swear half the time and shit talk people and complain and be a real human being.
Her videos especially when she started out weren't meticulously organised, edited, and stylised like the era of UA-camrs that came before her (Sierra Furtado, Niki & Gabi, etc.) and she didn't put herself out there as a "lifestyle guru" like they did creating guide-type videos. She was just doing her own thing, and despite a change in her lifestyle it's still just her doing her everyday thing. The other girls' content backfired on them because people grew out of those makeup/outfit/lifestyle guide videos and they moved onto vlogs, but that did more harm than good to them too because their audiences grew older and began to see through their questionable actions. I think she skyrocketed in popularity so fast not because she curated her personality earlier than those UA-camrs but because she showed her personality and life much more openly than the previously popular creators who did skits and how-to videos and people were becoming more interested in seeing other people's lives.
I think Emma is actually quite authentic, but she has pulled back hugely in the last few years from revealing a lot about her personal life, which I honestly think is more healthy for her. She talks a lot more about how she's doing on her podcast though and I do believe it's quite 'real'.
I feel like you can still set out and find UA-camrs that reflect the spirit of that era or actually have been active since that era that don't make a living from UA-cam and may have gotten moderately successful in their time, but still have dedicated viewer bases and make content for enjoyment's sake. I mainly watched YTPs and then stuff on ComputerTube around that time, so people like themaritimegirl, vwestlife, Duran Medine and Roadgeek (now The Nostalgia Mall) come to mind.
Bunny lost me when she tried to shame Starbucks employees for not giving her free refills. Home girl can absolutely afford a $5 drink. Her reaction was just so entitled, I couldn’t deal with her anymore.
Don't you think it's a bit excessive to hold a mistake like that against someone forever? She apologized profusely, she made an entire dedicated video about it, apologized to starbucks and the employees (she never tried to SHAME specific employees, though I agree her attitude towards starbucks and their policies was entitled). She had been given special treatment because of who she is for a very long time, and they suddenly changed it. She threw a tantrum. It wasn't a good look, but in the GRAND SCHEME of things, is that really such an unforgivable mistake to have made? At least she sincerely acknowledged what she did and TRIED to make it right. In my eyes that redeemed her. I hate entitled behavior but she truly doesn't seem to act like that in general and seemed genuinely remorseful. I feel it's so sad people still bring it up and so highly exaggerated, too.
@@xsullengirlx I think if it bothers someone it bothers them. Whether or not she’s redeemed in a person’s eyes is up to that person. Everyone sees things from their own perspective.
@@xsullengirlx and then went nuts on a luxury store employee for not letting her mom come in a dressing room with her because it was policy. She felt she should get special treatment because she spent a lot of money there
That pales in comparison to today's drama where UA-camrs are actively assaulting people, being racist, making fun of people with disabilities, etc etc.. The fact that her biggest drama was a tone deaf rant about Starbucks refills says a lot. She hasn't does anything that bad really.
I feel bad when creators get the "you've changed" comments. Yeah, they changed. They started a channel when they were 20, they're now 27. I am happy I changed from my 20 yr old self 🤣
The “you’ve changed” usually comes when someone changes for the worst, either that’s becoming an ass or just acting like they’re getting tired of it all and no longer enjoy it.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria not really, it used to be said to every single UA-cam popular girl that started their channel in their teenage years and went on to adulthood mostly around 2016 if I remember correctly. Some of these people channels still have those old comments everywhere.
@@marisamonroe8207 yeah I get that. But I was referring to more as them living their life or changing the direction of the channel. That I've seen about the pettiest things.
I think we see YT irrelevancy as a personal "failure" and not as a natural experience b/c our culture (speaking as an American) tells us that our worth as humans is nothing more than our productivity and neverending achievements.
Oh that is exactly what it is. We’re taught that if we aren’t operating at peak until we die we’re “washed up”. People are gonna coast or have highs and lows in their careers. There are very very very few niches that will always have a high viewership and that’s okay.
I think you nailed it. A lot of these public figures who make it big in their niche let it get to their head and try to take over in areas that have no interest in them. Feels like that’s what happened to Lily Singh. Her humor doesn’t work in the mainstream… I’m no Nickacado fan, but he plays into the character he’s created of himself and stays in that bubble, so he’s been able to continue doing “well.”
I think an evolution of simply nailogical would be super interesting!! She started out doing nail art on Instagram and then UA-cam for like mostly adults, then transitioned into a bit more of a kids audience, and she's now evolved to streaming and podcasting with a lot more serious adult topics again with a very mixed bag audience. And the best thing is that she never seemed to change her personality for views and everything happened very naturally. No to mention she grew a huge nail polish brand on top of maintaining relevancy for so long. Go Crtisine!!
I neeeever for the idea that Cristine was trying to get a kid audience. She’s just a lot like me. If she likes cat ears, she ears them. If she likes glittery stuff, she wears it. Some people think that adults loving glitter and holo and tiaras and stuff and wearing it in public are adults being childish for wearing what we want. More like, we’re adult enough to not give a damn how others see us for wearing the things that many adults like, but don’t have the guts to wear themselves because their own judgements of others are repressing them.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria I think her personality became much more teen friendly than it used to be back when she was still doing only nail tutorials. like I used to very closely follow her a few years back because of all the humor and stuff, but nowadays she became much more mild. not saying it is a bad thing for her per se, she became a multmilionaire thanks to it, but generally speaking I very rarely am interested in her videos right now
@@mercury3590 as much as I am interested in their podcast conversations, Ben's low crackled voice just annoys the shit out of me lol I tried to keep listening to them when they first started but I just can't stand his voice. I don't mind the eps where Jen or Matt is in though
The other thing I think about when people complain about numbers is that it's insulting to the people watching. Like, please do not tell the 3000 people that took the time to watch your video that "nobody" is watching. It seems like a lot of people forget that those numbers represent real people! Even if it's less than it was before, even a few hundred people is a lot. If people appreciate their viewers like they say they do, you'd think they'd realize that.
I started gaining a tiktok following and stopped posting because I started thinking about this. I hate the idea of worrying about when everything will end when you have so much love and passion for what you’re doing.
Try not to grow to attached to the idea of relevancy and numbers, and remember to just have fun. Years to come and down the line if it doesn’t work out anymore you can always say “I did this thing and have this experience.” That’s my best advice… it might suck but it’s all I got lol.
I used to be really big on Tumblr. I got married and started having babies and I just didn’t have the passion anymore. My life was SO different it just didn’t feel fun anymore.
@@maggiekarabel123 Same tbh. School got me and focused on it instead of juggling between the two. Some of the people who started the same year as I did kept it up and now they became “influencers” after tumblr success. I tried to get back but I just didn’t enjoy it as I did back then.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Bunny would do great if she started traveling for videos. She is known for being quirky, so she could travel to haunted or just down right weird places and investigate all the unique aspects of a place. I would definitely watch her do that!
I would love that too- unfortunately she gets MAJOR travel anxiety, if I remember correctly, specifically with planes. I think it would be cool if she could even show some cool stuff in Texas, though!
Haunted stuff might make her uncomfortable based on what she’s said about bad experiences with ghosts, but she could still travel to cool, unique places, potentially with historical significance.
Bunny has said before that she gets extreme anxiety regarding traveling. She's been invited to travel to some awesome places for brand trips and has turned them down because she'd have to travel. I remember her going to one and vlogging about it, and it was a HUGE feat for her... Anywhere they go, they drive, even if it takes a lot longer. I hope she can work on that, because I agree it would be fun to see her branch out like that -- but sometimes overcoming that anxiety is just too hard especially on camera. :/
I knew she had anxiety at one time but I saw a few of her recent vlogs out and about (and at a graveyard) so I thought maybe she had been doing better in regards to that. Oh well, she’s still sweet, I just thought it would have been a cute series.
For sure! I think she’s really found her niche again on tiktok too! She’s really lucky in that she saved enough from early youtube money that she can easily live on just doing what brings her joy instead of chasing money, which I really think is the point of life anyway, I say good on her :)
@@haileybuth9223 her tiktok literally makes me happy! And yes i think she lives in her means and she enjoys the simple things in life. She still gets sponsors I’m sure
not to say, it still brings her a stable income, for sure much much bigger than what she would have earned without youtube. she's doing what she likes, getting paid well for it- I think it's better than seeing people chasing trends just for another million milestone
I think there's a difference between being adaptable and vacillating between trends; imo Shane falls into the latter category. He is a mirror that reflects back what's popular at the time, he's the same with people; he becomes subsumed by stronger personalities. For me personally a chameleon is someone who can change up their content whilst staying true to themselves, I mean a chameleon is still a chameleon no matter its camouflage. Shane is more like a lump of blu-tack.
Retired teacher here…in this economic climate it’s essential to have a long term plan because this platform will eventually end! Please do a video on Bunny. Also…Jaclyn Hill is not only irrelevant, she is toxic!
I had a conversation with my daughter last year. She wanted to be a UA-camr. I asked her why, and she said money. So I asked her what she wanted her career to be, and she was clueless. I told her that UA-cam isn’t the job. It’s not a career. It’s a platform, a way to deliver content about your career. If you don’t have something you don’t love to do to do enough as a regular job, then you really don’t have enough to make a UA-cam channel. The early people who could take naps and people would watch were on the platform when it was novel enough that people would watch anything just to watch something, and that made people feel warm and fuzzy about the first people they watched. That ship has sailed. You have to offer something now, and that something has to be what you would want as a career, whether that’s dealing with makeup, cooking, writing tips, whatever. Figure out what that thing is, and hone your skills in a way that you can both make a career out of it off of YT as well as make videos about what you’re doing. If you truly love it enough to make videos, you should love it enough to do it for a job and to take your time making videos as an opportunity to further develop those skills. If you’re lucky, your videos can serve as a portfolio.
I used to watch Bunny ALL the time and then one day I just stopped. Like I can't remember exactly when or why, but it's really sad because I used to love her and it's sad to see her channel decline.
Kinda same. I still watch some of her videos, but there will be some stints of time I just scroll past them in my feed. Not sure why that is! I usually eventually watch, though.
I’m sorry I know you meant no malice but the way you said “some channels struggle with even getting sponsorships” and then immediately did a sponsor ad made me die 🤣💀
As a side note: It's definitely interesting to see how quickly UA-camrs can become irrelevant. I was rewatching _Escape the Night,_ and at the time of inception, each member of the cast (and it's worth noting that this is a _massive_ cast of around 30-ish UA-camrs across all four seasons) was _huge_ and had enormous star pull individually. But if you look at it from the perspective of 2020 onwards, all of these UA-camrs are problematic/cancelled/boring/no longer as big as they once used to be. And ETN isn't, like, a dated show! The first season came out only five years ago (!), with one season coming out around each year afterwards. It's interesting to see how quickly that irrelevancy can kick in
yes pls do the evolution of graveyard girl. I wasn't on UA-cam when she was popular and I've heard of her but I don't know much about her and I would like to
She's a total darling. Her content isn't exciting enough for today's audience but thrived when just chill chit-chat videos and product testing was popular. I'm old, though, and have been on this platform a long time so that's still exactly the content I want to watch lol.
i feel bad for bunny cause i feel like she genuinely just enjoys being a youtuber and making videos but yt has (or at least her era of yt) has shifted way past just being a youtuber cause a lot of her peers are booking acting gigs or writing books, having shows etc etc but she’s kind of stuck on youtube which ironically seems to be too little to stay “relevant” for a big youtuber
I definitely agree. She also has a very old school UA-cam personality. And I think that’s why she’s struggled so much bc her true personality just fit the very big, loud, campy overproduced UA-cam rather than this more like ‘low key’ kinda quiet mess. Like she’s an all caps title person and UA-cam’s into all lowercase titles now
it's been interesting to see her content be so successful on tiktok! i think it really works over there bc its a bit more short form and chaotic, plus theres always people there in her comments that are nostalgic for her older youtube content too. i hope she's doing ok
I think a lot of bunny’s irrelevancy had to do with the fact she “hid” how much money she made from youtube. she lives in a mansion with a $35,000 new car but tried to hide it from her audience and shane exposed this in his series. her horrible starbucks video was the nail in her coffin☠️ if she was more honest I think her content would’ve been way better
She lost a lot of goodwill when she started acting like an entitled bitch to Starbucks employees or not giving her all the free refills through the drive-thru that she wanted. Fame got to her head.
@@soccerbopper124 Yup. It’s one thing for a YBer to admit that they’re playing a character version of themselves, but when they claim to be sharing who they genuinely are, and it turns out they’re trying to hide who they are, it’s going to bite them. That Starbucks video really underscored and highlighted her entitlement. She didn’t need to share she had a mansion, but steps she took to conceal it led people to be upset that she lied. I watch some people who I suspect have very large houses, but they also limit their video-making to a studio space set up in their homes and don’t do things in other parts of the house. They’re separating video-them from regular-life-them, and they aren’t lying about anything this way, yet also aren’t showing off if they’re in mansions. I will say, though, that $25k for a new car isn’t a massive amount for a car. Yes, cars can be a few grand, but $25k is on the low end still for cars, including plenty of used ones.
honestly, i feel like the perfect amount of fame on youtube to me is irrelevant enough to not get dragged into headlines constantly, but have enough of a following to make a living on youtube
People complaining about their analytics, views, and sub count is very off-putting. The idea that a creator is saying it to a camera and then _choosing_ to leave it in during editing and uploading and expect their audience to care is very egotistical of them.
I was friends with Bunny at her height. She even sent me flowers and a card and stuffed animal when I had surgery at 17. I’m 26 now. She stopped being friends with me bc some random person lied and said I said things about her that I never did. It’s incredible how easily she believed just random strangers and not friends tbh
I hate to tell you this, but that’s not a friendship. She fostered a parasocial relationship with you. Big names do this a lot, send fans gifts sometimes, personal well-wishes on occasion. But there isn’t a true friendship, a true two-way street. Can you reliably talk on the phone or face-to-face with someone about heartbreak and really and truly have their undivided attention? Are you someone they contact directly for help? Would it be strange to ask if you could go see them for a weekend? Parasocial relationships benefit someone, and it’s the one with power. It fosters a sense of goodwill. Sometimes it’s a creator greeting everyone as “Hello, my friends, how are you?” Sometimes it’s a creator seeing that a longtime fan is having a rough time and deciding that’s a good chance to reach out for a brief time. It’s not always someone consciously trying to do wrong. Sometimes the creator is genuinely trying to be kind, but kindness doesn’t mean being friends any more than kindness means a woman is interested in a guy friend who has the hots for her. Bunny believed some random strangers over you because, to her, she just plain didn’t know you any better than she knew those random strangers. You can probably have a bunch of random people tell you something about your friends who you know, and you would believe your friend because you know your friend well enough on a personal level. She didn’t really know you like that. It honestly breaks my heart to have to tell young people these things. My 11-year-old thought a bit TikTokker was her personally friend for a similar reason, and it crushed her to find out the truth.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria thank you for the insightful comment. Very well and kindly said. True friendships are rare and with a lot of relationships being online it is hard to know if a friendship is true or conditional.
@@user-bj7em4fv1p she still works full time as a crime statistics analyst for the Canadian gov, and has always treated UA-cam as added income that she knows she shouldn't count on forever. Never left her job for UA-cam, makes videos on the weekend, even though her job doesn't pay nearly as well as UA-cam does. Even has her own nail polish company. Still has her job because she knows internet fame is fleeting and unreliable. Encourages her fans to go to school and pursue careers other than UA-cam. Has almost yearly giveaways where she pays viewers university tuition. She's making all this money and still she's doing work and research that is important and will actually do good in Canada as a whole instead of her just making money for herself.
With Thomas Halbert it’s not just the drama. His content is sadly now seriously out of date. His makeup style is very 2015. Highlighter nose, ghost white under eye, cut crease. So even when I tried to look beyond the drama as I felt sorry for him his content is really just out of date now. He’s trying to repeat (like Bunny) what made him successful but he desperately needs to evolve
I don't like Thomas but if that's the type of makeup he likes to do, then it doesn't really matter. Like he shouldn't change the way he does his makeup just because some new makeup trend is popular now.
@@elleblur5 I'd say that it doesn't matter in really life. If it's for a YT career, it makes sense to branch out and do new styles as time goes on. I get what you mean, but as a content creator it's a little different I think
I also feel like he just never really worked that hard on his content to begin with. Even if his makeup style is dated now, then and now it can’t be denied that he’s talented. But it’s like he expected to have a following without really doing the work of being creative and engaging with his content. Drama aside, he has a much more engaging personality on social media like twitter than he ever did on youtube. His energy on youtube always just radiated that he didn’t care, and people could see it imo. He’s talented but lacks originality and has way too big of an ego and a victim complex. I don’t see him making a comeback
Hannah, I really wanted to thank you for how much compassion and empathy you have in making your commentary videos! I'm really interested in the discussions on internet culture, however often times popular videos on the topic have a lot of viciousness and malice to them, discussing individuals as spectacles instead of real people, which I really hate. So thank you for covering them the way you do.
If irrelevancy is shameful then getting a "normal job" after becoming irrelevant is ultimately shameful. Just because you've been famous doesn't mean you have to sell candles or makeup, it's TOTALLY OKAY to just work at a coffee shop or in an office.
I’m so glad you discussed influencers complaining about views to their subscribers. I’ve 100% guilt watched before and it’s eventually just made me unsubscribe so I don’t have to hear it.
i remember when it was a huge deal that grav3yardgirl had a collab with i think tarte???? like it was called the swamp queen palette or something. it's kinda strange to know that she had huge opportunities like that, but never really did more with that.
The point around 19:15, if a tiktok creator I follow complains about being shadowbanned, I unfollow them. It’s so annoying. Like just make stuff and I’ll watch.
And with the creators just “riding the wave,” you notice that most of them have every day normal jobs outside of UA-cam. That backup plan, essentially. Cristine comes to mind. She has a great day job and then launched Holo Taco and then the podcast. So when she eventually is done with youtube, she has backup plans. UA-cam isn’t forever, unless you’re Jenna Marbles (if she hadn’t retired and enjoyed making content still, she could’ve just hung out here even longer). I think that’s the smart way to enter the UA-cam sphere. Be realistic and have a plan for later. Whether that’s branching out into acting, music, art, or whatever.
I started watching Joey in the past year because he started doing a lot of fostering dog videos and going away from what he used to do and I think he has been able to evolve
It’s also really interesting to see how creators who have/had “real” jobs and/or have some sort of educational degree deal with their irrelevancy. I see a lot of people saying that Safiya is becoming “irrelevant” and it’s interesting to see how she’s tackling that talk. Many creators have only known UA-cam, often quitting jobs/dropping out of school in order to dedicate their time to their channel. If UA-cam is all you know, it’s easy to see how the threat of being “irrelevant” is terrifying and you’re willing to sacrifice whatever (mental health, integrity, etc) in order to stave it away. Both safiya and Tyler have degrees from Stanford, and had a regular 9-5 (as regular as Buzzfeed could be) in the past, so it’s easy to see why they’re taking it easy on their uploading schedule and don’t seem to be all that bothered about talks about irrelevancy. They probably have contingencies that most (not all) other creators don’t have.
People quitting their jobs once they hit 100k is an alarming trend. Jimmy Snow (aka Mr. Atheist) did that, and then he got a bit bigger and started getting all these grand, expensive plans, started charging people to find out his next project so they could decide if they wanted to give him more money, and now that his new project didn’t pan out as he hoped, he’s clearly struggling for dear life. Jen from FundyFridays had her channel go from 10k to 100k in a few weeks (I was watching when she wasn’t at even 5k, and then BOOM), and she quit her regular job right away. Small channel and a job to 100k and quit her job within literally about a month, and already it seems like she’s getting burned out. It’s not something either f them do for the enjoyment with the money being a nice bonus, but rather doing it because they have to because they don’t have other jobs anymore. Saf and Ty having worked in the past doesn’t mean anything when you’ve been out of the regular workforce for a while. Self-employment doesn’t mean jack when trying to get a regular job again. Employers want to know that YOU can take orders, and depending on the position, they want to know you can give order, but not your own. Can you take and pass alone their orders? Self-employment hurts your chance at other jobs. I have an easily-verifiable business (not connected at all to my username here), and this is something I’ve had to deal with.
As Sean Kinney from Alice In Chains has said, “you’re only shiny and new once”. Sometimes popular “irrelevancy” is just the sign of a long career. AIC aren’t Greta van Fleet, but they’ll probably get into the rock hall of fame 🤷♀️. Great video Hannah!
This is why I'm that person always wagging my finger, re: it's not smart to bank on YT/influencer to be your full-time or forever career (if it IS FT for a while, invest those funds wisely and plan for long term!!!). Very few people can smartly launch/pivot from their heyday on any such platform to build an actual long term/sustainable brand as a public figure/celebrity--this is true in celebrity culture, period. The ones who do manage it are impressive, but the vast majority that won't happen. It's going to be so interesting to see an entire generation of influencers who have few transferable work skills and not much on their resume so they'll just have to be a C/D List celebrity who pops up on the inevitable future reality shows of former influencers/UA-camrs surviving in a jungle or living in a house together or whatever. But, hey, I'll watch it.
@@sonicthehedgegod It seems to me that influencers develop tons of skills (and contacts) that would be useful in traditional professions like sales, marketing, management, video production etc.
Along with teaching what the word “irrelevant” means so it’s used correctly, can we get on board with “I couldn’t care less” and make “I could care less” a repressed memory?
It’s always been this way in the “celebrity/fame” culture, UA-cam is just a newer version. There have always been popular actors, singers, writers, etc that were huge at one point but then faded away. There’s many different reasons why it happens & the ones that are actually able to stay “relevant” are the exception not the rule. I personally hate the “has been” attitude, I think it’s exceptional that anyone is ever able to achieve these heights wether it lasts or not it should be commended & they should be proud of what they were able to achieve.
@@noel2223 Good example actually. People seem to harp on how she is a has been as if she wasn't huge in the 2010's. She's still very successful but her popularity at the height of her career in the 2010s makes it look like she isn't as popular in comparison
I know Phill at least is still posting on his channel. He and Dan just moved somewhere and I think Dan just made a video like last month for pride. I'm not sure if their audience is still super young, but I know I still watch them
I actually have feeling that their audience just grew with. A lot fell of but the people who are still watching have been doing that for quite a while. I guess if you have a young fan base and you don’t to become „irrelevant“ you have to evolve with your fans.
Jenna marbles was the only person that had the “ one set formula “ hands down. She could post her trying to nap & myself as well as everyone else would watch. ( she did that & we did watch ☺️)
Jenna definitely changed over time tho. 2012 Jenna was no where near 2019 Jenna. But I do think she was one of the only UA-camr who could do this seamlessly and still be able to keep her same audience.
Her last videos seemed kinda boring to me. I just watched them, cause I liked her and Julien. But it looked like she lost her passion near the moment she left.
I find Bunny very interesting because while her content isn't what people are flocking to anymore, and she doesn't have the same fan base she used to, she keeps creating that same content in part because she *likes it.* While this is by no means a smart business tactic I find it kind of admirable that she just keeps doing what she enjoys. She has tried to change her content up and it just doesn't stick because she enjoys doing what she does. I would be interested in a deep dive on Bunny because I also think she is a FASCINATING example of how a creator can accidentally fall into a child audience. Bunny's content was *not* originally made for kids- she was just a quirky beauty and life style youtuber who also did creepy/ghost content. Somehow she fell ended up with a younger audience and she (unlike, say, Tana) realized the influence she had and how important it was to be a role model and build a safe community for them. I think she was naturally talented at it and enjoyed the role, but I am sure it was incredibly limiting. The problem is her child audience grew up and out of her content. I think she actually HAS shown her ability to be flexible and orient herself towards the new younger audiece on her tiktok, but unfortunately that content doesn't translate well over to youtube so she remains stagnant here. It is a shame because I think she is so kind and refreshingly quirky, and I genuinely hope that trends swing back into her favor.
hi hannah ive never been this early but i just wanted to say youve been a big inspiration for me in getting through college (i'm like YEARS behind everyone else my age lol) and also that your brows look especially nice today
Yes! Get that degree girl! Don’t worry about age, my mom didn’t get her degree in nursing until she was 45. She’s now doing something she loves until she can’t stand anymore.
i think jenna marbles is a good example of the chameleon as well as one who planned well to leave youtube. jenna changed her content over time, did a podcast, twitch streaming, a radio show, sold merch for a period of time, and has a few degrees under her belt. i know she was a little older than a lot of content creators when she left and therefore was a lot more mature, but i think she did a great job planning for the end of her youtube career.
The evolution of a UA-camrs career reminds me of tv series. Most shows have a finite amount of seasons - and even if they keep running years and years later (I’m thinking about greys anatomy lol) you’re going to have viewers drop off. I don’t think subscribers and UA-cam viewers are often malicious is stopping watching someone’s content - sometimes you just move on! Maybe they’ve moved on respecting that that creator made content they once loved. They may look back to that creator as an inspiration. I’m so glad you’re riding the wave, Hannah, and I hope you’re proud of the content you make - you’ve really made me smile throughout this trying year - so thank you!
I recently discovered you (along with a ton of other UA-camrs). Apparently I’m like 900 years old in Social Media Years (36 in human) - and im learning so damn much. I think you’re amongst my absolute favs. I absolutely love you. J just love your overall positive but also real AF vibe. Love your aesthetic and I think your candle spin is so damn cool. Love candles. All the candles. Anyway. Just wanted to say that. You’re doing great girl. Don’t ever change
I don’t know if I think of UA-camrs as irrelevant or relevant, but as trending or growing creators. If a creator is not creating content that allows them to continue to grow their audience, we should care about how they’re retaining their following, the work it takes to keep up with trends while also creating content that is true to them. That being said, I still watch Good Mythical Morning, Rosanna Pansino and Game Theory and they’re older channels that follow a formula with content and still continue to grow because they like testing out concepts and also continue to make content that satisfies what many followers expect. Nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool in that way.
I think your point of view on "irrelevancy" is super interesting. because it is true that we always use it negatively and we see it as a failure but it's just because they are not doing content that is trending but it could still be super interesting. i really enjoyed watching your videos and your analysis :) can't wait to watch more of those xx and also, i actually prefer watching youtubers who are less popular because i feel like they do content that they enjoy doing. but also i can appreciate the content without all of the hype and stuff surrounding it
I feel like there’s also this huge pressure on them to stay out of controversy, but yet still be super relatable. At some point, that fear of controversy eats away at a person’s freedom to want to be transparent
Do y'all remember My Drunk Kitchen? I feel like that channel is where irrelevancy isn't a bad word necessarily, but that formula served Hannah Hart well... until it was boring.
I just want to say this topic is so interesting, but also I’m sorry for the loss of your dog. The one year anniversary of my dogs death passed this month, and it’s a hard thing to go through. Sending love and good vibes❤️❤️
I'm so sorry. It's something u will never forget. The love u have for ur pets lasts forever. U never forget them. U will feel better with time but u always r reminded of them and love them.
Michelle Phan is og! Her UA-cam channel may get less views now but she has a business and occasionally post videos. I may not watch every now and then, like I did back in the day...but I'm happy for her 💖😊💖
I love Michelle Phan! I just left a comment too about her here 😅 I watch every time I see a video from her because she has the loveliest voice. I am happy that she really built something for herself beyond youtube.
Awesome video! I think it's super interesting to think about this in terms of businesses; even if someone is deemed "irrelevant", they can still be making videos and sustaining an income, even when it's not as big as it once was - like a lifestyle business. The goal is to sustain a livable income. And if you're doing that while creating stuff you love.... the rest is just ego, y'know?
I think The Rewired Soul is a very good example of not being able to survive drama when you're smaller. He didn't have enough support or credibility in the community to survive reacting to horrendously to situations. He rose and fell so quickly
fr tho i don’t think that’d ever happen. he’s like gabbie hanna in that he can’t market being a mean girl or troll like someone like jeffree star or trisha paytas can. gabbie’s profiting off of being big enough to start drama but i think that’s not gonna last. it’s really not sustainable unless you can invest and also learn to market your drama correctly, which gabbie doesn’t do because she so transparently hates being the villain. i think rewired soul would be the same way if he got more popular before he got swallowed by his own drama.
It's mostly because he's so toxic no one wants to watch him (except his core audience) The guy would do the worst armchair diagnostics and prey on people's issues.
@@mayaflici374 dude failed the vibe check in record time for me, the second i saw him speak in real time like every alarm bell in my body went off lmao. absolutely putrid vibes
Honestly, anytime I've ever heard a youtuber complain about being shadow-banned or the algorithm not alerting their subscribers to a video... 9 times out of 10 it seems like they are just having trouble accepting that a) the video concept just wasn't that interesting (for example, I saw it and didn't click, and so did many others), or b) they are slowly/naturally becoming less relevant (due to stagnation, their audience aging out of their content, trends changing, etc). I think some creators seriously overestimate UA-cam's impact on their videos not performing well. GH is a prime example.
totally agree as it pertains to bigger youtubers. but there is some pretty ridiculous stuff. if you don’t watch many black creators for example you’ll literally never have a single black creator recommended to you. some stuff like that can be pretty insidious.
I used to think that, but noticed I suddenly wasn't suscribed to some youtubers I constantly watch (Smokey included), and was out of nowhere suscribed to othera I wasn't (it happened with James Charles). Not sure what happened there, but it was so weird.
I think both things can be true. Creators aren’t taking note of what their audience is telling them, but it’s also true that UA-cam suppresses content (with channels I religiously follow not showing up in my feed). We can’t really know what the youtuber is thinking and if their shadow ban is real. I think in Gabbie’s case, it’s both, she’ll have seen videos suppressed but how much is she blaming that in cases when she shouldn’t? Impossible to know!
That section at the beginning "Irrelevancy should not be an insult" is so important! Just because your channel "falls off" it doesn't mean you're no longer successful, nor should it take away from the impact of your work when you were "relevant". In a lot of ways, knowing that you'll eventually fade into irrelevance is and can be a positive in many ways.
I wish there was a real scientific study on how many of these influencers have some sort of mental illness. I’m at the chameleon section and I was thinking it’s not very hard for a person with specific mental illnesses/personality disorders to switch up their entire life, opinions, and personality to match whatever is trending at the time. If you don’t have a solid sense of self already established, it’s easy to adapt to whatever makes you money and brings attention.
Simply Nailogical has had quite a journey and I think her case is super interesting. It's definitely one suited for an evolution video. I can't imagine someone more aware of the waves and has leaned into that "youtube is weird so I kept my day job" than her lol.
This makes me think of ze frank and how he pivoted to running Buzzfeed and then Buzzfeed exploded. I think some other OG youtubers also went corporate to help traditional media companies do online videos better. You should do an evolution of Buzzfeed!
I'd love to hear you talk about the Green Brothers. They were a couple of the very first successful UA-camrs but even though their channel isn't necessarily relevant, John and Hank are both still HUGELY successful.
i mean john had a disgustingly popular book and several other winners in the realistic YA genre around the early 2010's. Not to mention Hank is also an actual educator
Watching creators try to chase the algorithm is so frustrating to me because the algorithm is always reactive, not proactive. It won't push the same people consistently no matter how big a channel gets because what the algorithm shows is a snapshot of the changing interests of the viewers. So there's always going to be a natural ebb and flow in viewership numbers--and that's okay!
omg hannah, this is perfect timing. i’m curled up in my bed with my heating pads with ovarian cysts and needing videos from influencers i love to help distract me. thank you for the content, research, and care 💕
This video makes me lowkey nostalgic lol. Just remembering all the og youtubers I used to watch. Also as someone who’s been watching UA-cam for like ten years as a viewer it’s also sad to outgrow UA-camrs you really loved/looked up to it to watch or when they start to not upload as much.
This has always been an avenue I’ve been waiting for you to go down since you’ve sorta been hinting at these themes of fame and irrelevancy in previous videos! Can’t wait to enjoy this video :)
idk if he completely fits the “chameleon” category, but i think Jacksfilms is a great example of a creator who has managed to endure and flourish on UA-cam. Granted he was one of the earlier adopters of the platform which definitely gives him an advantage, but in my opinion, he’s cultivated a very unique and specific brand of content that’s very easy for him to adapt to different trends without sacrificing his personality that his fans love which has helped him outlast other creators and channels that started around the same time as him.
it’s also crazy how so many people have a million+ followers and i stumble upon their channel, and never heard of them, it’s a very competitive environment
Thats because if you're not interested then the Algorithm won't suggest it. Not into true crime but listen to a few one day? They'll suggest it and bam! There's a niche with horror and crime you've entered and find the comment section is very humble and kind. I didn't like tea channels but found smokey glow and um.. Tememe? I found out not every one is tea and there is female commentary
I think about this all the time
There are tons of YT channels I’ve never heard of and only find out about them when their brought up bc of some drama or scandal.
Following the cryptocurrency scam drama made me realize just how big gaming UA-cam is. The amount of money big gaming UA-camrs make off of sponsorships puts beauty UA-cam to shame.
@@moxiemaxie3543 TehMimi??
Speaking of ‘irrelevancy’, you should do an Evolution of Buzzfeed Creators! It’s really interesting to see how Buzzfeed went from being *the* place to be from a laughingstock on the internet when they started losing their most prominent workers. Perhaps you could analyze how these Buzzfeed stars transition from being part of a huge media company to doing their own gig.
The Try Guys would be a great example
Love this idea!
And the whole Ladylike team, including OGs like Saf and Candance before buzzfeed really started pushing them as a brand. I really enjoy Devin's videos and Chantal on IG. Also gotta look at the Watcher boys joining the Unsolved and Worth It fanbases to make their own. Their content is entertaining and good variety.
The only thing keeping Buzzfeed alive these days is Buzzfeed Unsolved(which I love) and that’s on its final season so I wanna see what happens to Buzzfeed after that
Adam Ellis has been doing great so far and his comic styles come out more ever since he left BuzzFeed
It’s wild to think UA-cam has existed long enough for influencers to have fallen off. What a time to be alive.
Fr😔
As a 45 year old, the entire rise of the internet, social media, influencers and now the downfall of influencers has been an absolutely fascinating thing to watch.
Right!? People say a month in real life is like a year in Internet time because everything is so new and it moves so quickly that a few weeks can feel like old news... I wonder if we're going to stop saying that soon, because we'll actually have a long enough time line to look back on that makes a few weeks actually feel like a few weeks 😂
No, the time to be alive was back when UA-cam didn't have any ads and there weren't sponsorships and ads built-in even when you have UA-cam premium
The average life cycle on UA-cam is short. It's not that it existed long enough, the audience on UA-cam shifts a lot. The young grow and are replaced a new generation with different tastes etc etc. So those who can't adapt get left in the dust.
Personally, I think younger youtubers don’t understand that this platform didn’t start out as a source of clout or money. These were just talented people who liked to entertain folks. They would’ve done it for free. But now, people approach UA-cam as a way to get famous, so they will do whatever is popular.
That’s a great point! When this platform started there was no monetary incentive in it.
Very true! Remember when skits were all the rage? UA-camrs weren't making as much money as they did now, and those skits would sometimes take forever to complete and the return on it wasn't that much but so many people were just passionate for it that they didn't really mind putting in a ton of effort for little return (at the time).
So true 💯
100% and the over all culture of UA-cam I think has faltered because of it there was no UA-cam drama back when people were just doing this for fun
This so much. Even youtubers we like see us as numbers
Can I just say, Bunny getting on TikTok was such a good choice. She has 1.6mil on there now and the fact videos are short and easily digestible, I think that's literally perfect for her type of content nowadays.
Jenna Marbles transcends all of the boxes. She was to the point where she could post ANYTHING and was guaranteed 3 million views and a 99% like to dislike ratio. She would take a vacation and everyone would be like “Girl, you deserve it! Take a month off and enjoy it! Please do sponsors and add mid-rolls so you can go on more vacations!”. I’ve NEVER seen someone with subscribers like that. And, in my opinion, that is a testament to the brand she built. And her “brand” was just being a good, thoughtful person who wanted to have fun and laugh. I miss her and Julien so much, but I hope they’re both doing well and enjoying the step back from the Internet - and once again, Jenna is the only person who could leave and a year later be talked about and cared about so deeply. I feel like we all just want her to be happy. She’s a legend. Like, truly her Internet life needs to be analyzed and written about by scholars. It’s WILD.
Angelizas oles has amazing subs who literally click her ads and stuff so she can keep going
Julien streams a lot on twitch now and posts videos of the streams on his Julien 2 Account. So if you miss his Aries humour or want to see the dogs, you should check it out :)
@@ZebraJess92 I have watched his Twitch clips and enjoy them, but I can’t help but miss the cooking videos and vlogs. I just hope they’re doing well and taking care of themselves.
Let us all remember when she took a nap for 20 million subscribers 😂
You totally nailed it! I'm one of those people who would eagerly await for a video and knew it could be her doing "Jenna's ratchet salon" or "32 year old lady" content and or something else random but I knew that no matter what it would be a video where I can totally tried and enjoy because there was no drama, no bringing down of others, and not self deprecating (I detest self deprecating and it's why I stopped watching Colleen Ballinger vlog channel and regular channel, I didn't watch Miranda), it was just her doing whatever entertained her and made her happy. Also her and I are only a few days apart in age and both live very low key lives with our long-term partner/spouse while enjoying being furparents which felt very relatable and made enjoying her content very easy to do. I really hope she does a documentary about her time as the female with the most subscribers on UA-cam for many years and how her life was impacted during that time and also post leaving UA-cam.
This is why even popular influencers shouldn't go crazy and spend all of their money. If you fall off, you won't be able to pay your 5 million dollar mortgage girl!
That's what GloZell has been speaking about, and why some smart youtubers are branching in business not related to their inage (like H3 with Teddy Fresh)
I yell about that so loudly it's not even funny. Like save your cash, pay off debts, invest properly, buy a home that's spacious enough for you but not too big to maintain when the UA-cam revenue stream ends, buy a decent car or two with decent insurance coverage, and keep saving/investing. I cringe every time I see a UA-camr buy a huge home especially with a mortgage instead of outright buying a home that's financially theirs, along with renting luxury vehicles and having accessory closets the size of apartments. Learning to budget and live below means is a skill that'll save them all from financial ruin.
@@8LyJu8 Exactly! People who won’t adapt or branch off into new areas will be struggling in a few years.
@@sersastark They could totally learn to budget while having a good life. But I have a feeling most of them are just gonna find out the hard way :/ where is the common sense
It'll be interesting to see the progression of Jeffree Star, who flaunts his wealth and lives a bizarrely luxurious lifestyle.
Can't believe UA-cam has been around since I was 9. Now I'm 25. Literally remember when no one did UA-cam and only a couple did such as Fred, Shane Dawson, Nigahiga, Jenna marbles etc.
Same here! It’s so cool to see how far this platform has come!
Same! I remember when you were the shit if you had an actual microphone rather than just using the camera's.
Same I’m 23 reminiscing about early UA-cam feels like an entirely different universe
Being 25 now is literally insane. My parents shared a flip cell phone when I was born. And now…. This!
I’m 35. This made me feel ancient. 🪦
Hear me out, I feel like Safiya Nygaard took the same concepts bunny had but placed them into more relevant topics
I never would've made that connection honestly but now that you mention it, I really do think thats a strong argument. Bunny is still filming mostly in her house doing hauls or vlogs that were very popular until like 2015 maybe, but a lot of stuff she touches on in those videos could be tinkered a bit to make them fit the tastes and landscape of 2021 UA-cam. For context I'm not hating on bunny, I love her personality and enjoy her videos, but they are very much like a blast from the past in that they haven't really changed over the years.
YES!
That’s exactly what I was thinking!
Although I am a bit bored by her soap/ makeup creation content. I wish she would throw in some more fashion related content. I got bored and had to unsubscribe
She's becoming repetitive and boring too. I used to love her channel until the wave of "franken-" concoctions. Topped with the fact that she posts like once a month. She comes off as genuine though where Bunny is a try hard.
I don't think people give jackie Aina and Bretman Rock enough credit for their consistently and evolution. They both are UA-cam "ogs" and content have remained relevant while also being particularly great at responding to current trends.
I think lately Bretman Rock has had a spike upwards in his popularity because he’s knows how to cater to his audience while also bringing in a newer audience
I was done with Jackie when she accused Petty Paige of hacking her bank account and stealing her money. The fact she didn't even apologise and retract what she said about her, was the nail in the coffin for me. What a dreadful thing to falsely accuse someone of doing (and it'll be on the Internet forever). Unforgivable in my book.
I used to follow her.
@@lindatannock she literally did apologize why do y’all keep saying that? I bet you watch a bunch of problematic youtubers too and ignore it
I didn't know about Bretman until he appeared on among us. unsurprisingly, I don't actively watch him but at least I'm aware?
Love Jackie's content- I watch her even though I don't use a lot of makeup
i feel like it would be really interesting to do a deep dive on where the “old youtubers” are now, like the golden age of youtube - the british daily vloggers like alfie and zoe, along with joey and dan & phil and ingrid and hannah hart - because they’ve all branched out rlly far from their youtube peaks
I'd love to see that. Zoe hasn't uploaded to her main channel(still uploads to vlog channel) in years and I don't think there was ever an explanation and she was getting great views, it would be interesting to see a deep dive.
I had such a phase with those British UA-camrs. I never missed an Alfie daily vlog, until one day I did. And then I just never went back and fell off of all of them 🤷🏽♀️😕
and O2L 🥺
It made me so sad when Ingrid left UA-cam. She was one of the first youtubers I watched as a teen.
Honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if Zoe’s career sort of turned into Holly Willoughby’s and she does a daytime show
I feel like a huge outlier is Jenna Marbles. She started out huge with so many viral videos and even as she “fell off” she was consistently views and support. Idk maybe I just love Jenna and am blinded by how much I miss her
I agree with this I think pivoting to personally focused content was natural for her because that was already an aspect of her content from the beginning. However, there’s no way to know if she wouldn’t have fallen off in a couple years if she hadn’t have left.
I miss her so much, I really hope she's doing well
@@EchoRe they got engaged!
i loved that you never knew what to expect from her. her videos were so weird and outlandish and just straight up hilarious. You could also tell she was having fun and doing stuff she wanted to do while entertaining her audience and still being authentic. I miss her so much
She hasn't lost many subscribers even when she is not uploading content, I think that's very telling of the love and support she has from her fans
UA-cam recommended this video to me. I feel targeted lol.
Great video by the way. My channel probably falls in to the first category, minus the attempt to try and adapt to the modern demands of the general UA-cam audience.
We have kind of accepted what we do and we continue to do it for fun rather than a chase for views and money.
There have been some trends we could have hopped on and we never did because we just didn’t feel like it. Not cause we thought ourselves above it, but rather we just upload what we want to, for fun.
I think people still see your passion and authenticity though and that’s awesome. Definitely a positive to not adapting to modern UA-cam demands
And that’s why you are widely respected in this community. Being “on the top of your game” is only a phase (in any career), but a reputation for having integrity and taking pride in your work lasts forever.
Holy shit it's Epic Meal Time! I loved your videos so much as a kid! Thanks for the nostalgia, man
Your time has come, my dude.
Love your videos!! ❤
I am quite impressed with Good Mythical Morning's evolution. Because they could have easily been part of the "aging out" category, but instead they make some more mature jokes while still being their goofy selves. They definitely had like a golden age, but they're still getting a decent amount of views!
Agreed! I feel like their content can appeal to a really wide age range too
I still love growing up with them 10 years in!
I think that the way that they evolved by adding in more team members over time and giving them the spotlight as well is one of the reasons it's still doing so good.
you’re basically a UA-cam historian at this point I love it
Someone who comes to mind who also just 'rides the wave' is Simplynailogical and Ben- Cristine and Ben keep their day jobs to use their degrees and still encourage their audiences to go to to school or finish their education and give off that mentality of just having fun and setting boundaries.
I appreciate that from them, and it shows me how often times youtubers who grew up too quick (fame came, didn’t really finish school or hold any sort of job not related to influencing) do not understand the real world and it comes off on camera!
Absolutely! I also really enjoy that she has transitioned into posting regularly on her podcast and posting on her main channel whenever she feels like it. Her podcast has made me relate to her even more (and I was a BIG fan of her even back then lol).
I love that they’ve kept their day jobs. They’re smart enough to know this won’t last forever. I honestly get upset when I see a YBer quit their day jobs as soon as they hit 100k subs, and it happens a LOT. What are they going to have to go back to when they inevitably stop being popular, which is guaranteed to happen? Any who thinks that it’s possible to always be popular should take a look at how massive some actors are barely back-page news anymore despite being names we all still know and love. At least, we love them when we’re reminded of them, but don’t think about them otherwise since they’re really irrelevant to current pop culture.
The problem with that is that after a while you just become overworked having 2 jobs like that (after gaining a certain following you need to keep up good quality content on a schedule, it's pretty much a second job). Angelika Nyqvist used to work a full time dayjob and do youtube on top of that for yeeeears and she only quit last year. She talks about it in some of her videos from that time.
it’s important to note they don’t work full time though. christine has mentioned they work 3-4 days a week now. and if the job wasn’t as flexible she probably wouldn’t be working there
Hannah touched it a bit when she said that being "irrelevant" is natural and shouldn't be connected to their worth as a person, but I think it's important to explicitly consider the UA-camr's mental state. Maybe they're content with where they are now. Maybe they're happier now with smaller channels, maybe they don't want to evolve because they just want to make what they like and not chase trends. Treating irrelevancy as something to always fix is what brings out all the bad side of social media IMO.
There's also creative burnout to consider.
Yes! I think this is something that we see a lot in the wider world - we chastise people who we don't view as "ambitious enough," who don't meet the "rise and grind" mentality that is pushed so much in the west but especially in the US. Some folks wanna be happy, get to a comfortable point in their finances / career and then just vibe out. Not everyone needs to be striving for 6 figures and getting stress related illnesses from pushing themselves to the brink in the name of success.
I feel like Safiya is heading down this path even though her videos are still really popular.. it kind of seems like she’s doing the same stuff. I would love to see more historical/informational videos from her! (I loved her fashion history series!)
I was never a fan of her, but its kinda sad to see popular UA-camrs go down and she seems like a nice person, hope she maintains her fan base as she does put in the work
As someone that follows safiya and is a big fan of her, I feel like her “irrelevancy” comes from not posting as often. Her content is still entertaining and extremely rewatchable, but there is a limit to how long you can take in between videos before (non-followers) people start losing interest in you and in your next video.
Agreed, it’s kinda weird how she’s “too on brand” that there’s not much excitement around her content, compared to the past. I also loved her fashion history series so that would be such a cool Branch to see her enter. I think the long periods of inactivity between uploads also contributes to less hype too.
Her new live stream channel is really fun! I feel like it's generally better than her main videos now. It's nice to see the less over produced version of her and Tyler now
I wouldn't count her out just yet- the reason she has stagnated probably has more to do with her break. Once they're properly settled into their new place and can do more thoroughly researched videos, I see her jumping back.
this video speaks to my soul. my channel blew up during the DIY phase of youtube. my channel clearly in a very different place now as that DIY phase is pretty much dead and gone. it was a hard pill to swallow. this video was a very interesting to watch! love your content :)
What really?! But I still watch DIY! 😅What took over and what phase is it now?? 😦
@@Danielle-Mah DIY for pre-teens and teens (e.g. locker decor, room decors etc.) probably peaked in about 2014 - 2016. There is still DIY home makeovers etc. It's just the DIY for pre-teen era is not at it's peak anymore. Many of the famous youtubers (e.g. LaurDIY, Alisha Marie, Remi Ashten etc.) in the DIY room decor phase have somewhat transitioned into lifestyle youtube (closer to Emma Chamberlain style of youtube).
I still love your videos!
Oh my gosh!! I used to watch all your videos and I’m still subscribed but I haven’t seen you on my homepage in forever. Time to binge!! 🥰🥰
Honestly, I'm really okay with not knowing a lot about youtubers' personal lives. I think the whole relatability factor is what has driven the intense parasocial relationships that seem extremely prevalent now. With the more personal info out there it's so easy to create a relationship that doesn't exist.
I would LOVE to see creators keeping up more of a wall between their content and their real lives. When they try to pretend there is no wall, it feeds parasocial relationships, which is dangerous. Even in Hannah’s comments, even under this video, you can find people a talking seriously about how she’s everything to them, people acting like she’s their personal best friend. Creators need to stop acting like viewers are their friends when we really aren’t. Creators need to do more to separate how their videos are content, and their real lives are separate and the viewers don’t get to be a part of that.
I agree whole heartedly! I think the issue the Colleen Ballinger had with this not too long ago is a perfect example of that. Our society focuses too much on relatability from Influences to politicians and frankly and we frankly need to rely less on that factor. I also think the monetization of day-to-day life really does create flimsy boundaries for content creators and I think people lose perspective between working and living life.
1000% agree! I don’t care what you ate today, I just want to know how you did the cut crease, lol. I feel like we get too invested when they share too much of their personal lives and when there are no updates or we don’t agree with their choices it affects viewership and how we feel about them versus their craft
It’s interesting to look at the Vlogbrothers thoughts on this, because they have both said they like that their views have gone down, it has strengthened their fan base and not being pushed to every user leads to a lot less negative comments. I wonder if any other of the og youtubers feel the same
I recommend checking out niche topics on YT. It's much less competitive in some ways because getting to a 1M+ subs seems unlikely. These are smaller areas and require a higher degree of knowledge or expertise to create content in. Ultimately, your audience seeks you out because you are relevant to what they do, love, care about, work at, etc. The tone of everything is very different and the audience loyalty is deeper.
+ bump
i think they definitely started youtube on the side and it just blew up beyond their comprehension. especially john green, i don't think he ever thought youtube was gonna be his forever career. i read his book "the anthropocene reviewed" and he made it clear that he wanted to be an author/writer from young adulthood, he started youtube with his brother as a hobby, and it just became part of his path, just not everything he wanted to do.
They literally said they don't want to grow their channel anymore and that is so wild- but I love it. The HUGE difference though is that vlogbrothers is far from their main source of income- in fact, all of that channels revenue goes to charity. While vlogbrothers has slowed down a ton of their other channels, like Crash Course, are raking it in.
+
Well I don't think the idea that Emma is more "real" than the earlier batch of UA-camrs is true. In fact I'd say she has curated her personality and content more than the earlier UA-camrs. The first gen of UA-camrs (2006-2009/10) didn't set out to make a living from UA-cam, they genuinely just wanted to entertain, and that shows.
yeah but I feel like she curated her personality and content to allow herself to be "real". If you look at older UA-camrs (usually women) who were around her age but in the 2010's-2015's time period, like LaurDIY and people like that, they were super bubbly and supersaturated and super "fake" (even in their twenties they were stuck in a rut of making super "kid-friendly" monetized content where they couldn't actually be themselves, even they say that now on their channels). Emma would post videos with a crappy camera in her apartment with no makeup and wearing a hoodie while failing at baking, there wasn't this idea of her being "perfect", because she wasn't trying to make money either. Obviously, most brands back then would sponsor people like LaurDIY because they were cutesie and sweet, as opposed to Emma who would like to swear half the time and shit talk people and complain and be a real human being.
Her videos especially when she started out weren't meticulously organised, edited, and stylised like the era of UA-camrs that came before her (Sierra Furtado, Niki & Gabi, etc.) and she didn't put herself out there as a "lifestyle guru" like they did creating guide-type videos. She was just doing her own thing, and despite a change in her lifestyle it's still just her doing her everyday thing. The other girls' content backfired on them because people grew out of those makeup/outfit/lifestyle guide videos and they moved onto vlogs, but that did more harm than good to them too because their audiences grew older and began to see through their questionable actions. I think she skyrocketed in popularity so fast not because she curated her personality earlier than those UA-camrs but because she showed her personality and life much more openly than the previously popular creators who did skits and how-to videos and people were becoming more interested in seeing other people's lives.
I think Emma is actually quite authentic, but she has pulled back hugely in the last few years from revealing a lot about her personal life, which I honestly think is more healthy for her. She talks a lot more about how she's doing on her podcast though and I do believe it's quite 'real'.
I feel like you can still set out and find UA-camrs that reflect the spirit of that era or actually have been active since that era that don't make a living from UA-cam and may have gotten moderately successful in their time, but still have dedicated viewer bases and make content for enjoyment's sake. I mainly watched YTPs and then stuff on ComputerTube around that time, so people like themaritimegirl, vwestlife, Duran Medine and Roadgeek (now The Nostalgia Mall) come to mind.
Bunny lost me when she tried to shame Starbucks employees for not giving her free refills. Home girl can absolutely afford a $5 drink. Her reaction was just so entitled, I couldn’t deal with her anymore.
Don't you think it's a bit excessive to hold a mistake like that against someone forever? She apologized profusely, she made an entire dedicated video about it, apologized to starbucks and the employees (she never tried to SHAME specific employees, though I agree her attitude towards starbucks and their policies was entitled). She had been given special treatment because of who she is for a very long time, and they suddenly changed it. She threw a tantrum. It wasn't a good look, but in the GRAND SCHEME of things, is that really such an unforgivable mistake to have made? At least she sincerely acknowledged what she did and TRIED to make it right. In my eyes that redeemed her. I hate entitled behavior but she truly doesn't seem to act like that in general and seemed genuinely remorseful. I feel it's so sad people still bring it up and so highly exaggerated, too.
@@xsullengirlx I think if it bothers someone it bothers them. Whether or not she’s redeemed in a person’s eyes is up to that person. Everyone sees things from their own perspective.
@@xsullengirlx and then went nuts on a luxury store employee for not letting her mom come in a dressing room with her because it was policy. She felt she should get special treatment because she spent a lot of money there
That pales in comparison to today's drama where UA-camrs are actively assaulting people, being racist, making fun of people with disabilities, etc etc.. The fact that her biggest drama was a tone deaf rant about Starbucks refills says a lot. She hasn't does anything that bad really.
@@Hannah-zw9ow thanks for explaining how apologies work. that point was that the person
is over reacting and it’s dumb.
I feel bad when creators get the "you've changed" comments. Yeah, they changed. They started a channel when they were 20, they're now 27. I am happy I changed from my 20 yr old self 🤣
The “you’ve changed” usually comes when someone changes for the worst, either that’s becoming an ass or just acting like they’re getting tired of it all and no longer enjoy it.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria not really, it used to be said to every single UA-cam popular girl that started their channel in their teenage years and went on to adulthood mostly around 2016 if I remember correctly. Some of these people channels still have those old comments everywhere.
Also reffering to the money. Like they will cry to us about a $10000 rug or some shit and half of us cant pay bills
@@marisamonroe8207 yeah I get that. But I was referring to more as them living their life or changing the direction of the channel. That I've seen about the pettiest things.
oh the thoughts i have on this!
I would love to hear them!
No pressure, but it would be really interesting to hear your perspective!
I mean no one watch’s you because you act like Being gay is a personality. Gets old really fast. That’s was your shtick. People just don’t care for it
@@starvingboyinafrica9463 damn is that harsh?
@@shanaleeayee2995 you can watch his stuff if you want I did when I was like 13 still am subbed he’s just boring af
I think we see YT irrelevancy as a personal "failure" and not as a natural experience b/c our culture (speaking as an American) tells us that our worth as humans is nothing more than our productivity and neverending achievements.
"get a load of this society" but actually
This is so topical with the whole Simone biles thing
Oh that is exactly what it is. We’re taught that if we aren’t operating at peak until we die we’re “washed up”. People are gonna coast or have highs and lows in their careers. There are very very very few niches that will always have a high viewership and that’s okay.
@@maggieann5569 omg yes that's a great point!
@@talynhastime9343 yup. Ebbs and flows are human and *so* normal
Relevancy in the social media context is interesting because you can be relevant within your own community without being a mainstream, household name.
I think you nailed it. A lot of these public figures who make it big in their niche let it get to their head and try to take over in areas that have no interest in them. Feels like that’s what happened to Lily Singh. Her humor doesn’t work in the mainstream… I’m no Nickacado fan, but he plays into the character he’s created of himself and stays in that bubble, so he’s been able to continue doing “well.”
im obsessed with you
Omg hi Chris! I'm actually here because you and Brittany mentioned smokey glow on unhinged!
Me too Olivia! Chris have this amazing woman on unhinged!
when worlds collide, this is so cool
This feels like when you learn your friends you knew from completely different things know each other, Wild
She does not like fake people like you
I think an evolution of simply nailogical would be super interesting!! She started out doing nail art on Instagram and then UA-cam for like mostly adults, then transitioned into a bit more of a kids audience, and she's now evolved to streaming and podcasting with a lot more serious adult topics again with a very mixed bag audience. And the best thing is that she never seemed to change her personality for views and everything happened very naturally. No to mention she grew a huge nail polish brand on top of maintaining relevancy for so long. Go Crtisine!!
I neeeever for the idea that Cristine was trying to get a kid audience. She’s just a lot like me. If she likes cat ears, she ears them. If she likes glittery stuff, she wears it. Some people think that adults loving glitter and holo and tiaras and stuff and wearing it in public are adults being childish for wearing what we want. More like, we’re adult enough to not give a damn how others see us for wearing the things that many adults like, but don’t have the guts to wear themselves because their own judgements of others are repressing them.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria I think her personality became much more teen friendly than it used to be back when she was still doing only nail tutorials. like I used to very closely follow her a few years back because of all the humor and stuff, but nowadays she became much more mild. not saying it is a bad thing for her per se, she became a multmilionaire thanks to it, but generally speaking I very rarely am interested in her videos right now
And she and Ben still have their day jobs working for the Canadian government.
@@hannibaljustincase9985 if you try out her podcast you'll find shes a more different person on there- you might like it ^^
@@mercury3590 as much as I am interested in their podcast conversations, Ben's low crackled voice just annoys the shit out of me lol I tried to keep listening to them when they first started but I just can't stand his voice. I don't mind the eps where Jen or Matt is in though
The other thing I think about when people complain about numbers is that it's insulting to the people watching. Like, please do not tell the 3000 people that took the time to watch your video that "nobody" is watching. It seems like a lot of people forget that those numbers represent real people! Even if it's less than it was before, even a few hundred people is a lot. If people appreciate their viewers like they say they do, you'd think they'd realize that.
I started gaining a tiktok following and stopped posting because I started thinking about this. I hate the idea of worrying about when everything will end when you have so much love and passion for what you’re doing.
Try not to grow to attached to the idea of relevancy and numbers, and remember to just have fun. Years to come and down the line if it doesn’t work out anymore you can always say “I did this thing and have this experience.” That’s my best advice… it might suck but it’s all I got lol.
I used to be really big on Tumblr. I got married and started having babies and I just didn’t have the passion anymore. My life was SO different it just didn’t feel fun anymore.
@@maggiekarabel123 Same tbh. School got me and focused on it instead of juggling between the two. Some of the people who started the same year as I did kept it up and now they became “influencers” after tumblr success. I tried to get back but I just didn’t enjoy it as I did back then.
Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like Bunny would do great if she started traveling for videos. She is known for being quirky, so she could travel to haunted or just down right weird places and investigate all the unique aspects of a place. I would definitely watch her do that!
I would love that too- unfortunately she gets MAJOR travel anxiety, if I remember correctly, specifically with planes. I think it would be cool if she could even show some cool stuff in Texas, though!
Haunted stuff might make her uncomfortable based on what she’s said about bad experiences with ghosts, but she could still travel to cool, unique places, potentially with historical significance.
Bunny has said before that she gets extreme anxiety regarding traveling. She's been invited to travel to some awesome places for brand trips and has turned them down because she'd have to travel. I remember her going to one and vlogging about it, and it was a HUGE feat for her... Anywhere they go, they drive, even if it takes a lot longer. I hope she can work on that, because I agree it would be fun to see her branch out like that -- but sometimes overcoming that anxiety is just too hard especially on camera. :/
I knew she had anxiety at one time but I saw a few of her recent vlogs out and about (and at a graveyard) so I thought maybe she had been doing better in regards to that. Oh well, she’s still sweet, I just thought it would have been a cute series.
I would too! She would be perfect for something like that!
Bunny has stated that the content she makes.. actually makes her happy! It brings her joy. So
I think that’s why she hasn’t changed to
For sure! I think she’s really found her niche again on tiktok too! She’s really lucky in that she saved enough from early youtube money that she can easily live on just doing what brings her joy instead of chasing money, which I really think is the point of life anyway, I say good on her :)
@@haileybuth9223 her tiktok literally makes me happy! And yes i think she lives in her means and she enjoys the simple things in life. She still gets sponsors I’m sure
exactly!
not to say, it still brings her a stable income, for sure much much bigger than what she would have earned without youtube. she's doing what she likes, getting paid well for it- I think it's better than seeing people chasing trends just for another million milestone
I think there's a difference between being adaptable and vacillating between trends; imo Shane falls into the latter category. He is a mirror that reflects back what's popular at the time, he's the same with people; he becomes subsumed by stronger personalities. For me personally a chameleon is someone who can change up their content whilst staying true to themselves, I mean a chameleon is still a chameleon no matter its camouflage. Shane is more like a lump of blu-tack.
That last sentence is 👌👌👌
Nailed it! We call such persons weather vanes in Russian, and it has only negative connotations 🤷
Retired teacher here…in this economic climate it’s essential to have a long term plan because this platform will eventually end!
Please do a video on Bunny. Also…Jaclyn Hill is not only irrelevant, she is toxic!
I had a conversation with my daughter last year. She wanted to be a UA-camr. I asked her why, and she said money. So I asked her what she wanted her career to be, and she was clueless. I told her that UA-cam isn’t the job. It’s not a career. It’s a platform, a way to deliver content about your career. If you don’t have something you don’t love to do to do enough as a regular job, then you really don’t have enough to make a UA-cam channel.
The early people who could take naps and people would watch were on the platform when it was novel enough that people would watch anything just to watch something, and that made people feel warm and fuzzy about the first people they watched. That ship has sailed. You have to offer something now, and that something has to be what you would want as a career, whether that’s dealing with makeup, cooking, writing tips, whatever. Figure out what that thing is, and hone your skills in a way that you can both make a career out of it off of YT as well as make videos about what you’re doing. If you truly love it enough to make videos, you should love it enough to do it for a job and to take your time making videos as an opportunity to further develop those skills. If you’re lucky, your videos can serve as a portfolio.
go off brenda!
"Take a shot of water every time I say irrelevant" Hannah up here making sure we're all well hydrated bitches this summer lol
As she should 😌
I used to watch Bunny ALL the time and then one day I just stopped. Like I can't remember exactly when or why, but it's really sad because I used to love her and it's sad to see her channel decline.
Kinda same. I still watch some of her videos, but there will be some stints of time I just scroll past them in my feed. Not sure why that is! I usually eventually watch, though.
I had to unsub after years because all she does is spend money and it was stressing me out lol
Is Gabriel Zamora considered “irrelevant” now? I don’t hear too much about him ever since the my truth vid
I would think so
I completely forgot about him
Was he ever really relevant? The only time I ever heard about him was when he inserted himself into drama and drama channels had to cover it.
I’m subscribed to him and I haven’t watched him besides the my truth video. Sad isn’t it? 😂😂
I watch all of his videos
I’m sorry I know you meant no malice but the way you said “some channels struggle with even getting sponsorships” and then immediately did a sponsor ad made me die 🤣💀
As a side note: It's definitely interesting to see how quickly UA-camrs can become irrelevant. I was rewatching _Escape the Night,_ and at the time of inception, each member of the cast (and it's worth noting that this is a _massive_ cast of around 30-ish UA-camrs across all four seasons) was _huge_ and had enormous star pull individually. But if you look at it from the perspective of 2020 onwards, all of these UA-camrs are problematic/cancelled/boring/no longer as big as they once used to be. And ETN isn't, like, a dated show! The first season came out only five years ago (!), with one season coming out around each year afterwards. It's interesting to see how quickly that irrelevancy can kick in
yes pls do the evolution of graveyard girl. I wasn't on UA-cam when she was popular and I've heard of her but I don't know much about her and I would like to
I remember her being really cool and now I’m realizing I haven’t heard about her in years so I’m really interested too
@@paulylei7151 she's still doin her thing!
👍
She’s still there I love her 😍
She's a total darling. Her content isn't exciting enough for today's audience but thrived when just chill chit-chat videos and product testing was popular. I'm old, though, and have been on this platform a long time so that's still exactly the content I want to watch lol.
i feel bad for bunny cause i feel like she genuinely just enjoys being a youtuber and making videos but yt has (or at least her era of yt) has shifted way past just being a youtuber cause a lot of her peers are booking acting gigs or writing books, having shows etc etc but she’s kind of stuck on youtube which ironically seems to be too little to stay “relevant” for a big youtuber
I definitely agree. She also has a very old school UA-cam personality. And I think that’s why she’s struggled so much bc her true personality just fit the very big, loud, campy overproduced UA-cam rather than this more like ‘low key’ kinda quiet mess. Like she’s an all caps title person and UA-cam’s into all lowercase titles now
it's been interesting to see her content be so successful on tiktok! i think it really works over there bc its a bit more short form and chaotic, plus theres always people there in her comments that are nostalgic for her older youtube content too. i hope she's doing ok
I think a lot of bunny’s irrelevancy had to do with the fact she “hid” how much money she made from youtube. she lives in a mansion with a $35,000 new car but tried to hide it from her audience and shane exposed this in his series. her horrible starbucks video was the nail in her coffin☠️ if she was more honest I think her content would’ve been way better
She lost a lot of goodwill when she started acting like an entitled bitch to Starbucks employees or not giving her all the free refills through the drive-thru that she wanted. Fame got to her head.
@@soccerbopper124 Yup. It’s one thing for a YBer to admit that they’re playing a character version of themselves, but when they claim to be sharing who they genuinely are, and it turns out they’re trying to hide who they are, it’s going to bite them. That Starbucks video really underscored and highlighted her entitlement. She didn’t need to share she had a mansion, but steps she took to conceal it led people to be upset that she lied. I watch some people who I suspect have very large houses, but they also limit their video-making to a studio space set up in their homes and don’t do things in other parts of the house. They’re separating video-them from regular-life-them, and they aren’t lying about anything this way, yet also aren’t showing off if they’re in mansions.
I will say, though, that $25k for a new car isn’t a massive amount for a car. Yes, cars can be a few grand, but $25k is on the low end still for cars, including plenty of used ones.
honestly, i feel like the perfect amount of fame on youtube to me is irrelevant enough to not get dragged into headlines constantly, but have enough of a following to make a living on youtube
People complaining about their analytics, views, and sub count is very off-putting. The idea that a creator is saying it to a camera and then _choosing_ to leave it in during editing and uploading and expect their audience to care is very egotistical of them.
I was friends with Bunny at her height. She even sent me flowers and a card and stuffed animal when I had surgery at 17. I’m 26 now. She stopped being friends with me bc some random person lied and said I said things about her that I never did. It’s incredible how easily she believed just random strangers and not friends tbh
I hate to tell you this, but that’s not a friendship. She fostered a parasocial relationship with you. Big names do this a lot, send fans gifts sometimes, personal well-wishes on occasion. But there isn’t a true friendship, a true two-way street. Can you reliably talk on the phone or face-to-face with someone about heartbreak and really and truly have their undivided attention? Are you someone they contact directly for help? Would it be strange to ask if you could go see them for a weekend? Parasocial relationships benefit someone, and it’s the one with power. It fosters a sense of goodwill. Sometimes it’s a creator greeting everyone as “Hello, my friends, how are you?” Sometimes it’s a creator seeing that a longtime fan is having a rough time and deciding that’s a good chance to reach out for a brief time. It’s not always someone consciously trying to do wrong. Sometimes the creator is genuinely trying to be kind, but kindness doesn’t mean being friends any more than kindness means a woman is interested in a guy friend who has the hots for her.
Bunny believed some random strangers over you because, to her, she just plain didn’t know you any better than she knew those random strangers. You can probably have a bunch of random people tell you something about your friends who you know, and you would believe your friend because you know your friend well enough on a personal level. She didn’t really know you like that.
It honestly breaks my heart to have to tell young people these things. My 11-year-old thought a bit TikTokker was her personally friend for a similar reason, and it crushed her to find out the truth.
@@Author.Noelle.Alexandria thank you for the insightful comment. Very well and kindly said. True friendships are rare and with a lot of relationships being online it is hard to know if a friendship is true or conditional.
I honestly wish more creators treated UA-cam like Simply Nailogical does... most practical creator there is tbh
What does she do?
@@user-bj7em4fv1p she still works full time as a crime statistics analyst for the Canadian gov, and has always treated UA-cam as added income that she knows she shouldn't count on forever. Never left her job for UA-cam, makes videos on the weekend, even though her job doesn't pay nearly as well as UA-cam does.
Even has her own nail polish company. Still has her job because she knows internet fame is fleeting and unreliable.
Encourages her fans to go to school and pursue careers other than UA-cam. Has almost yearly giveaways where she pays viewers university tuition.
She's making all this money and still she's doing work and research that is important and will actually do good in Canada as a whole instead of her just making money for herself.
@@Emma-zc5jm wow! Seems like I need to check her out! Hope she rests enough though, it seems like a crazy schedule!
@@user-bj7em4fv1p she's really cool I definitely recommend her channel! Jenna Marbles vibes but Canadian version lol
Omg I love Cris 🙌❤️
With Thomas Halbert it’s not just the drama. His content is sadly now seriously out of date. His makeup style is very 2015. Highlighter nose, ghost white under eye, cut crease. So even when I tried to look beyond the drama as I felt sorry for him his content is really just out of date now. He’s trying to repeat (like Bunny) what made him successful but he desperately needs to evolve
I don't like Thomas but if that's the type of makeup he likes to do, then it doesn't really matter. Like he shouldn't change the way he does his makeup just because some new makeup trend is popular now.
@@elleblur5 I'd say that it doesn't matter in really life. If it's for a YT career, it makes sense to branch out and do new styles as time goes on. I get what you mean, but as a content creator it's a little different I think
I was a fan of Thomas but you kinda said everything I didn't want to say out loud. I don't hate him but u just fell out of his content.
I dont know anything about makeup so I dont really care about the looks he has. I watch him because I like his personality.
I also feel like he just never really worked that hard on his content to begin with. Even if his makeup style is dated now, then and now it can’t be denied that he’s talented. But it’s like he expected to have a following without really doing the work of being creative and engaging with his content. Drama aside, he has a much more engaging personality on social media like twitter than he ever did on youtube. His energy on youtube always just radiated that he didn’t care, and people could see it imo. He’s talented but lacks originality and has way too big of an ego and a victim complex. I don’t see him making a comeback
Hannah, I really wanted to thank you for how much compassion and empathy you have in making your commentary videos! I'm really interested in the discussions on internet culture, however often times popular videos on the topic have a lot of viciousness and malice to them, discussing individuals as spectacles instead of real people, which I really hate. So thank you for covering them the way you do.
If irrelevancy is shameful then getting a "normal job" after becoming irrelevant is ultimately shameful. Just because you've been famous doesn't mean you have to sell candles or makeup, it's TOTALLY OKAY to just work at a coffee shop or in an office.
like retired idols and stuff
The Vlogbrothers are great examples of how to evolve and grow into something sustainable
I’m so glad you discussed influencers complaining about views to their subscribers. I’ve 100% guilt watched before and it’s eventually just made me unsubscribe so I don’t have to hear it.
i remember when it was a huge deal that grav3yardgirl had a collab with i think tarte???? like it was called the swamp queen palette or something. it's kinda strange to know that she had huge opportunities like that, but never really did more with that.
I still have that palette.
@@AppalachianAllegory I do too!
The point around 19:15, if a tiktok creator I follow complains about being shadowbanned, I unfollow them. It’s so annoying. Like just make stuff and I’ll watch.
100%. “please interact with this video so i know i’m not shadow banned!!!” nice manipulative trick. unfollow.
hmmm i would not believe that from a white creator but definitely would back the word of many many BIPOC creators because tiktok is highly racist
And with the creators just “riding the wave,” you notice that most of them have every day normal jobs outside of UA-cam. That backup plan, essentially. Cristine comes to mind. She has a great day job and then launched Holo Taco and then the podcast. So when she eventually is done with youtube, she has backup plans. UA-cam isn’t forever, unless you’re Jenna Marbles (if she hadn’t retired and enjoyed making content still, she could’ve just hung out here even longer). I think that’s the smart way to enter the UA-cam sphere. Be realistic and have a plan for later. Whether that’s branching out into acting, music, art, or whatever.
I started watching Joey in the past year because he started doing a lot of fostering dog videos and going away from what he used to do and I think he has been able to evolve
It’s also really interesting to see how creators who have/had “real” jobs and/or have some sort of educational degree deal with their irrelevancy. I see a lot of people saying that Safiya is becoming “irrelevant” and it’s interesting to see how she’s tackling that talk.
Many creators have only known UA-cam, often quitting jobs/dropping out of school in order to dedicate their time to their channel. If UA-cam is all you know, it’s easy to see how the threat of being “irrelevant” is terrifying and you’re willing to sacrifice whatever (mental health, integrity, etc) in order to stave it away. Both safiya and Tyler have degrees from Stanford, and had a regular 9-5 (as regular as Buzzfeed could be) in the past, so it’s easy to see why they’re taking it easy on their uploading schedule and don’t seem to be all that bothered about talks about irrelevancy. They probably have contingencies that most (not all) other creators don’t have.
People quitting their jobs once they hit 100k is an alarming trend. Jimmy Snow (aka Mr. Atheist) did that, and then he got a bit bigger and started getting all these grand, expensive plans, started charging people to find out his next project so they could decide if they wanted to give him more money, and now that his new project didn’t pan out as he hoped, he’s clearly struggling for dear life. Jen from FundyFridays had her channel go from 10k to 100k in a few weeks (I was watching when she wasn’t at even 5k, and then BOOM), and she quit her regular job right away. Small channel and a job to 100k and quit her job within literally about a month, and already it seems like she’s getting burned out. It’s not something either f them do for the enjoyment with the money being a nice bonus, but rather doing it because they have to because they don’t have other jobs anymore.
Saf and Ty having worked in the past doesn’t mean anything when you’ve been out of the regular workforce for a while. Self-employment doesn’t mean jack when trying to get a regular job again. Employers want to know that YOU can take orders, and depending on the position, they want to know you can give order, but not your own. Can you take and pass alone their orders? Self-employment hurts your chance at other jobs. I have an easily-verifiable business (not connected at all to my username here), and this is something I’ve had to deal with.
As Sean Kinney from Alice In Chains has said, “you’re only shiny and new once”. Sometimes popular “irrelevancy” is just the sign of a long career. AIC aren’t Greta van Fleet, but they’ll probably get into the rock hall of fame 🤷♀️. Great video Hannah!
Yes for mentioning AIC ...xx
Hi! If you can see my husband’s shirt In this pic it tells all. K. Thanks. Love you. Byeeee.
@@eimajffoh epic! ...obviously he has immense style and taste! Xx
Love AIC with or without Layne. Are you going to check out Jerry’s new solo album? I love the single he dropped a few days ago.
@@Whocares1976 Layne was perfection in my eyes ... yes to Cantrells new music for sure xx
This is why I'm that person always wagging my finger, re: it's not smart to bank on YT/influencer to be your full-time or forever career (if it IS FT for a while, invest those funds wisely and plan for long term!!!). Very few people can smartly launch/pivot from their heyday on any such platform to build an actual long term/sustainable brand as a public figure/celebrity--this is true in celebrity culture, period. The ones who do manage it are impressive, but the vast majority that won't happen. It's going to be so interesting to see an entire generation of influencers who have few transferable work skills and not much on their resume so they'll just have to be a C/D List celebrity who pops up on the inevitable future reality shows of former influencers/UA-camrs surviving in a jungle or living in a house together or whatever. But, hey, I'll watch it.
It’s the harsh reality of careers in the entertainment industry. It’s so important to have financial literacy.
How does being an influencer give you "few transferable skills"?!
@@sotirismaragos have you… have you seen influencers?
@@sonicthehedgegod It seems to me that influencers develop tons of skills (and contacts) that would be useful in traditional professions like sales, marketing, management, video production etc.
@@sotirismaragos ah, true.
Along with teaching what the word “irrelevant” means so it’s used correctly, can we get on board with “I couldn’t care less” and make “I could care less” a repressed memory?
It’s always been this way in the “celebrity/fame” culture, UA-cam is just a newer version. There have always been popular actors, singers, writers, etc that were huge at one point but then faded away. There’s many different reasons why it happens & the ones that are actually able to stay “relevant” are the exception not the rule. I personally hate the “has been” attitude, I think it’s exceptional that anyone is ever able to achieve these heights wether it lasts or not it should be commended & they should be proud of what they were able to achieve.
this is a really good point! kind of reminds me of someone like Katy Perry
@@noel2223 Good example actually. People seem to harp on how she is a has been as if she wasn't huge in the 2010's. She's still very successful but her popularity at the height of her career in the 2010s makes it look like she isn't as popular in comparison
Being famous is rough and draining so honestly being huge for a bit then fading away is better than everyone watching you constantly
I’m surprised Dan and Phil were able to keep their young audience for so long. Would have loved to hear about them
I know Phill at least is still posting on his channel. He and Dan just moved somewhere and I think Dan just made a video like last month for pride. I'm not sure if their audience is still super young, but I know I still watch them
I actually have feeling that their audience just grew with. A lot fell of but the people who are still watching have been doing that for quite a while. I guess if you have a young fan base and you don’t to become „irrelevant“ you have to evolve with your fans.
I feel like Dan and Phil grew with thier audience
@@destinyknight2410 whatttttt
@@claudiazinser4408 I always felt the opposite like they catered to younger ppl 🤭
your face when you went 'CANDLE OF THE DAY' was everything for me
Jenna marbles was the only person that had the “ one set formula “ hands down. She could post her trying to nap & myself as well as everyone else would watch. ( she did that & we did watch ☺️)
Jenna definitely changed over time tho. 2012 Jenna was no where near 2019 Jenna. But I do think she was one of the only UA-camr who could do this seamlessly and still be able to keep her same audience.
@@chescawest I agree with you, it was more like she grew up with her audience
I also watched her trying to take a nap lol
OMG she was the best...she just has the best soul...to bad the internet is full of mean people...
Her last videos seemed kinda boring to me. I just watched them, cause I liked her and Julien. But it looked like she lost her passion near the moment she left.
I find Bunny very interesting because while her content isn't what people are flocking to anymore, and she doesn't have the same fan base she used to, she keeps creating that same content in part because she *likes it.* While this is by no means a smart business tactic I find it kind of admirable that she just keeps doing what she enjoys. She has tried to change her content up and it just doesn't stick because she enjoys doing what she does.
I would be interested in a deep dive on Bunny because I also think she is a FASCINATING example of how a creator can accidentally fall into a child audience. Bunny's content was *not* originally made for kids- she was just a quirky beauty and life style youtuber who also did creepy/ghost content. Somehow she fell ended up with a younger audience and she (unlike, say, Tana) realized the influence she had and how important it was to be a role model and build a safe community for them. I think she was naturally talented at it and enjoyed the role, but I am sure it was incredibly limiting. The problem is her child audience grew up and out of her content. I think she actually HAS shown her ability to be flexible and orient herself towards the new younger audiece on her tiktok, but unfortunately that content doesn't translate well over to youtube so she remains stagnant here. It is a shame because I think she is so kind and refreshingly quirky, and I genuinely hope that trends swing back into her favor.
“They stopped listening to the people who got them where they wanted to be.”
The most stop-on quote of UA-cam 2021.
hi hannah ive never been this early but i just wanted to say youve been a big inspiration for me in getting through college (i'm like YEARS behind everyone else my age lol) and also that your brows look especially nice today
i’m also years behind as well. don’t get discouraged! every path is different. be proud of yourself for taking the step to start! we got this
I’m years “behind” too :P life is much better when I focus on building my life how I want it and think less about what my former peers are doing
Absolutely no shame in getting to know what you want to do before u continue your life
I’m in that boat too!! We got this 💪🏻
Yes! Get that degree girl! Don’t worry about age, my mom didn’t get her degree in nursing until she was 45. She’s now doing something she loves until she can’t stand anymore.
i think jenna marbles is a good example of the chameleon as well as one who planned well to leave youtube. jenna changed her content over time, did a podcast, twitch streaming, a radio show, sold merch for a period of time, and has a few degrees under her belt. i know she was a little older than a lot of content creators when she left and therefore was a lot more mature, but i think she did a great job planning for the end of her youtube career.
The evolution of a UA-camrs career reminds me of tv series. Most shows have a finite amount of seasons - and even if they keep running years and years later (I’m thinking about greys anatomy lol) you’re going to have viewers drop off. I don’t think subscribers and UA-cam viewers are often malicious is stopping watching someone’s content - sometimes you just move on! Maybe they’ve moved on respecting that that creator made content they once loved. They may look back to that creator as an inspiration. I’m so glad you’re riding the wave, Hannah, and I hope you’re proud of the content you make - you’ve really made me smile throughout this trying year - so thank you!
I recently discovered you (along with a ton of other UA-camrs). Apparently I’m like 900 years old in Social Media Years (36 in human) - and im learning so damn much.
I think you’re amongst my absolute favs. I absolutely love you. J just love your overall positive but also real AF vibe. Love your aesthetic and I think your candle spin is so damn cool. Love candles. All the candles.
Anyway. Just wanted to say that. You’re doing great girl. Don’t ever change
I don’t know if I think of UA-camrs as irrelevant or relevant, but as trending or growing creators. If a creator is not creating content that allows them to continue to grow their audience, we should care about how they’re retaining their following, the work it takes to keep up with trends while also creating content that is true to them. That being said, I still watch Good Mythical Morning, Rosanna Pansino and Game Theory and they’re older channels that follow a formula with content and still continue to grow because they like testing out concepts and also continue to make content that satisfies what many followers expect. Nostalgia is a powerful marketing tool in that way.
HARD YES to a video on the evolution of Graveyard Girl content.
I did. I took a shot of water every time you said irrelevant and now I'm a hydrated queen. Thanks Hannah
I think your point of view on "irrelevancy" is super interesting. because it is true that we always use it negatively and we see it as a failure but it's just because they are not doing content that is trending but it could still be super interesting. i really enjoyed watching your videos and your analysis :) can't wait to watch more of those xx
and also, i actually prefer watching youtubers who are less popular because i feel like they do content that they enjoy doing. but also i can appreciate the content without all of the hype and stuff surrounding it
I feel like there’s also this huge pressure on them to stay out of controversy, but yet still be super relatable. At some point, that fear of controversy eats away at a person’s freedom to want to be transparent
Do y'all remember My Drunk Kitchen? I feel like that channel is where irrelevancy isn't a bad word necessarily, but that formula served Hannah Hart well... until it was boring.
Omg yes I loved my drunk kitchen
Loved Hannah!
I just want to say this topic is so interesting, but also I’m sorry for the loss of your dog. The one year anniversary of my dogs death passed this month, and it’s a hard thing to go through. Sending love and good vibes❤️❤️
I'm so sorry. It's something u will never forget. The love u have for ur pets lasts forever. U never forget them. U will feel better with time but u always r reminded of them and love them.
Michelle Phan is og!
Her UA-cam channel may get less views now but she has a business and occasionally post videos.
I may not watch every now and then, like I did back in the day...but I'm happy for her 💖😊💖
Yes! I think she did the right thing, she created opportunities for herself and took them. She's a smart woman
I love Michelle Phan! I just left a comment too about her here 😅 I watch every time I see a video from her because she has the loveliest voice. I am happy that she really built something for herself beyond youtube.
Awesome video! I think it's super interesting to think about this in terms of businesses; even if someone is deemed "irrelevant", they can still be making videos and sustaining an income, even when it's not as big as it once was - like a lifestyle business. The goal is to sustain a livable income. And if you're doing that while creating stuff you love.... the rest is just ego, y'know?
I really like how respectful you were to everyone you mentioned, a good drama free analysis is exatcly what I needed !
No joke, I haven't even thought about Thomas Halbert since 2018. 😂
That was one where I was like "Wait, he sounds familiar...OH YEA"
I think The Rewired Soul is a very good example of not being able to survive drama when you're smaller. He didn't have enough support or credibility in the community to survive reacting to horrendously to situations. He rose and fell so quickly
god, imagine the terrifying alternate universe where he got popular enough to benefit from the drama lmao
fr tho i don’t think that’d ever happen. he’s like gabbie hanna in that he can’t market being a mean girl or troll like someone like jeffree star or trisha paytas can. gabbie’s profiting off of being big enough to start drama but i think that’s not gonna last. it’s really not sustainable unless you can invest and also learn to market your drama correctly, which gabbie doesn’t do because she so transparently hates being the villain. i think rewired soul would be the same way if he got more popular before he got swallowed by his own drama.
It's mostly because he's so toxic no one wants to watch him (except his core audience) The guy would do the worst armchair diagnostics and prey on people's issues.
I'm thankful The Rewired Soul had his peak, because I discovered Hannah back when the sh*t hit the fan
@@mayaflici374 dude failed the vibe check in record time for me, the second i saw him speak in real time like every alarm bell in my body went off lmao. absolutely putrid vibes
Honestly, anytime I've ever heard a youtuber complain about being shadow-banned or the algorithm not alerting their subscribers to a video... 9 times out of 10 it seems like they are just having trouble accepting that
a) the video concept just wasn't that interesting (for example, I saw it and didn't click, and so did many others), or
b) they are slowly/naturally becoming less relevant (due to stagnation, their audience aging out of their content, trends changing, etc).
I think some creators seriously overestimate UA-cam's impact on their videos not performing well. GH is a prime example.
totally agree as it pertains to bigger youtubers. but there is some pretty ridiculous stuff. if you don’t watch many black creators for example you’ll literally never have a single black creator recommended to you. some stuff like that can be pretty insidious.
I used to think that, but noticed I suddenly wasn't suscribed to some youtubers I constantly watch (Smokey included), and was out of nowhere suscribed to othera I wasn't (it happened with James Charles). Not sure what happened there, but it was so weird.
I think both things can be true. Creators aren’t taking note of what their audience is telling them, but it’s also true that UA-cam suppresses content (with channels I religiously follow not showing up in my feed). We can’t really know what the youtuber is thinking and if their shadow ban is real. I think in Gabbie’s case, it’s both, she’ll have seen videos suppressed but how much is she blaming that in cases when she shouldn’t? Impossible to know!
That section at the beginning "Irrelevancy should not be an insult" is so important! Just because your channel "falls off" it doesn't mean you're no longer successful, nor should it take away from the impact of your work when you were "relevant". In a lot of ways, knowing that you'll eventually fade into irrelevance is and can be a positive in many ways.
I wish there was a real scientific study on how many of these influencers have some sort of mental illness. I’m at the chameleon section and I was thinking it’s not very hard for a person with specific mental illnesses/personality disorders to switch up their entire life, opinions, and personality to match whatever is trending at the time. If you don’t have a solid sense of self already established, it’s easy to adapt to whatever makes you money and brings attention.
This sounds like a great topic, it’s something I’ve always wondered about especially in regards to controversial UA-camrs.
Every TV show has a finale.
Awwww I still love Bunny, but you’re right, she really just couldn’t keep up.
I still watch her because I love her energy.
Simply Nailogical has had quite a journey and I think her case is super interesting. It's definitely one suited for an evolution video. I can't imagine someone more aware of the waves and has leaned into that "youtube is weird so I kept my day job" than her lol.
Ugh seriously love you. You’re such an objective voice of reason with really solid takes. Love your work.
This makes me think of ze frank and how he pivoted to running Buzzfeed and then Buzzfeed exploded. I think some other OG youtubers also went corporate to help traditional media companies do online videos better. You should do an evolution of Buzzfeed!
THE FAMILY FRIENDLY TO FAR RIGHT PIPELINE, ITS SO TRUE I CANT 😂😂😂😂
I actually popped a bag of popcorn for this one, I'm stoked
I'd love to hear you talk about the Green Brothers. They were a couple of the very first successful UA-camrs but even though their channel isn't necessarily relevant, John and Hank are both still HUGELY successful.
i mean john had a disgustingly popular book and several other winners in the realistic YA genre around the early 2010's. Not to mention Hank is also an actual educator
Watching creators try to chase the algorithm is so frustrating to me because the algorithm is always reactive, not proactive. It won't push the same people consistently no matter how big a channel gets because what the algorithm shows is a snapshot of the changing interests of the viewers. So there's always going to be a natural ebb and flow in viewership numbers--and that's okay!
omg hannah, this is perfect timing. i’m curled up in my bed with my heating pads with ovarian cysts and needing videos from influencers i love to help distract me. thank you for the content, research, and care 💕
I hope you get some relief / rest / recovery!
i hope u feel even just a little bit better soon ❤️
Hope u r feeling better very soon. 💚💜💙💛❤💗
I hope you're feeling even just a bit better ❤
I hope you feel better!!
This video makes me lowkey nostalgic lol. Just remembering all the og youtubers I used to watch. Also as someone who’s been watching UA-cam for like ten years as a viewer it’s also sad to outgrow UA-camrs you really loved/looked up to it to watch or when they start to not upload as much.
This has always been an avenue I’ve been waiting for you to go down since you’ve sorta been hinting at these themes of fame and irrelevancy in previous videos! Can’t wait to enjoy this video :)
This may not be forever for you, but as someone who has been a subscriber since you were a 'micro influencer, your channel is currently POPPING.
idk if he completely fits the “chameleon” category, but i think Jacksfilms is a great example of a creator who has managed to endure and flourish on UA-cam. Granted he was one of the earlier adopters of the platform which definitely gives him an advantage, but in my opinion, he’s cultivated a very unique and specific brand of content that’s very easy for him to adapt to different trends without sacrificing his personality that his fans love which has helped him outlast other creators and channels that started around the same time as him.
I would LOVE an evolution of Bunny/graveyardgirl!