Friday, February 3, 2012

Swiftkaratechop And thegr8stever Discuss Swifty's Youtuber Video

I spotted these videos making the rounds and thought it would be a good idea to share it with those of you who might have read the Bradshaw's Blog post I wrote called Swiftkaratechop And The Youtuber Interaction Downgrade about Swifty's video. For better context, you might want to take a look at his video to fully understand what both guys are talking about in their videos.

So, after watching swiftkaratechop's video called "Youtuber", another youtuber decided he needed to respond to what he felt were the criticisms raised by Swifty. His name is thegr8stever and I haven't been following him although he is now on my radar. He has 33,411 subscribers which is, according to him, "a small youtuber" especially when compared to Swifty's much larger following on the website. Actually, let's let thegr8stever speak for himself. He posted the following video and then Swifty responded with one of his own and then another from thegr8stever. Just make sure you open your ears to what he is saying because he does have a good message.

According to thegr8stever, Swifty seems to think that Youtube has indeed changed and drifted away from its strong roots as a social networking website and embraced the business module with a slackening of the interaction of individual youtubers as most of the larger channels are pursuing the almighty dollar at the expense of those who got them into the position they are now enjoying. He also mentions the fact that Youtube has allowed him to meet tons of new people, unlike other so-called social networking sites such as Facebook, in a meaningful way. That is actually a good point. I would have to agree that Youtube does offer a glimpse into the lives of people I would otherwise never have the chance to interact with if not for the website's social aspect. He also mentions those who "just comment" and do not post videos which strikes home with myself because although I have been active on Youtube for several years, I have limited myself to simply posting comments and not posting actual videos of myself and I am sure that describes the vast majority of people who actually use the site.

There are many, many people who do Youtube videos because they WANT to. I really enjoyed this part of the video because it is actually a very optimistic view of what being a youtuber is and I think this is the view that was held by many several years ago. There is a whole group of youtubers who heap lots of criticism on many who post videos that they describe as "only for the money" and for trying to "game the system" in order to get further ahead and they do raise valid concerns. There are some who will do almost ANYTHING in order to garner a slice of Youtube fame and those who do blatantly try to cheat the system should be called out for the practice. There are of course many others who don't follow these practices and hopefully you can be counted on to be in that group.

Next is Swifty's response. He also raises many interesting points and praises Youtube as an avenue for potentially "making a living" and enjoying a degree of popularity as well as expressing oneself.

One point he mentioned was that he thought people should "make videos to make videos" and use the platform to actually talk to other people. Nothing wrong with that in the slightest. Youtube is a great way to become aware of other like-minded people and hear the views of others that you may disagree with and that encourages you own personal growth. What Swifty has a problem with is that in his opinion, Youtube is moving away from the old model, where they would promote those individuals who simply speak to others in a vlog format about stuff that matters to them that they discuss with their viewers and the opportunity to be paid to upload their opinions is disappearing.

One thing he mentions is that there is no way to "discover" an unknown person with a huge Youtube star (such as Ray William Johnson) giving them a shout out. But I "discovered" an "unknown youtuber" (at least to myself) named thegr8stever who I thought "Hey, this guy has some interesting ideas". Maybe I wouldn't have noticed him if he hadn't posted a video response to Swifty's original video and maybe YOU wouldn't have noticed him if you hadn't stumbled across this post on my blog, so maybe there actually is some remnant of the old Youtube still alive. I for one certainly hope so.

Another thing he talks about is that he feels Youtube is sort of pushing away those who vlog or post using old school cameras etc and to me, maybe that opens the door to another website more dedicated to promoting this type of content. There is a lot of room on the Interwebs and if that type of content is not what finds its audience on the website it will find its audience elsewhere. Maybe not under the banner of Youtube, but if Youtube is moving away from its roots, maybe another market will emerge.

Or there will be those like me, who blog about those outside the Top 100 Most Subscribed Youtube Channels. There are already lots of others who seem preoccupied with who is in or around the Top 100 (like TheWillofDC for example) while I for one do not believe simple popularity or total number of subscribers a person or channel has should be the sole prerequisite for being considered a quality content provider.

But enough of me blathering on, let's take a look at thegr8stever's response to Swifty's most recent video.

I liked thegr8stever's latest salvo about this and I think he is highly optimistic about the future going forward with Youtube. It may be because he is relatively much newer than Swifty to the Youtube partnership program and is seeing his subscriber base climbing. He is in his words "a small youtuber" which only 33K subscribers. Looking at my own Youtube channel with my 37 subscribers, I'm tiny just in comparison to thegr8stever, let alone Swifty, but then again I haven't posted any videos of my own - not that I won't ever. Perhaps it's because my subscriber base is so small that it seems that the sky's the limit that contributes to my optimism, but I am by nature a highly optimistic person.

Do I think I have what it takes to reach the heights of thegr8stever's sub total or even Swifty's? I have no idea. I should try, and as far as you're concerned you should try as well. Don't you think you owe it to yourself to at least try and succeed or fail?

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