Founded in 2005, YouTube is an ever-growing social media platform that has creators from all across the world. From recent start off accounts with around 27 subscribers to people who have created a life from YouTube with over 100 million subscribers, the range of people actively posting videos is ginormous. People such as James Charles and PewDiePie create entirely different content but have still both gained over millions and millions of subscribers and this just shows the versatility of this platform. The app allows people to upload videos right from their laptop onto the world wide web in just one click.
With this social media platform (like most), there comes hate from people hiding behind a screen. Viewers have the choice to press a button as to whether they like or dislike a video based on their opinion after watching the content created. Formerly used for constructive criticism, the dislike button on YouTube is now used as a way to hate on content creators. You would think that making several accounts and spamming the dislike button on one particular video or creator seems extreme, but in fact there are many people who do this very frequently.
The genuine effectiveness of the button is nowhere to be seen. Disliking a video does not give any constructive criticism if you really think about it. It does not give any insight into which part of the video the viewer did not like – was it the content itself, or the YouTuber, or even something that was said by the content creator or maybe just because its fun to hate on someone for no logical reason? With just one click from one account, a video that a creator has spent a lot of time and effort making has just made them feel disappointed in themselves. As much as they would not like to admit it, numerous YouTubers are emotionally affected by it lowers their self-confidence and self-worth. To click the dislike button, you need to have a YouTube account, but despite this, some people would see disliking a video as anonymous hate since the creator cannot see who has disliked or even liked the video, only the quantity of people. Some people even press it before watching the entire video because they purely just do not like the creator. There are actual groups of people who will go and dislike videos by a specific person just for the fun of it. These haters do not actually understand the hours and hours people put into videos. It is okay to not like the actual video, but it does not mean you have to voice this opinion – if you do not have anything nice to say, don’t say it! Simply, you can press the cross in the corner of the screen or even the back button to avoid watching the video if you do not like it!
Initially the point of the button was so that YouTubers could see what content their viewers liked and disliked, but it has come to the point where it is literally just used as a troll to hate on creators. According to a survey I performed with teenagers aged 15-16, 59% have never disliked a YouTube video and the main reason people had disliked a video was because of the creator, not the content. This just shows that a dislike button underneath each video is not beneficial.
Calling to mind to an experiment conducted by Mr Beast (a YouTuber with over 34 million subscribers), disliking a video actually helps out the creator as it puts the video closer to the top, so it is easier to locate when people search for it. Therefore suggesting that disliking a video essentially supports the creator, despite the initial hate from the viewer. To watch the video, you can use this link -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om4c4ilT_6g.
Personally, I just do not see the usefulness in the dislike button and it should be adjusted so that when people like or dislike a video, they can give feedback to the content creator, so people are less likely to troll them. Or maybe a review system with 1-5 stars instead of people blatantly liking or disliking a video. However, none of these measures are yet to be put in place so the most useful thing to do is to drop a comment in the comment section as to why or why you did not like the video, and this will be more effective.
Tia Bhatti
