S Reignite

  MrBeast is one of the most popular YouTubers on the video platform with over 154 million subscribers on his main channel alone and I find his videos …. incredibly boring. I used to watch his videos at the height of the Team Trees project which was a campaign that saw the influencer plant trees for every dollar donated. But quickly I grew bored of his videos. The big production videos MrBeast and his team create are an impressive feat but often when I try to watch a video I end up clicking off because I’m not interested nor invested in the people starring in the videos. Many of MrBeast’s, real name Jimmy Donaldson, videos feature his subscribers who he regularly gifts substantial amounts of money. The only somewhat constant in the videos are MrBeast himself and his childhood friends who operate as supporters and jovial distractions for those competing in challenges. But still for me these big budget videos lacked personality.   Despite the tens of videos I’ve watched by...

  On the 20 th of October commentary YouTubers Aba and Preach uploaded a video in response to recently deplatformed content creator Sneako who criticised the Canadian’s for not making a video speaking out against YouTube’s decision to delete his channels. Earlier this month Sneako‘s two YouTube channels were taken down after the New York based creator received three strikes on his livestreaming channel SHNEAKO where the streamer posted red pill content, talked negatively about women including aggressively simulating sex towards youtuber Chad Chad. Aba and Preach aren’t the first content creators Sneako, real name Nico Kenn De Balinthazy, has expressed discontent with. In late August the 24-year-old had an argument with KSI, Britain’s biggest YouTuber, on Twitter because Sneako was upset that KSI was celebrating Andrew Tate, fellow red pill content creator, being banned on  all popular social media sites. Andrew Tate and Sneako shaking hands. Credit: @sneako What it see...

  In the latest edition of his video series Let’s Argue , where music reviewer Anthony Fantano discusses the hot takes of his Patreon members, one supporter referred to his Twitch chat as ‘a toxic environment that feels like a very unwelcoming place for some people to participate in.' This video is a compilation of Let’s Argue’s that Fantano has posted on to his Patreon . The video was released shortly after the eye-raising beef between the YouTuber and rap superstar Drake which saw the Canadian direct messaging the reviewer on Instagram and telling him his ‘existence was a light 1’, attempting to poke fun at Fantano’s own rating system. Fantano, whose main channel is called theneedledrop, disagrees with the hot take explaining that he and his moderators take great care to remove racist, bigoted, and hateful people from his chat. He then goes to share that he doesn’t think his Twitch chat is particularly better or worse than any other content creators and that chats on the...

Recently I have actually been making use of the Shorts tab on YouTube and this only because I have been sucked in by funny and out of pocket clips by basketball and pop culture podcast Let's Keep it a Buck, hosted by YouTubers BSOLZ, TSO_SAGE, Omar (Ohmeezzy) and DOMO .   Unwilling to commit to another podcast because I already spend more hours than I care to admit consuming audio content (the average podcast listener spends almost 7 hours a week listening to podcasts), I’ve spent time watching their shorts and podcast clips. In one of their latest clips they discuss the fact that numerous content creators have turned to podcasting, spurred on by a video created by one quarter of the podcast BSOLZ, titled YouTubers are Getting Lazyand I LOVE IT . In the 12-minute clip they share their range of opinions on the topic. TSO_Sage argues that creators are lacking innovation and instead rely on videos that they know will rack in views. While he and co-host Omar agree that podcastin...

  ‘Life was like a pop song, and we knew all the words.’ – Julie From late 2016 to early 2018, before he completely went off the rails, I was somewhat obsessed with Logan Paul’s vlogs. I watched every single one of his videos which broadcast his LA antics to millions of viewers daily. I watched him prank his younger more notorious brother Jake Paul, be pecked at by his parrot Maverick, smash a copious amount of plates and vlog his days on the set of Valley Girl,  the remake of the 1983 romcom , in which Logan stars as Mickey  Julie’s boyfriend and  the most popular boy in his high school. I wouldn’t have known this remake had existed if it wasn’t for Paul. The original Valley Girl isn’t a film I’ve ever heard talked about nor do I think it is one that is shown on British screens ever. I’m sure when he was first cast, his social media success and international appeal were selling points for the Sneak Preview Productions and the others involved, but it was this ...

  'This self-worth is the most important thing you can develop for yourself, that any of us can develop. And it can't wait until you reach your goals.’ – Grace Beverley Grace Beverley’s self-help book illustrates how the 25-year-old was able to juggle her Oxford University degree, social media success and two new businesses but the brief self-care section shows that she admittedly hasn’t mastered mindfulness. I first became aware of Grace through watching her University of Oxford vlogs on YouTube. Her channel at the time was named GraceFitUK as the original focus of her channel was to showcase her fitness journey. Her growing platform later expanded to include other content like travel vlogs and clothing hauls.  When watching her videos, I sometimes felt she was overextending herself, trying to meet her university deadlines, working with brands, and travelling the world. With her channel now being renamed and revamped to highlight her growing businesses, Tala and Shreddy, you ...

  As I scrolled through YouTube for the umpteenth time a few days ago, I noticed that yet another youtuber I watch had opened a Patreon account. It wasn’t a creator that I’m personally interested in seeing more content from but still I scrolled through the comments on their community post. In the comments, I was disappointed to see the number of so-called supporters begging for the content to be released for free. I’m sure many of the commenters meant no harm and as many struggle to find financial stability during the pandemic, paying for yet another thing isn’t the greatness news. Still, demanding that content should be released for free is offensive to the creator. YouTube is increasingly becoming a popular career path for many but not everyone is able to earn a living wage from the platform, even with a sizeable fanbase. Popular American youtuber David Dobrik saw his ad revenue drop from $200,000 a month to $2,000 a month after many advertisers stopped using the Google owned...

Through my YouTube recommended I have recently discovered Youtuber Kelly Wakasa who does short form well edited, entertaining videos that show case his charismatic personality. But despite having 450k subscribers his comments are littered with people calling him underrated and I don’t understand why. Youtuber Kelly Wakasa  has over 400k subscribers  The amount of people on Y ou Tube as both consumers and content creators has increased dramatically in recent years. More and more of these   c reat o rs are reaching the milestones  of 100k, 1 million and 10 million. Veteran Youtuber PewDiePie received a ruby bro fist to mark 50 million and has since obtain over 50 million more.  But amidst all these large numbers the smaller ones are beginning to get undervalued, even those that aren't so small. It’s easy to look at Wakasa’s subscriber count and only see it  as numbers on a page but in reality that is at least four hundred and fifty thousand individuals that...

On the 22 nd of April, British YouTuber James Marriott uploaded a video where he made fun of the mainstream media's obsession and lack of information on social media platform’s particularly TikTok based on a BBC article . He then turned his attention to the ByteSquad, a new TikTok content house based in London that was the subject of the BBC’s article. He pokes fun at how much the ByteSquad’s house pales in comparison to the lavish LA mansions of their American counterparts, then suggests some of the group’s gimmicks are outdated. To finish James wishes the England’s newest content the best on their new endeavours. Despite the video being comedic and light-hearted, there were a few BtyeSquad supporters that insisted that James not critique the house because its members are ‘unproblematic’.  Comments under Marriott's video that praise the ByteSquad for being unproblematic. Unproblematic, a word that is now used regularly on social media when fans explain to others why who ...

On November 9th internet juggernauts KSI and Logan Paul fought in six round boxing match in which one point difference made KSI, real name Olajide Olatunji, victorious. Along with an unpredicted result, as both fighters anticipated knockouts, what was also surprising was the way mainstream media embraced the online world. Mainstream media seems to be embracing online content more in terms of entertainment as American late night TV shows have are often on YouTube's trending page. However, the relationship between the social media and mainstream worlds isn't as strong in regards to sport. KSI standing victorious after beating Logan Paul on November 9th. But for #KSIvsLoganPaul2 many mainstream outlets wanted to be a part of it. One of the main platforms that did this was Sky Sports Boxing. Not only was the fight made available on box office but also the London press conference was live streamed and was followed by many interviews from British social media star...

‘ i’ll ruin your day without rhyme or reason.’ – Gabbie Hanna Gabbie Hanna’s poetry anthology is the only Youtuber book I’ve actually wanted to read because it starts to turn Youtubers away from the new idea of being social influencers to the older mentality of them being creators. ‘Adultolescence’ contains a wide variety of both fictional and autobiographical poems from Hanna that, much like her videos, have relatable and entertaining narratives such as the poems of ‘Philosophy’, ‘Stunted’ and ‘Lonely’. Coupled with these poems she includes an unique feature of illustrations that accompany nearly every poem showing Hanna’s artistic side as well. The pictures are drawn monochromatically which allows the reader to indulge in their own creative journey. Amongst these well thought out poems are many less impressive ones that Hanna admits herself are just ‘fillers’. Also, her childlike idea that poems are expected to rhyme at times takes away from the story being told and fo...