A Look at the Dark Side of the Lives of Some Prominent YouTubers, Who Are Increasingly Saying They're Stressed, Depressed, Lonely, and Exhausted (theguardian.com)

Many YouTubers are finding themselves stressed, lonely and exhausted. The Guardian: For years, YouTubers have believed that they are loved most by their audience when they project a chirpy, grateful image. But what happens when the mask slips? This year there has been a wave of videos by prominent YouTubers talking about their burnout, chronic fatigue and depression. "This is all I ever wanted," said Elle Mills, a 20-year-old Filipino-Canadian YouTuber in a (monetised) video entitled Burnt Out At 19, posted in May. "And why the fuck am I so unfucking unhappy? It doesn't make any sense. You know what I mean? Because, like, this is literally my fucking dream. And I'm fucking so un-fucking-happy."

[...] The anxieties are tied up with the relentless nature of their work. Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins' revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them by name "on air"). Blevins recently took to Twitter to complain that he didn't feel he could stop streaming. "Wanna know the struggles of streaming over other jobs?" he wrote, perhaps ill-advisedly for someone with such a stratospheric income. "I left for less than 48 hours and lost 40,000 subscribers on Twitch. I'll be back today... grinding again." There was little sympathy on Twitter for the millionaire. But the pressure he described is felt at every level of success, from the titans of the content landscape all the way down to the people with channels with just a few thousand subscribers, all of whom feel they must be constantly creating, always available and responding to their fans.

"Constant releases build audience loyalty," says Austin Hourigan, who runs ShoddyCast, a YouTube channel with 1.2 million subscribers. "The more loyalty you build, the more likely your viewers are to come back, which gives you the closest thing to a financial safety net in what is otherwise a capricious space." When a YouTuber passes the 1 million subscribers mark, they are presented with a gold plaque to mark the event. Many of these plaques can be seen on shelves and walls in the background of presenters' rooms. In this way, the size of viewership and quantity of uploads become the main markers of value.

Comments

No sympathy

[mschuyler]

You realize how much money a YouTuber with 1 million subscribers makes? It is mind boggling. Yeah, more than IT. Sure, it's "stressful" because you have to film, edit, and upload. Poor babies. Then there's all the "merch" to sell. It's just like a real business! I say, good for you. You did it. Now stop whining, you dumb fuck.

Re:No sympathy

[Quirkz]

Eh, I've got *some* sympathy. I mean, I'd still trade places with most of them if I could. But every job and every life has problems. Even if they seem minor to others, the human mind is a problem-seeking machine, and it will dig up issues if it's not seeing enough. A little mindful practice might go a long way for some of these folks, but it's also just a fundamental part of life.

Other things that *might* help, not just here, but everywhere:
- setting realistic goals and being satisfied with them
- figuring out how you want to define success for yourself
- putting effort into time management and efficiency
- figuring out how to take time off without having it become a mess
- knowing when to stop entirely or move on
- learn as much as possible about investing and living reasonably, maybe even frugally, for your income, so that taking a break or moving on becomes an easier choice
- cultivating interests and activities outside of the primary job
- getting adequate rest and addressing other health issues

Zero sympathy is right

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're making 500k a month. Suck it up. Bank that money for a bit. Quit. And go enjoy a nice life off the properly invested money.

Jesus. What whiners.

Re:Zero sympathy is right

[Guspaz]

My perspective would be "I don't like doing this, but I'm making a mint, so I'm going to just keep doing it for as long as I can stand it and then retire on the tens of millions of dollars that I banked."

I think the idea of "I can just quit and retire in luxury any time I want" would help a lot with dealing with the stress of doing a job that I didn't like... And playing Fortnite on Twitch every day isn't exactly a soul crushing job.

Re:Zero sympathy is right

[hey!]

About a decade ago it actually occurred to researchers to try to measure the marginal hedonic value of income at various levels. What they found is that the marginal value of individual income is essentially nil beyond $75,000 (at the time).

So why do people sacrifice so much for a big income? Well, it should come as a surprise to nobody that people are crap at figuring out what will make them happy. At above a minimum threshold for comfort and security lies a hedonic treadmill, because it's not about your needs, which are finite, but your wants, which expand to consume all available resources.

So there's nothing particularly surprising about someone making $200,000, a million or even a billion dollars being unhappy. In part this is the human condition; happiness as an emotion exists to motivate us by its absence. The one factor that does affect our baseline happiness is the strength of our social connections, but for some reason social media doesn't seem to count.

Performing antics for the amusement YouTube randos probably doesn't count as enriching your social network.

Re: Zero sympathy is right

[cs668]

I think sometimes it's hard when you peak so young, you don't know what to do next because whatever it is will probably not be as successful.

Who isn't?

[The Evil Atheist]

If you earn in a month 6 times more than what professionals in other industries earn in a year, how about just quit after a few months? Learn some financial managment (ie, don't spend more than you have) and be set for life.

They're complaining they still have to work

[JoeyRox]

Tyler Blevins, AKA Ninja, makes an estimated $500,000 every month via live broadcasts of him playing the video game Fortnite on Twitch, a service for livestreaming video games that is owned by Amazon. Most of Blevins' revenue comes from Twitch subscribers or viewers who provide one-off donations (often in the hope that he will thank them by name "on air"). Blevins recently took to Twitter to complain that he didn't feel he could stop streaming. "Wanna know the struggles of streaming over other jobs?" he wrote, perhaps ill-advisedly for someone with such a stratospheric income. "I left for less than 48 hours and lost 40,000 subscribers on Twitch. I'll be back today... grinding again."

So in essence he's complaining he has to work every day to earn his high salary. What did he think, that he could just stop working and continue to get paid to do nothing?

Need help, maybe?

[magarity]

Does he really do it all himself? Seriously, hire a team and cut the stress level by a huge margin.

I know why they're unhappy.

[stevent1965]

They're unhappy because they've chosen an extremely shallow and meaningless avocation and have mistaken it for meaningful achievement and lasting contribution to the greater good. They're unhappy because they're beginning to realize the complete futility and meaningless of what they're doing with their lives. They're the modern, digital equivalent of 30-year-old hockey scores. No one will care or even know about them two or three years from now and they'll be left pondering how and why they've wasted some of the prime years of their lives. I hope they're saving whatever money they're making so they at least have a nest egg to finance something meaningful that will make them happy.

Re:Whining is part of the job

[war4peace]

Morgan Freeman.