YouTube was founded in 2005 in California, where 2012-2015 was the prime time when YouTube started to become a big platform for creators to upload videos for fun, to express themselves and to be creative. For many people, YouTube was an outlet where both viewers and creators where able to come together and escape from their troubles in their personal lives; they are able to share experiences and can relate to other people. However, since then YouTube culture has changed a lot to where businesses and sponsors found YouTube to be a market where they would be able to make money from. A lot of creators now only do YouTube for business purposes where they are able to make money and become famous, with this become richer.
Effectively, YouTube now is only seen as a ‘job’ not what it used to be, where subscribers, views, likes and dislikes did not determine their worth and popularity; where creators were somewhat seen as a friend rather than a pay check and just a ‘fan.’ Viewers are now seen as ‘customers’ as all the ‘big’ youtubers are bringing out new merch and products, such as Zoella’s new advent calendar was £50 but with recent backlash had to drop it to £25, or events such as ‘Hello World’ where it costs around £56.27 for standing tickets or £112 for VIP Tickets in which they were not guaranteed to meet any of these big youtubers attending.
Viewers are exploited as creators allow viewers to pay £60-£120 to meet them or buy their merch, whereas before these youtubers would have tried their best to meet their supporters that made them where they are today and tried to make their products as cheap as possible. However, at ‘Hello World’ some youtubers did not even come out to meet their viewers and turned down photos. But some viewers feel the need to buy the latest merch in order to prove that they are a real fan, when in actual fact some youtubers may not care.
Although all of this, some people such as a viewer Will argued that “youtubers need to be honest that they are doing YouTube for the money as it is seen as a job now, so they should tell the truth rather than lying that they are not getting anything out of this when they are able to afford mansions and sports cars.”
It is clear to say that YouTube culture is no longer how it used to be and that now viewers are being exploited without realising. However, it is also said that these youtubers do actually enjoy making videos and gaining money is only a plus to them; and that their passion stems from making videos and making their viewers happy and being able to give them a sense of escapism.
Sevil Osmanogullari - Eltham Hill
