I'll be honest...this post took me forever to write, mostly because I wasn't sure of how to express my views on the topics of "Fame on YouTube" and "Internet Hate" in a clear and concise manner. I also want to be state that while I chose to write specifically about YouTube beauty gurus when it came to these topics, internet hate (or as some call it, cyber-bullying) is a problem that runs rampant all over the internet, not just YouTube itself. I simply chose to discuss YouTube beauty gurus due to their popularity and because it seemed like an excellent way for me to focus my viewpoints. These topics have been discussed by other individuals far more competent than me...
But here goes nothing!
I'm just going to come out and say it, beauty gurus seem to be everywhere these days. Especially on a little website by the name of YouTube. Don't get me wrong, I love my beauty gurus. I have spent countless hours watching Sprinkle of Glitter, Zoella and The Freckled Fox. I have purchased items at their recommendation, tried (and failed) to follow the advice offered in various makeup/hair tutorials, and lastly, I have marveled at their ability to turn everyday tasks into an art-form.
For a lot of YouTubers, especially the beauty gurus, what was once a hobby has now become a new platform for acquiring a career. If you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at a YouTuber by the name of Michelle Phan. Before she had over 7 million subscribers, Michelle was just a girl whose videos I watched in high school when I was in dire need of makeup tips. Now, I see her face in Dr. Pepper commercials.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that beauty gurus have reached such a high level of popularity; especially on the internet. The desire to acquire styling and beauty tips used to send young girls running to the store in order to purchase magazines with relevant articles. Now, with a few clicks on YouTube, these same young women can get access to countless tutorial videos that they can view and re-view at their leisure. And the best part...
It's absolutely free.
Lets be honest, given the option, would you rather spend a few dollars on a magazine with an article that promises to teach you how to do the perfect messy bun-or view a short video and actually watch a living breathing human show you how to do it?
If you chose the latter, then you have an understanding of why YouTube is helping to launch the careers of many individuals; not just beauty gurus. However, when it comes to reaping the benefits of internet fame, beauty gurus seem to have gained the upper hand. With a massive audience comes the barrage of sponsors and corporations looking for new and inventive ways to market their products (makeup, clothing etc.), even if it means delivering them directly. What this means is that once a beauty guru has succeeded in creating a successful brand, their continued survival partially depends on reviewing the brands of others by creating things like "sponsored" videos. This is NOT to say that YouTube beauty guru's are simply puppets whose only purpose is to endlessly endorse products to their subscribers. Quite the contrary, many YouTube beauty gurus have unique voices of their own and are capable of creating content that has nothing to do with marketing products. Zoella, a popular British vlogger/blogger is a perfect example of this.
Along with featuring hair/makeup tutorials, monthly favorites, giveaways and haul videos where she discusses products she recently bought; Zoella's main channel also contains challenge videos, Q&A's and even videos about dealing with anxiety. Zoella also has a second channel where her daily life is shown through a series of vlogs; offering her subscribers a sort of behind-the-scenes experience.
But here goes nothing!
I'm just going to come out and say it, beauty gurus seem to be everywhere these days. Especially on a little website by the name of YouTube. Don't get me wrong, I love my beauty gurus. I have spent countless hours watching Sprinkle of Glitter, Zoella and The Freckled Fox. I have purchased items at their recommendation, tried (and failed) to follow the advice offered in various makeup/hair tutorials, and lastly, I have marveled at their ability to turn everyday tasks into an art-form.
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It shouldn't come as a surprise that beauty gurus have reached such a high level of popularity; especially on the internet. The desire to acquire styling and beauty tips used to send young girls running to the store in order to purchase magazines with relevant articles. Now, with a few clicks on YouTube, these same young women can get access to countless tutorial videos that they can view and re-view at their leisure. And the best part...
It's absolutely free.
Lets be honest, given the option, would you rather spend a few dollars on a magazine with an article that promises to teach you how to do the perfect messy bun-or view a short video and actually watch a living breathing human show you how to do it?
If you chose the latter, then you have an understanding of why YouTube is helping to launch the careers of many individuals; not just beauty gurus. However, when it comes to reaping the benefits of internet fame, beauty gurus seem to have gained the upper hand. With a massive audience comes the barrage of sponsors and corporations looking for new and inventive ways to market their products (makeup, clothing etc.), even if it means delivering them directly. What this means is that once a beauty guru has succeeded in creating a successful brand, their continued survival partially depends on reviewing the brands of others by creating things like "sponsored" videos. This is NOT to say that YouTube beauty guru's are simply puppets whose only purpose is to endlessly endorse products to their subscribers. Quite the contrary, many YouTube beauty gurus have unique voices of their own and are capable of creating content that has nothing to do with marketing products. Zoella, a popular British vlogger/blogger is a perfect example of this.
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In other words, while Zoella's position as an endorser is clear, its her unique and charming personality that keeps her audience coming back for more.
But what happens when a YouTuber reaches a point in their career where they are viewed more as a product than a person?
Lets face it, we live in an age where people use the anonymity of the internet to post...well.. some really nasty stuff. This is especially true when it comes to sites such as YouTube where comments are a necessary cog in the wheel. YouTubers, especially the successful ones, actively look at their subscriber's comments in order to communicate with their fans as well as to gauge their impact. Lately though, it seems that many famous YouTuber's have expressed that YouTube is slowly becoming a hive of internet hate, spam and self-advertisers. Take Youtube superstar PewDiePie for instance. With over over 34 million subscribers, PewDiePie has reached what many would refer to as the pinnacle of internet fame. Yet, in his video "Goodbye Forever Comments" which was posted in August of 2014, PewDiePie officially announced that he would be turning off the comments. Forever. I, like everyone else on the internet, was shocked by this news. Although PewDiePie isn't a beauty guru, I cant help but wonder...will there come a day when other YouTubers, including the beauty gurus, decide to go the same way ?
In the recent past, both Zoella and Sprinkle of Glitter expressed their opinions about hate on the internet and the damage it causes. Zoella wrote a huge post about it in her blog titled "Why I Stopped Daily Vlogging / Hate On The Internet." In the post she said..
"The last thing I would ever want to do, is become so scared of the comments, and the judging, and the mean people that the ones who are so supportive and positive miss out on my positivity, and recently that has happened as I decided to stop daily vlogging after a barrage of hate. I am only human, and no human is perfect, but you only know the online version of me. You don't know everything that goes on behind the cameras and you don't know the entire ups and downs I might face..."-Zoella
I want to be clear here, I am not expert when it comes to the subject of why certain people on the internet dedicate so much time to spreading negativity. Nor do I understand why many YouTubers (e.g. beauty, gaming, daily vloggers ) find themselves the target of so much hate. I mean, if I was to delve deeper into the subject, I suppose I could find a list of reasons: the temptations that come with anonymity, parallels between reality t.v. and YouTube channels, straight-up jealousy etc. However, If you don't enjoy watching that persons channel, the answer is simple...DON'T WATCH IT. I also want to acknowledge here how easy it is to fall into the delusion that we really know a YouTuber as a person simply because we watch their videos. As Zoella herself said, it is important to understand that we, the audience, have no real concept of what that is going on in that Youtuber's actual life other than what is presented to us.
YouTube, like any other popular website on the internet, is constantly evolving. Some people go there to post videos as a hobby, others go there to kick-start a career, and some...well..some go there to watch tons of videos of baby otters playing in the water (an hour of my life I enjoyed but will never get back). What is popular today is passe the next. It's so hard to keep up with it borders on insanity. No matter where or why you go on the internet though, I think we can all agree that there is nothing to be gained by the spread of hate or negativity.
In short...Think before you click, post, or comment. And to all of you people who use your internet powers for good, I salute you.
Much Love
-Hayleigh
P.S. This parody video by Lisbug has to be the most creative example of taking negative comments and putting a positive spin on them!
But what happens when a YouTuber reaches a point in their career where they are viewed more as a product than a person?
Lets face it, we live in an age where people use the anonymity of the internet to post...well.. some really nasty stuff. This is especially true when it comes to sites such as YouTube where comments are a necessary cog in the wheel. YouTubers, especially the successful ones, actively look at their subscriber's comments in order to communicate with their fans as well as to gauge their impact. Lately though, it seems that many famous YouTuber's have expressed that YouTube is slowly becoming a hive of internet hate, spam and self-advertisers. Take Youtube superstar PewDiePie for instance. With over over 34 million subscribers, PewDiePie has reached what many would refer to as the pinnacle of internet fame. Yet, in his video "Goodbye Forever Comments" which was posted in August of 2014, PewDiePie officially announced that he would be turning off the comments. Forever. I, like everyone else on the internet, was shocked by this news. Although PewDiePie isn't a beauty guru, I cant help but wonder...will there come a day when other YouTubers, including the beauty gurus, decide to go the same way ?
In the recent past, both Zoella and Sprinkle of Glitter expressed their opinions about hate on the internet and the damage it causes. Zoella wrote a huge post about it in her blog titled "Why I Stopped Daily Vlogging / Hate On The Internet." In the post she said..
"The last thing I would ever want to do, is become so scared of the comments, and the judging, and the mean people that the ones who are so supportive and positive miss out on my positivity, and recently that has happened as I decided to stop daily vlogging after a barrage of hate. I am only human, and no human is perfect, but you only know the online version of me. You don't know everything that goes on behind the cameras and you don't know the entire ups and downs I might face..."-Zoella
I want to be clear here, I am not expert when it comes to the subject of why certain people on the internet dedicate so much time to spreading negativity. Nor do I understand why many YouTubers (e.g. beauty, gaming, daily vloggers ) find themselves the target of so much hate. I mean, if I was to delve deeper into the subject, I suppose I could find a list of reasons: the temptations that come with anonymity, parallels between reality t.v. and YouTube channels, straight-up jealousy etc. However, If you don't enjoy watching that persons channel, the answer is simple...DON'T WATCH IT. I also want to acknowledge here how easy it is to fall into the delusion that we really know a YouTuber as a person simply because we watch their videos. As Zoella herself said, it is important to understand that we, the audience, have no real concept of what that is going on in that Youtuber's actual life other than what is presented to us.
YouTube, like any other popular website on the internet, is constantly evolving. Some people go there to post videos as a hobby, others go there to kick-start a career, and some...well..some go there to watch tons of videos of baby otters playing in the water (an hour of my life I enjoyed but will never get back). What is popular today is passe the next. It's so hard to keep up with it borders on insanity. No matter where or why you go on the internet though, I think we can all agree that there is nothing to be gained by the spread of hate or negativity.
In short...Think before you click, post, or comment. And to all of you people who use your internet powers for good, I salute you.
Much Love
-Hayleigh
P.S. This parody video by Lisbug has to be the most creative example of taking negative comments and putting a positive spin on them!
It's sad how many people feel like it's just fine to be horrible to complete strangers online. Especially people who are putting content out for free!
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