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YouTube's Top Creators Are Burning Out and Breaking Down En Masse (polygon.com)
Polygon reports of several prominent YouTube creators who are struggling with burnout. The cause can be attributed to "constant changes to the platform's algorithm, unhealthy obsessions with remaining relevant in a rapidly growing field and social media pressures [that] are making it almost impossible for top creators to continue creating at the pace both the platform and audience want," reports Polygon. From the report: Three weeks ago, Bobby Burns, a YouTuber with just under one million subscribers, sat down on a rock in Central Park to talk about a recent mental health episode. One week ago, Elle Mills, a creator with more than 1.2 million subscribers, uploaded a video that included vulnerable footage during a breakdown. Six days ago, Ruben "El Rubius" Gundersen, the third most popular YouTuber in the world with just under 30 million subscribers, turned on his camera to talk to his viewers about the fear of an impending breakdown and his decision to take a break from YouTube. Burns, Mills and Gundersen aren't alone. Erik "M3RKMUS1C" Phillips (four million subscribers), Benjamin "Crainer" Vestergaard (2.7 million subscribers) and other top YouTubers have either announced brief hiatuses from the platform, or discussed their own struggles with burnout, in the past month. Everyone from PewDiePie (62 million subscribers) to Jake Paul (15.2 million subscribers) have dealt with burnout. Lately, however, it seems like more of YouTube's top creators are coming forward with their mental health problems. In closing, Polygon's Julia Alexander writes: "YouTube offers no clear support system for creators, nor is it clear if the company has offered professional help to some of its top creators who've made their burnout public. Instead, YouTube's only direct reaction is a playlist dedicated to burnout and mental health. The creators are essentially working until they no longer physically can, and apologizing to their fans after believing they've failed. Polygon has reached out to YouTube for more information about services that are provided to creators. The only way to beat burnout is to take breaks. Unfortunately, for many YouTubers, those breaks are rarely planned."
Anyone working for a company that makes sudden drastic changes to your livelihood on a regular basis is going to be stressed.
Youtube doesn't need to provide professional help for these attention seeking assholes. And no one is compelling them to create content. Take a break. Take that Youtube revenue and pay a doctor/therapist. Youtube doesn't owe you shit. What's next? They didn't make your favorite dinner? They didn't tuck you in at night? You made content, they paid you. Fuck off!
People have been talking about how terrible YouTube has been to its content creators. While they make their money from advertising, people only visit YT because of the content creators.
Their current policies have been all about the former and not the latter. This is leading more and more people to abandon the platform for better prospects, like Twitch. (Especially considering the effective pay-raise that Twitch offers for much less work)
made theirs subscribers feel inadequate because they didn't match up to those 'perfect' lives- now the bills due and they don't want to pay. Youtube should offer them a comfort blanket
"The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long and you have burned so very brightly"
For professionals, the solution is obvious - find another job.
For YouTubers... not so much. There's few viable alternatives, all look like very transient phenomena.
Dunno what those dudes making a living there think.
There is a name for this. It's called work. Welcome to the club.
I can't help but laugh as these entertainers are finally seeing what it means to be part of the media and entertainment business. People demand and expect from you with very little in return. You're going to burn out and you won't have a plan B to fall back on that gets you the money and attention you're used to.
No sympathy.
Now even celebrity is disposable.
Don't get me wrong I think that companies should provide healthcare for employees -- frankly thats a topic for a different time -- but I don't really see how this would qualify. Uber probably comes the closest but they are officially on company payroll, go through a background check, are offered a deal of fleet leases, et al. There's much more of a employer/employee relationship than the contractor status which has been turned down by several courts.
In contrast, Youtube doesn't hire people to create content. They sign up and get no money until they hit XXXX views or followers. Even then it's not them responding to a hail, but rather it's them trying to attract people to their channel.
Google providing some options would be great and get themselves some much needed positive PR. Not sure if Youtube was ever designed/bought to let external users generate money off of it. I definitely wouldn't plan my income around something where the compensation was 100% at the whim of someone else without an employment agreement.
Not everything is a box of snapchats.
ladies.
And this is why only men can be real chefs.
When we all have jobs that are as bad or worse. Everybody is getting squeezed. Learn to love it or start building guillotines. Those are pretty much the options.
Those with mental health issues are drawn to be âoeYouTube starsâ
This is called "work". It's just that now people are willing to actually talk about mental health, which is a very real issue.
It's inane to suggest that YouTube provide some kind of support system to creators. Creators are not employees.
And it's completely rich - like Heavy Whipping Cream rich - that Polygon would report on this. Polygon, full of bloggers who have just that same need to stay popular and maintain the illusion of relevancy. Polygon, who will report on every rumor that somewhere, a game developer may have farted This One Time, and What Could That Mean. Polygon, one of the many tendrils of the monster which loves to destroy said content creators when they Said That Terrible Thing and You're Terrible For Not Being Horrified.
Is YouTube forcing these people to put up content? Do they enforce deadlines when something needs to be posted? In what way is YouTube anything but a way for these people to post something?
It's difficult to have any sympathy for these folks when they're the ones who made the decision to "create" and post it. They're the ones who think they have to get more and more viewers. They're the ones who are driving themselves down the rabbit hole.
If this is too stressful for them, perhaps they should find a job at McDonald's.
Twitch is doing the exact same things though at smaller overall user base (they still outnumber Youtube for live gaming streams).
It _really_ doesn't help when people are able to pull shit like Alinity did. I'll spare you the drama, short version is she was able to get a video from pewdiepie ( has a massive youtube following) - taken down. Why? Because he refered to her as a "Thot" (don't ask). My point is had it not been for pewdiepie's following, she would have succeeded without question and actually does it on stream (along with admitting Immigration fraud but we won't go there).
Doesn't really have much to do with "worth ethic". You see there are companies who pay for you to stirke videos (in her case false DMCA claim). They encourage the abuse. It's also what everyone on Youtube is facing since they make no money of their content. The videos are demonitized.
Adding to this is the liberal douchebags passing TOS changes that make no sense and Twitch outright refusing to address Alinity despite her admitting to it on stream.
Welcome to the Internet.
I can't find an article about this and it doesn't seem to be mentioned in the Polygon article, but the Content ID system that Youtube uses to flag copyright violations is apparently going to have significant changes this month. This is per Matthew Patrick (MatPat/The Game Theory)--who is basically as close to the company as someone can be without working there--in a recent livestream of theirs.
Other long-running issues he address in that same 15-ish minutes are Youtube tools being confusing, a severe lack of response from Youtube support (and conflicting responses, even when that person has better access than xXxStoneddGamer567xXx), and he's talked in the past about how Youtube extremely over-reacts to controversies. Their "solutions" rarely take care of the original issue and instead punish a significant number of other creators.
Youtube has been relying on critical mass for years now.
In the last few years Youtube has increasingly been courting "mainstream" outlets, including launching their Youtube TV service, and these outlets have pushed original creators more to the sidelines. While MatPat doesn't explain what these Content ID changes will be, my expectation is that the system will become far, far less lenient toward infringements real, imagined, or claimed (thanks, DMCA!). If so, there will likely be a "purge" of creators.
If that is the case, I'm hoping that some company can step up to with a video-focused service that caters to smaller creators (or creator groups.) Vimeo might be able to branch into this, but their current (apparent) focus on completely-original content (and content not too far removed from television or film festivals) makes me think this is unlikely. Twitch's focus on live-streaming really limits content, and the platform serves gaming and some creative setups only which will make it a non-starter for people looking to move. Vine could make a comeback, striking while the iron is hot. Outside of those two I simply don't know of any other alternatives, either established or up-and-coming. Most of my video consumption these days comes from small creators, and I would really hate to lose this kind of access to what they create.
Maybe PornHub could take a stab at it, they've taken many interesting actions already. (Snowplowing, alerting users about tracking by their country, etc.)
video at one point, and she made less than $100. Why would anyone keep uploading videos for that little money? Plus, anyone that isn't ultra-liberal gets banned now so again why would you even try?
Take a break, snowflakes.
That's actually it. You have your 15 minutes of fame and you use the credibility/fame and/or the money to pivot into doing something else more enjoyable/less stressful.
Maybe practically everyone living in the 21st century is stressed, insecure about their livelihood, and feels like they're pushing the proverbial boulder up a hill every day? Maybe the major difference here is a Youtuber has a soapbox to complain about it, whereas most other people don't even have a therapist?
Now, consider that "Youtube Content Creator" is one of the few jobs you can decide to stop working at will, and still expect to have a job waiting for you when you decide to come back. It's also one of the few where your customers are inherently sympathetic to the condition of your mental health.
If anyone could just stand up in their cubicle, announce to the office that they weren't feeling enthusiastic about the work, and take a few "mental health" weeks, the world would burn. I question if any of these Youtube burnouts are self-aware enough to realize any of this.
...for the mentally insane.
Anyone working for a company
Which these people aren't doing.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
If you get to 200K subscribers you are making an INCREDIBLE amount of money. A million is so far out there to make the 1% seem like the minimum wage. If you are burning out, you are just getting greedy. YouTube does not owe you anything.
How about a moderation of -1 pedantic.
But nobody blamed oil paints and canvas for the mental problems of artists.
How so? In the state department, she preferred regime-change. On her campaign, she preferred hands-off government. People talk about propaganda, but I suspect many people voted against Clinton's persona, not for Trump's.
trying to be 'helpful'. Even clicking the bell icon twice doesn't always work. Some videos I only know exist because I go to the 'videos' page. Same for Aron Ra. Anything that's a bit controversial (and isn't Alex Jones) gets buried.
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
I think youtubes search functionality just sucks, which is ironic. I have trouble finding videos, even when I know the creator. Search engine can't search.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Google is essentially exploiting them for profit. Get 'em to bring in the eyeballs, use 'em up, then throw them out. "Next!"
Anyone working for a company
Which these people aren't doing.
This... YouTube creators are not YouTube's customers, they are the product. The customers are the advertisers, and thus the only ones YouTube cares about.
Some days I get the sinking feeling Orwell was an optimist.
I think it's more nuanced than that. Viewers are product, for sure.
Creators... they're livestock.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYdbFrstKeg
I think a lot of these creators probably could have dealt with the pressure from their audiences (and from themselves) to produce relevant content. But when you add in changing algorithms, changing community guidelines/demonetization, and fewer advertisers who are increasingly critical of where their ads go; then it doesn't surprise me in least bit that many creators are starting to break down. Imagine spending 40-60 hours on a single video, 3-4 years ago you could be safe in knowing that it would bring in a lot of viewers and a lot of ad revenue, but now you have to worry about whether your subs will even see it or if it'll even get recommended. Then you have to worry about whether it'll get demonetized/flagged which requires you to wait to get it manually reviewed. God help you if you made it public immediately because now you are losing ad revenue during the time period when you'd be getting the most views.
When I look at this new environment on YouTube, its hard for me not to believe that YouTube has purposefully 'poisoned the well' in an attempt to drive some of these larger YouTubers out and let the platform get taken over by big media outlets. Just look at Trending, its largely filled with Music videos, late night show clips, and the occasional news clip from like CNN or MSNBC.
A foolish artist who uploaded his content to a site built on ads and SJW politics.
And the user policy changed, and the SJW came, and the restrictions grew and bans against that creative content, and content was shadow banned, and great was the removal of creative content.
And the censorship, and the bans came, and the SJW reported and banned on that content, but it did not delete from the online, because better sites had been founded on Freedom of Speech.
The wise artist who built his own site on the US First Amendment did not get censored.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
For fuck's sake, stop calling these people "creators". If I film myself yabbering about some product I was secretly paid to rave about (after the obligatory "What's up you guys!", before filming some friends and I acting like idiots in a store, followed by the obligatory "make sure to subscribe!", I didn't -create- shit. This is me filming myself being yet another completely insignificant brick in a boring wall. None of those so-called Youtube celebrities have anything to offer beyond racking in millions of views from some even less interesting people. If more of these attention-needing jackasses could have a burnout and sooner, maybe Youtube would be a bit less of a shit vortex, but I'm not counting on that.
Yeah, Google's army of security guards are doing it. Not the creators themselves nor the faceless masses watching the videos.
What kind of "support" are these millions of viewers giving their beloved content creators... a single dollar from each would solve most if not all the creator's problems.
For Google, it's just not enough that they provide each of these with a voice, distribution channel, bandwidth, and basically permanent content storage... on top of payments.
Boohoo "Think of the creators." Sorry my smallest violin just broke.
Perhaps it's time to get real fucking jobs. Let's see how much burnout you have then.
Which they are totally doing, even if the company won't admit it for legal reasons.
It's really no wonder these people are stressed, they've been watching the demonetization line creep up and up over the past couple of years and know that it's only a matter of time until theyr'e effectively out of a job. They've been working themselves to death to try to keep the subscriber and hour counts up but it's literally killing them.
I read the internet for the articles.
Few alternatives? How about get a real job and just quit posting videos?
I have zero sympathy for YouTube's "top creators". You wanted attention, now drown in it.
I've copied two thirds of my YouTube videos to BitChute (going to copy the rest during the weekend). I like it because it's the 2nd home of many controversial/non-SJW channels that are feeling the squeeze on YT, so I am hopeful that they are OK with such content. I also really like the BitChute player.
It's not perfect: it relies on Torrent to alleviate the burden of the servers, but it's growing rapidly.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
It's all that non relational database bullshit. They can't give you complete, correct, or consistent results because their data is all in a big, meaningless heap.
Amazon has the same issue. You can't get a fucking simple price filter working on an Amazon search, for example.
It's killing them that uploading fart videos and videogame voice-over is becoming less and less lucrativenbecause literally anyone can do it? This is such a tragedy, someone should start a GoFundMe for them.
When I was a contract programmer and got burnt-out, nobody came to hold my hand or tell me how I deserved to be treated with more respect and love.
But I never expected them to. I was a big boy (with big-boy pants and everything) so I took responsibility for my own destiny.
Now I'm a full-time YouTube content creator and I still don't expect anyone to hold my hand or tell me how I deserve to be treated with more respect and love.
Still wearing the big-boy pants!
Yes, YouTube and it's constantly changing policies make life very hard -- but so did all those project managers I used to code for.
Life can be tough... get over it. Take a teaspoon of cement and harden up -- or find something else to do.
Guess all these genius content creators where not paying any attention when google was putting companies out of business as they tweaked their search algorithms. Some people just cannot learn from others' mistakes.
Some of these people are contracted to produce shows for Youtube Red. Wait, didn't they change the name/functionality of that recently? I can't keep it straight.
Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
We're supposed to have feels for narcissistic Youtubers who don't have real jobs and make easy money?
Sorry-- I'll pass. Fuck all of them to death.
While I despise the whole lot of these vloggers and youtubers, now you're just being an asshat. Please define "real job". Nothing wrong with what they do for a living, if they had anything creative or interesting to create and share. Sadly, this Youtube "economy" is built on neither.
This... YouTube creators are not YouTube's customers, they are the product. The customers are the advertisers, and thus the only ones YouTube cares about.
No, this is a stupid and annoying simplification.
The advertisers are only customers in as much as there are people to advertise to. You can't sell to advertisers if there are no people watching the adverts. Youtube needs to keep the people watching happy which means keeping the people who make stuff to watch happy because without people watching, the advertisers aer not interested.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
Anyone working
Cutting it down to that. The top producers are people at the top of their game. That's really bloody hard work and the result of really hard work is often burnout. As someone who suffered severe burnout I can really sympathise.
It's got little to do with youtube though and more to do with people who are driven to work.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
When I think of a "creator" I think of an "inventor" or an "author" or somebody who performs genuine creativity. These are idiots talking to their monitor. The audience is a bunch of tween weenies stuck at home with nothing better to do and lonely faggots with social problems.
Nobody with a life sits and watches some ordinary fatass being completely ordinary, unless their life is significantly worse.
So hot right now. Everyone HAS to have at least depression.
Running a full blown weekly/daily media format all on your own is taxing to your mental health.
No shit.
Guess why John Oliver, Bill Maher and Co. have armies of staff supporting them.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
It comes down to this simple timeless fact: you can't build your own business on platform owned by a single third-party.
You can't be a "YouTuber" for a career. You can, however, be a content creator who happens to be using YouTube as an incredible free resource (have you looked at just how much video storage YouTube allows?), but this means YouTube video monetization (i.e. ads) can't be your sole source of revenue.
For me, "real job" means you either are an employee on a permament/temporary contract or you run your own company and sell things/services to customers or B2B. Forgive my ignorance, I really don't know how being a youtuber works, but which one of these are vloggers? I doubt their youtube employees [1]; if they are independent contractors, then they signed a REALLY bad contracts: "we'll pay you for your content, but we reserve the right to arbitrally decide how much you get, when you are paid and if you see any money at all. Also, we can change our deal any moment" (ask your boss if they accept such attitude from the clients). Everything I hear about being vlogger on Youtube stinks of unprofessionalism and bad career choices, no matter how much money selected few can get in a short run or how hard they are actually working.
[1] unless the US labor law allows signing contract without specifying the salary upfront and allows changing the salary without employee consent - it's plainly illegal in my country, but hey, maybe California is messed up enough to allow it?
While I despise the whole lot of these vloggers and youtubers, now you're just being an asshat.
Says the typical jerk who thinks creativity can be summoned on command... For once, the ACs hot the nail on the head.
These 'top creators' have no contract, therefore, they're not beholden to create for the masses on schedule. If they're trying to make a living at something that's not guaranteed (contracted, as most professional creatives are) and trying to out-think advertising algorithms, well, good luck!
It's like the time when your friend is singing to the radio and it's off-key... "Don't quit your day job, man."
You either have it or you don't... well, really, you either WANT it or you don't.
No sig for you! Come back one year!
I think the best analogy for being a youtube vlogger is sport. A lot of people enjoy watching sport. A lot of people do amateur-level sports. Some try to break into professional sports. Very few athletes make millions out of sports, but sport clubs and federations take almost all profits anyway. A lot of professional athletes end their careers quickly due to burning out/contusions/younger players, are left with nothing but memories by the time they're 40 and have to take shitty jobs (the extreme version: a few years ago, silver olympic medallist in female weightlifting, Agata Wróbel, was found out sorting trash in a recycling plant for a living at the age of 25, with no further career prospects).
Can you make a lot of money out of sport? Sure, look at Tiger Woods for example.
Will you make a lot of money out of sport? No, chances that you're going to be the next Tiger Woods are negligible.
Is throwing out work or education in favor of training a good career choice? Take a guess.
Now, replace "sport" with "vlogging", "clubs and federations" with "Google", "Tiger Woods" with "Pewdewpie" or any well-paid youtube star.
99.9% of YouTube content could disappear, including practically all of these self-made celebrities, and nothing of value would be lost. I can't think of anything less valuable than average YouTube video with navel gazing, product "reviews" or listing "facts."
Welcome to the real world. Making yourself a product among billions of others is hard. Usually there's no point - there are millions of more sensible ways to make your living than being watched on YouTube. Don't expect that people in general would care about maintaining your elevated position.
I sincerely wish "YouTube stardom" and other forms of practically worthless video content would eventually die out. It could start with these crybabies.
Pass the bill to YouTube then (Google/Alphabet)!
You should use RSS then.
Fresh info about new videos added seconds after they are uploaded. I have never subscribed to any channel and I pity people who use YT's 'subscription' model.
Sure, that would be what one would expect. If there wasn't a market.
These content producers doesn't lack an audience. The thing that is lacking is competition among ad-driven video distribution platforms.
The middle-man (Youtube) have decided to screw them over so they need to take their consumers and go somewhere else.
Problem is, there is nowhere else to go except maybe Twitch.
If people stopped watching them on the other hand, then is when it would be appropriate to get a "real job".
Hillary's America - great movie,
you should see it.
YouTube DIED the day google bought it and made it THEIR Tube.
Abandon ship & join ANY OTHER PLATFORM, or 'man-up' and build / buy / lease your own website server.
I do not understand why ANYONE would let a 3rd party dictate their free speech ?
FaceBook ? no - just put links in facebook that point to YOUR server & escape all their restrictions.
YouTube 'demonitization' ?
Replace ALL your yoitube videos with 15 second intros that end with screen filling CLICK HERE buttons to link to the rest of the story, ON YOUR WEBSITE, with your monitization, affiliate links $, and related UNrestricted Free Speech.
OUR RIGHTS are being attacked by corporations who say only THEIR SPEECH, their beliefs & politics are allowed.
DITCH THEIR TECH - and turn yoitube into an empty wasteland of back linked click screens.
On the subject, I'm not sure why Youtube or google should provide support for the creators? Most of them have made a business out of creating said content. It's like a TV station providing care for actors that work for a studio that makes a show they buy? I don't think that's how it works? I've read up about that Julia and I wonder how anything she suggests or sais can be taken seriously.
Yes, it was hillaryous!!
in that at least a big part of the reason Youtube is constantly changing policies is because they've got content creators constantly trying to game the system and it's their competitiveness making this such a dog eat dog market
Many famous youtubers certainly can't either, since they just film themselves overacting and spewing nonsense, trying to be funny.
People who spend all day on YouTube have no time management skills? Color me surprised...
Creatives don't have a right to making a living from their creativity. Only the best of the best of the best creative output is worth money. The rest is dreck. YouTube's value proposition was not originally supposed to be everyone turning themselves into ad revenue streams. It was originally a way for people to get their ideas out there. YouTube is already giving you a free platform to spread all the dumb shit that pops into your head. They don't owe you shit.
It's a market. Sane rational actors would bow out and get a fucking job. Then YouTube would have less content. And if that content is worth a damn, YouTube would start paying a bigger share. My suspicion is this content is worthless, though.
Because I was not an animator...
That historical adage aside, donâ(TM)t care. If youâ(TM)re doing something for advertising money and you cant even control what rubbish is advertised on your pages or prevent any of its harm then youâ(TM)re just another whore at the corporate gang bang (with apologies to Hicks).
Oh it goes down subscribers lists? Well if theyâ(TM)re not actively seeking out your content then youâ(TM)re not important anyway, people are using YT like bubblegum tv. Sit turn, press play at whatever is on. Create a patreon and if youâ(TM)re any good people will pay no matter how infrequent you post.
My boobs aren't big enough and my waist is too big, not trying to objectify anyone, but ... humans like to watch "pretty" people, cute pets, and ugly dogs.
Anyone whose livelihood depends on youtube ads, should look for alternative streams of revenue.
That includes, IMO, taking a regular job and releasing only one video per week. In most cases, there's not more than one good video per week anyway and the rest are just trivial vlog-fillers.
Windows 2000 - from the guys who brought us edlin
Narcissists having mental health issues when even the slightest thing goes wrong, and especially when more than that goes wrong? Who'd have thought?
They should not be little whiney bitches. They earn millions and have more than enough means to get help with whatever their problem is, or better yet, prevent any future problems.
What do you expect. the expense is shouldered by the enthusiast who creates the content. Google provides the platform and is able to tweak parameters in its interests to maximise profit. Its the usual free market ponzi-scheme. By design its not stable, its exploitation and anti-democratic.
Except the balance is against that of the creator, because for every tier of creator, there's probably 10~100 more of similar quality who are ready to take the place of who ever bows out.
The limited resource in the YouTube creator-view-advertiser balance is viewer eyeball-hours.
eBay is much the same; sellers can be culled in droves and there's always more to replace them, but buyers are the ones you need to stick around.
A hot new #1 musician has a career lifespan of 3 years on average. To make the most of that time, it is helpful to them if they don't sleep.
Is this relevant to the Youtube stars burden? Of course. Consider -
The muso has no ownership or control over their product or circumstances (have you seen the contracts the RIAA/Hollywood majors require their musos to sign?)
The muso probably has mental health issues already (no-one in their right mind would sign a contract from a RIAA/Hollywood member company).
I am now off to play "Top of the Pops" by the Kinks (off "Lola vs Powerman & the Moneygoround") followed by Pink Floyd's "Have a Cigar".
The point is, the new boss is the same as the old boss.
yep, nicely said, wish I had mod points for you
So they are customers then, just like GP said.
What an insight. Found the MBA!
It's the same in the traditional media business. Heaps and heaps of people trying to get a job, few of which are available. Freelancing is abundant, as is poor treatment. Trying to earn a living on Youtube is exactly the same, but worse.
Youtube has one upside in this context, unfortunately it's also one of the really nasty problems at the same time; the barrier to entry is virtually zero. This means that plenty of people who are trying to eke out a living there in reality basically have tried and failed to get a more normal job first. Sometimes for a long time so Youtube kind of is their last resort. That means that they are stuck in a nasty, completely unregulated treadmill they literally have no control over as their source of income. It can, and frequently does change at the drop of a hat with little to no recourse, and no income.
And btw; telling someone to "get a job" - one of the slashdot favourites - is easy. Especially for those who already have one - or are provided for by their parents. In reality, however, it can be really, really difficult, depending on your circumstances. And with that I mean circumstances outside your control like physical or mental health issues, disabilities, age etc. Businesses today aren't really hiring, they are mostly replacing people whose job they can't just simply make redundant. It takes very, very little to make it completely impossible for you to find someone willing to employ you.
No wonder they are burning out.
I get what you're saying - sort of use it as publicity for something else. But on the other hand, it's not far off this, which seems like a way for cheapskates to get stuff for nothing.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
...do people think it's Youtubes responsibility to help people with these "burnout" issues?
it's not.
There's the problem. These people facing burnout issues should go to their own counselors. They aren't employees of Youtube, thus, Youtube doesn't owe them any mental health services.
Oh I forgot, they'd have to actually do real work.
You have to convince someone to buy something. It's not merely ringing up product and bagging it.
Youtube considers anything "conservative" here in the US to be "controversial"
That's the problem.
"YouTube offers no clear support system for creators, nor is it clear if the company has offered professional help to some of its top creators who've made their burnout public."
It's not YouTube's job to do this. YouTube isn't college with it's safe rooms filled with puppies, crayons and snowflakes (which shouldn't exist either). These people worked themselves into their states and now it's incumbent upon *them* to work themselves out.
YouTube isn't mommy and no sane individual want it to become so.
Search engine can't search.
I haven't tried comparing results from google and from the youtube search box, but I often find that I get a useful youtube video from google search.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Businesses today arenâ(TM)t hiring? Are you in the US?
Labor force participation is skyrocketing. Unemployment almost 2% below its long-term average of 5.8%. Real wages are growing at their fastest pace for a decade. You live in some euroslum or sonething?
They make their livelyhood from making video for youtube so youtube can stick commercials in them.
They are freelance for sure. But pretty much all of their income is derived from youtube in one way or another. They work for them. Oh I am sure you can get some nuanced law out that says differently. But for all intents they work for youtube. Much like the people who drive 100% for lyft and uber work for them too. No amount of court cases or law will make me think different. Take me for example I work for a 'contracting firm'. But for all intents I work for the people they contracted me out to. Those people can decide if I stay or go. I work with them. I maybe have talked to my contact guys twice in the past year. Legally I work for the contract firm. In reality I work for someone else.
They are even free to walk away from the job. Most people are. If they are willing to put up with leaving large sums of money behind.
YT is jacking the rules around. They started this around late 2015. It is no wonder everyone is burning out. YT wanted high rate of clickbait type videos to draw even more people in and retain them in the platform after init watch. YT creators have responded in an odd way. Patreon as well as external sponsors on the intro/outro. "Make sure to thumbs up, subscribe and click the bell icon to be notified of my videos. Also I am on patreon please support me there as well. You can see the link in the description. Here is a coupon to my sponsor." You pretty much have to have a minimum of 3 videos a week plus a few hundred thousand bell clicks and thumbs ups to get ranked in any way. That high rate of video production takes a crew of people. Most of the big ones have a at least 4 or 5 people just helping produce/edit/quality/caption all the videos. Some go it alone. You can see they are burning out.
Indeed. Why dont they eat cake and Soldier on making profit for Google?
For all the 'net has been cut out to be, you and I are the soft voices wondering None of my searches or filters seem to work, and this is their advanced search/filter?? But they just got off my lawn, to work at Amazon.
Plus all the antifa stormtroops supporting the globalist corporations.
No, I happen to live in a country where automation has proceeded far further than in the US.
There really aren't that many jobs, unless you're either extremely highly qualified[1], or if you're not, then maybe, if you're lucky, you can get a really shitty job cleaning or something. A job with insane hours, which pays peanuts and very little to no security at all. Anything else basically requires you to know someone, or you're a SOL. If you have a physical or mental disability, or a CV that doesn't look completely normal (maybe because you had some kind of problem you've since sorted out), you're completely screwed. You're a potential problem, and there are literally thousands of other applicants who have all their ducks in a row, and will do just about anything to get that job.
[1] I know of a quite qualified person who recently had her probationary period terminated, not because she couldn't do the job or anyone was dissatisfied with her... What she didn't have was 15 years of experience and they wanted the position open in case they ran across someone who fit the bill.
Have gnu, will travel.
There are many competitors, many of which are far superior. Pick one.
So actors dont have real jobs?
You don't need a platform for serving video on the internet, you know. That's why it's the Internet, and not broadcast television.
I don't respond to AC's.
Okay so I have 33,000 subscribers BUT I do have 15 million views and 1400 videos so I feel I can comment on this. They're lazy, entitled, greedy, egotistical assholes who have clearly never worked a day in their life. I've worked shitty industrial jobs, customer service, and some VERY bad IT jobs. I still work a full time job in addition to Youtube but guess what. In order to get money, you have to do work. I don't care what people think of me. I don't care if a big video flops. I just do my job, realize it won't be perfect, and if I absolutely need a day off I do it and come to terms with the fact that it'll probably lose me $100 or so.
It's a market. Sane rational actors would bow out and get a fucking job. Then YouTube would have less content. And if that content is worth a damn, YouTube would start paying a bigger share. My suspicion is this content is worthless, though.
Smart ones would have at least used their fame and exposure to start up a real business on their terms or such.
Never heard of any of these people, except PewDiePie and I thought his 15 minutes had ended at least a year ago after that whole nazi joke debacle that somehow got treated as "news" here on Slashdot.
Why wouldn't actors fit the above definition?
They work on temporary contracts and sell services.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
With the exception of the last two (and in the case of Paul, only because of the suicide forest case), I never heard of any of them.
Seems like these "creators" stress out a lot just by doing dumb shit for an audience of stupid kids. They should check back on the priorities of their lives.
Youtubers (which includes Vloggers, ie people who just make video blogs) are running their own companies, so they come under your definition of "real jobs". They're video production companies distributing their product through Youtube, just like traditional production companies distribute through CBS/NBC/FOX/etc.
It comes down to this simple timeless fact: you can't build your own business on platform owned by a single third-party.
And yet, how many production companies make a nice healthy living selling content to NBC/CBS/TBS/etc? Youtube is not much different from the television industry's setup except they don't make you do a pilot and don't make arbitrary decisions about what people want to see.
dont you slave know that you work for them while getting peanuts so they please the shareholders... sadly most are too stupid to realize this in their quest to make it big... on youtube!
Because that's not a single third-party. If you are a producer/director/whatever (I don't know the correct showbiz terms) and NBC won't do a pilot on your pitch, then you can go to CBS. If they won't do it, then you go to TBS. You are not bound to a single broadcaster until there is a contract (which prevents capricious changes).
I am all for content creators---just don't be "YouTube creators".
Or there is a meme of posting your "breakdown", or at least of you talking about your breakdown.
Youtube is very different.
It's run by a company regarded as one of the leading technology innovators. So innovative that nearly everything they come up with is abandoned in a few years. Why? Because they are horrible business people for the most part and haven't created a cash flow other than advertising data since their inception.
Great thoughts, but we all know Youtube's executive management needs to be escorted from the building for wrecking what once was a booming business with incredible opportunity.
One simply does not screw with your suppliers (the "creatives") when it's not really necessary. They are literally killing the golden geese.
YouTube is currently (and apparently successfully), trying to compete with FaceBook (among teens). Just like FB, that means YouTube needs to provide a constant stream of content, more often is better than longer. How else are people going to comment on something that just happened now?
Your ad here. Ask me how!
Professional youtubers all produce shit content for people who lack buying power anyhow. If they're tired of it they should quit. I think it would be great if they stopped paying people to produce content.
I feel the same way and I'm not sure what he should be jealous of?
I doubt most paid youtubers make more than your average slashdrone, I don't like pictures of my face online because I'm paranoid. I do get jealous of people with easy gigs that pay well but from the sounds of it being a pro youtuber isn't as easy as it seems.
I don't like most youtube content that you can tell was made in pursuit of money either, with bumpers and graphics and shit. Not that I mind the production quality but it's usually a hint that the rest of the video is going to be ingenuine, it's going to be the best idea that some guy could come up with that week, vs something that someone uploaded because something about the content in the video compelled them to show other people.
Sure it doesn't have a public domain rap music intro, graphics, or any sort of script but it's the kind of stuff you won't see on regular tv.
I have to admit I'm a fan of angry video game nerd and hak5 but now that I think of it I found those through XBMC and not youtube.
I hate Google's lack of privacy and general internal politics, so I watch YouTube without being signed in.
Here's what's worked for me to keep track of the new videos I want to watch anyways:
1. Get a reliable RSS reader. Thunderbird has one built-in.
2. Go to YT's web site and copy the link address for the "VIDEOS" section of any particular YTer; put that address into the RSS reader. You may not get the RSS *directly* from it with your RSS reader, but a proper feed address is in the HTML. Thunderbird sends the web page to an online validator (which you may not like for privacy's sake) that quickly parses that HTML page to find any RSS feeds listed inside of it.
(Unafraid of JavaScript tech people should just dig into the raw text of the page source of the "VIDEOS" section and search for the term "rss" [no CAPS] in there instead).
3. The RSS feed should contain that YTer's YouTube channel ID, which is a hash of letters and symbols unique to them and their channel.
*puts on tinfoil* I suspect YouTube themselves keeps track of all the videos through RSS and not their internal Subscription/Bell system. The Subscription/Bell system may be broken on purpose to keep signed-in users away from the "wrong" videos that advertisers or YT staff (not the video creators) didn't want to monetize or at least promote if there are no ads there on purpose.
Though I dislike promoting platforms (because protocols change less than platforms), BitChute is looking pretty good. Not ultra-HD content by any means, but video through torrent magnet link is pretty cool if you don't care about super-high video quality. Also a hedge against the video disappearing completely (for whatever good/bad reason) from BitChute itself.
Step away from the limelight and learn to take time for yourself
Youtube would have died years ago if not for the creators who used it. It wasn't some charity for ideas, it was a business for hosting videos. The ad revenue for YouTube was generated by those who watched the creators on that platform. It only makes sense to give them a cut to keep the platform growing and them creating.
It's a symbiosis. But Youtube is finding another host to feed off of (big music labels and mainstream channels) and seem to be leaving those creators behind.
Why would a self employed person think that YouTube should provide any kind of "support" for the? Not that YouTube couldn't but it's certainly not their responsibility.
I feel for these people but they should be able to manage their own time, and if they need help with mental health seek it.
If this is really true YouTube's revenues will decline and they'll be forced to change. Also competitors are available and if their business model is better they'll succeed.
If you feel so strongly that YouTube is shit, build a better one.
They sure seem to be making apisspot of money for being such "horrible business people", I wish I was so horrible.
Wow! You clearly have no idea what "employed by a company" means (hint it includes all those things that you say are "beside the point").
And you are so unaware that you entirely miss that you described the EXACT relationship between "creators" and "platform providers", yet entirely miss the fact that "free lance content creators" for NBC etc are exactly like Youtubers. And neither are "employees if the "freelance content creatirs". If Youtubers don't like the terms of their contract don't create content for YouTube, I'm sure NBC and similar will happily pay for the content if it's any good.
Holy crap! Ignore reality if you want but it will bite you in the ass none the less. Seriously do you have NO idea what a "consultant" is? Freelance photographer? Artist? Small business owner?
You are employed by a contracting firm that's who pays you, provides your benefits, finds you actual work to do etc. The work you do is for a CUSTOMER.
The laws describing an "employer-employee" relationship exist for a reason, saying "all the laws won't make me change my mind" basically means you have lost track of reality. I suggest you seek some mental health help.
A person freely describing themselves as a YouTube's doesn't make YouTube responsible to them. And limiting their content to YouTube is their own fault. There are many outlets for good content that pay money. Limiting themselves to 1 outlet whose terms of payment is just stupid, clearly these people aren't good business people, instead of hiring a bunch of video producers they should hire a business manager, maybe an Agent etc.
Demonitization hits way more than just the game streamers and PewDiePie clones. Slingshot Channel, AvE, and many others have been hit. Most end up creating Patreon pages to try to compensate, but that's only half a solution.
I read the internet for the articles.
While I despise the whole lot of these vloggers and youtubers, now you're just being an asshat. Please define "real job". Nothing wrong with what they do for a living, if they had anything creative or interesting to create and share. Sadly, this Youtube "economy" is built on neither.
The video logging concept being hosted on Youtube is simply not a very viable way to make a living. You can get your channel demonetized simply by a person making a complaint against it's content. As well, it seems that the standards for demonetization are a bit capricious. There have been gunning channels demonetized - and not the stupid ones where some asshat decides to get his girl to wear some skimpy outfit and fire a rifle she never did before and gets knocked over or worse, breaks an orbital bone from a scope hitting her in the eye - but legitimate channels. A lot of MRA or MGTOW channes have been demonetized even though their channels are quite popular. Youtube thought police scan for "feminist", and it better be a real positive video or else it gets dinged.
Anyhow - it is Google's site, and they have the right to include or exclude whatever they want. That is also a big problem. It's a bad business model for Youtubers to work within.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
I'm assuming you think your mobile or landline provider (or cable TV provider or ISP) is shitty, so why haven't you started your own and out-competed them into oblivion?
It's almost like businesses have entry costs, some astronomically high enough to prevent competition from forming... Fancy that.
What is this getting "insightful" points for? Should production companies not get paid for producing TV shows? After all, it's the cable TV/streaming company that gets the videos to the end customer, and they provide these production companies with millions upon millions of people who are going to watch their message and receive their ideas!
This retarded logic is so backwards I find it difficult to start on one flaw and stick with it. What the hell does YouTube make money from? Advertisements. Why are they paid for those advertisements? Because people watch them. Why do people watch them? Because they want to watch the content after the advertisement. Who makes that content? Not fucking YouTube, that's for sure. Ergo, in order to have more and better content, you cut the creators in on advertising revenue. It incentivizes the creators, which means more/better content regularly, which increases both the number and consistency of views of content, which directly translates to increased number and consistency of ad views.
The difference is Youtube's monopoly position.
Welcome to Show Business ladies and gentlemen!
Back when I was a rock star, my career lasted about three months. When I asked someone what happened, the advice I was given was, "Hey, here today, gone later today. Find a new gig."
That's when I went back to school and studied programming. Went to work in the booming dot-com world.
Guess what happened in 2000.
Yeah, never mind show business, welcome to the real world.
If the value of your artistic expression is less than the value of hosting your art, then no, you should NOT get a cut of the revenue.
The point is you don't need to incentivize creative people with money. Creative people actually prefer exposure to money. Or at least enough of them do for YouTube's ad model to work. So, no, there's no good reason to pay them for content they're getting exposure on for free.
MRA, MGTOW and other incels are not quite the best example of "legitimate" channels getting booted or demonetized. Some would call that draining the swamp.
MRA, MGTOW and other incels are not quite the best example of "legitimate" channels getting booted or demonetized. Some would call that draining the swamp.
First off, if you are going to by a genius, get your terms correct. An Incel stands for involuntary celibate. This includes a wide range of people, many of whom are celibate by virtue of accident or disability. Oh, an incel is not restrained to one sex either.
Men's Rights Activists are people who lobby for changes in laws.
Men Going Their Own Way are just men who either do not want to have relationships with women, or never did.
Very few MRAs or MGTOWs are incels.
MRAs are at least for the moment, largely ineffectual . It is noted that you are against men's rights.
Incels might be better pitied instead of in a truly bigoted manner, you declare them as part of a big problem, you insensitive clod.
Then we come to MGTOWs There's an interesting group with several levels. The red pill ragers are mostly men who have lost their wealth and children in divorce, and aren't happy about it. That's kind of understandable. It usually calms down in a couple years, although they no longer want emotional relationships with any women.
Then there is a grouping that note that The government is now acting as the money source in many one parent (female) family that doesn't want a man in her life.
Then there are people they call MGTOW monks. This is the stage after the rage dissapates.
Then Ghosts, which might be analogous to an old school hermit.
The part that some folks want squelched is that especially the MGTOWs produce materials that young men who have not yet been harvested can see. Even so, MGTOW is in the end, passive avoidance, merely staying out of relationships with women. You aren't having marches, you aren't agitating for laws, you are just following a philosophy of passive avoidance. You don't have to call yourself MGTOW to simply avoid women. Birth and marriage rates dropping, as well as the increasingly common lament "Where have all the good men gone?" are perhaps symptoms.
The interesting part is why women would find this objectionable. The male that avoids you is not bothering you in any way. He is not harassing you or sexually assaulting you. And in a world where 30% of women ages 18 to 35 consider that a man winking at a woman is sexual harassment, it wold appear that simply ignoring her would achieve her demands of not being winked at or otherwise subjected to male abuse. Isn't that what a woman would want?
For the record, I am neither MGTOW, or Incel. I only report that MGTOW is a social problem, just like third wave feminism is a social problem.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.