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) 192
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.
[...] 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.
No sympathy (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:5, Insightful)
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
Re:let me fix that for you (Score:2)
People Are Stressed, Depressed, Lonely, and Exhausted
Headline shortened and generalized for clarity.
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No sympathy for YouTubers with this problem. If you're making a mint posting videos on YouTube, the solution is simple: Hire people to help you make the videos. Yeah it means you won't get to keep as much of that YouTube revenue. But we're talking like a 20% decrease in marginal income (i.e. you still get to keep 80%) for a 500% increase in quality of life (5x as many free hours because the people you've hired are editing the videos, maintaining the equipment, etc. instead
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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
What's wrong with making more and more money? Why do you hate capitalism? Why do you hate America?
Cause that's the all same, isn't it?
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These are people in their late teens and early 20s... not really known for having a sense of perspective.
And, if that isn't enough, these folks are going to skew strongly towards the narcissistic end of the spectrum. What they're experiencing is all that matters.
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These are people in their late teens and early 20s... not really known for having a sense of perspective.
What amazes me is how much the old farts here love to shit on other people. These people have poured passion into something they love and have made at any rate initially a good living out of it.
But they get stress and burnout, which is exactly what all the cube-slaves complain about the relentless death marches and offshoring. But now somehow it's milennials fault for feeling stress.
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kids like you
That's the nicest thing anyone's said to me today :')
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$500,000 per month sounds like a good remedy for stress. Not a problem there, those making that much money should either retire or suck it up.
Now for those not making much money, just enough to get by without getting a second job, I can understand the stress. Or even those where this is a secondary job. There does seem to be pressure to release new videos on a regular and predictable schedule, and there are profuse apologies after returning from vacation.
Young people that need to retire? (Score:2)
I hear that "Portland is a city where young people go to retire." https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Seriously, though, I could not agree more with mschuyler. Who would ever think that these attention-mongering prima donnas would bitch and moan so much about doing their jobs? Someone needs to show them what it's really like to have a stressful job---especially jobs that are low-paying, yet require more skill than making a ton of irrelevant Youtube videos.. Better yet, show them what it's like to absolutel
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Besides...I would not be surprised at all to learn of a version of the appendix to one of the apocryphal versions of the New Testament that states that prominent Youtube personalities signals the approach of the end times.
I don’t recall anything like that in the New Testament... but I’m reasonably sure Dante mentioned them being frozen, head-downward, in the ninth circle of hell.
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Exactly. If I'm making $500,000 a month before taxes, I'd wait until I have (after taxes) maybe $4-5M saved, and then live off the interest.
There. Solved your stress problem. I have no sympathy either when you're raking in that kind of cash. Sure, it's work constantly creating content, but you're making BANK.
Zero sympathy is right (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
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You know, I'm almost sixty, and in my entire life I've only known three people who actually did the kind of thing you're suggesting -- all coincidentally MIT electrical engineering grads. One worked for a defense contractor, living modestly until his mid 30s when he fulfilled the object of his plan: retired to live on his investments and start a new career as a photographer. Another worked in the early computer industry and then quick to get a liberal arts degree -- again the plan all along. The third we
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And playing Fortnite on Twitch every day isn't exactly a soul crushing job.
Apparently you have never played Fortnite....
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Brad Pitt quote time - "We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like."
Anyways, not entirely relevant (they have the mo
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Re: Zero sympathy is right (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
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I dunno, I don't think going to bed with young, beautiful women, or driving fast exotic cars, traveling and generally partying and enjoying yourself and any hobbies you have every gets old.....
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And playing Fortnite on Twitch every day isn't exactly a soul crushing job.
A lot of things that are fun when you do them as a hobby stop being fun when you do them as a job.
But for the kind of money the guy is raking in. Let's just say that there are actual soul crushing jobs that pay orders of magnitude less.
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And playing Fortnite on Twitch every day isn't exactly a soul crushing job.
A lot of things that are fun when you do them as a hobby stop being fun when you do them as a job.
But for the kind of money the guy is raking in. Let's just say that there are actual soul crushing jobs that pay orders of magnitude less.
But they miss the surprise of finding out that they are soul crushing jobs, too....
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How-to Basic has it figured out, man.
Whining is part of the job (Score:3)
I don't think I've heard of a "celebrity" that doesn't whine. The whinier, the celebritier.
Re:Whining is part of the job (Score:4, Insightful)
Morgan Freeman.
Re:Whining is part of the job (Score:5, Funny)
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Touche!
(+1 Funny)
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Re:Zero sympathy is right (Score:5, Insightful)
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 (Score:2)
What they found is that the marginal value of individual income is essentially nil beyond $75,000 (at the time).
That's total horseshit. I would be a fuck of a lot happier making $75,000,000 in one year and then being able to relax and live a life of luxury for the rest of my life, than I would having to go to work every fucking day for 50 years just to bring home $75,000.
I think these researchers have been hitting the medical marijuana. Either that or you're misrepresenting their findings.
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What you're missing is that he's talking about wealth not income. Income to create wealth is different from income funding expenditure.
I know that earning more than around 4 times the national average wage is all I need, and that going to 5 times will make fuck all difference to my happiness.
I also know that not having to earn a fucking penny and still having the lifestyle a salary 4 times the average wage would fund would be bloody fantastic. So yes, earning $15m in the next year and retiring is to me infi
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Actually, I think status is as important or even maybe more important to most women than it is to men.
Women seem to compare themselves to all other women MUCH more than men compare themselves to other men.
Most guys don't even notice what another guy is wearing....women look at everything other women wear, and what their men wear.
I mean, virtually NO man looks to see what another man is wearing on their feet....women seem to
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Still, it is sad that so many people waste their money while the getting is good instead of being prudent and investing for the long term. Imagine if you graduated college and got a job where the first year salary was about $450k with a guaranteed 15% raise each year for 4 years. Because that is the minimum guaranteed to every rookie drafted into the NFL [forbes.com] last year. You might think, "gee, I could bank most of that and retire comfortably before age 30."
And yet, odds are that most of those athletes will end
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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.
I don't think that's the point. That's what any sane person with a well paid, but unpleaseant job would do.
I guess their main problem is the insight, that their biggest dream turned out to be nothing but a grinding job. I loved programming and did it for fun. I'm not doing that anymore since I do it for a living. Yes! Even fun stuff like gaming turn into work if you HAVE TO do it.
That's plain old dissapointment.
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Unfortunately, to be a YouTube Star, you need to be a burning star. To be a burning star, you have to burn.
That rarefied life experience has been long proven and it isn't anything new.
Who isn't? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who isn't? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Who isn't? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Who isn't? (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
So.... you think he can work for two months, disappear for ten months and pick up where he left off? He took a weekend off and lost more subscribers than most people will ever have in total. For celebrities followers are their career, they accumulate them slowly and lose them quickly. And the money is always in the future, a million subscribers is not money in the bank it's the potential to make more money tomorrow. I can talk to my boss and take an unpaid day off with little problem, no work and no pay but I'll be back earning the same the day after. He takes a weekend off and on a $500k income then if 4% of his fan base permanently leaves that is $20k/year lost. And maybe you can say boo hoo you'll only have $480k/year, but I can understand how that seems like a helluva expensive break.
Maybe a useful comparison is an athlete, your body is your accumulated capital - you train and train to make it fit, if you say fuck it today I'll be a couch potato, eat junk food and go on a bender you're not just taking a day off - you're seriously damaging your chances to win any gold medals. It doesn't matter if you have a bad day and isn't very motivated right now, you have to remind yourself how hard you've worked to get here, the goal you're reaching for and kick yourself behind. Even if you're a very successful athlete and you make lots of money and whatever... god, I'd go nuts from the grind. And that's celebrities too, unless you want to commit career suicide you got to stay in the spotlight. You have to please the fans. Even on the days you'd like to just get away from everyone and everything.
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Re: Who isn't? (Score:2)
At $500,000 a month you could spend 6 months working, quit, and spend the rest of your life living off the earnings. You won't have an extravagant lifestyle but for 6 months work? That's a fuck of a lot better than the vast majority of humans will ever achieve. A guy making $50,000 a year would have to work for 60 years to earn what you did in 6 months.
Anyone in that situation who has the audacity to whine should be dragged out into the streets and publicly flogged.
Re:Who isn't? (I agree, but slight correction) (Score:2)
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.
"... and be financially set for life." The answer is pretty clear to outsiders looking in, but I would expect it is similar to anyone who gets famous - how people handle it ranges from loving it and thriving on it, turning it into other opportunities all the way down to people who hate it and wish it never happened. I think what has changed over the past 10-15 years is that the speed at which it happens has accelerated. It seems that quite-literally anyone can become famous on youtube. Personally, I ju
Boo Fucking Hoo (Score:1)
Seriously? These idiots are whining?
If you don't like doing youtube, take your damn millions and invest it in another business so you don't have to do it anymore.
I bet A lister celebrities whine about the same problems too. "Awe my life is so difficult! I can't go outside without being mobbed by people. But yes I will continue to take these $500k monthly royalty checks."
These jack asses can go f*ck themselves.
They're complaining they still have to work (Score:5, Insightful)
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?
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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?
If he invest it, then yes. He'll be paid to do nothing.
These guys are still way better than the people who are born into wealth.
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I'm still trying to wrap my head around that part. There are customers who subscribe to a channel, but if there's nothing new in that channel for 2 days, rush to unsubscribe because it's not cutting it anymore? Does the subscription get in the way of their other stuff? Is there some sort of sad-face nag button saying "this guy's not cool anymore"? Or were they sitting there with beer and popcorn, a whole weekend of stream-watching planned, and got disappointed because their show wasn't on?
I know I'm an old
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And I sure don't think it's becau
Re: They're complaining they still have to work (Score:2)
No, they're arguing that they can't even take a single day off (i.e weekends) without it hitting their bottom line
Big fucking deal. They "work" maybe 5-6 hours a day tops, and in exchange they never have to worry about the menial shit the rest of us do. No 2 hours spent commuting every day. No cleaning, doing maintenance on the house, or even cooking; with $500,000 per month they can easily hire someone else to do all of it. I'll bet you any money you want that even without "weekends" they have a hell of a lot more spare time than the average salary worker.
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Except there's a difference between not being paid for your time off, and your salary going down permanently due to taking time off. If you lose x% of your future salary (because you lose y% of your customer base) every time you took a couple of days off, then you're going to be in a very different place than someone who loses two days of pay for two days off.
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In olden times, before people worked for others... Guess what? There was no paid time off. If you stopped working the fields or in your shop... You got nothing.
The internet has re-created the pre-industrialized world.
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If you've ever ran a small business: not really. You get a 9-5 job because it's safe, you don't take risks and you get some money. Want more money? Take more risk, work days, nights and weekends for a 50% chance you make it and a 1% chance you become a millionaire doing it.
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Back in 80s (and 70s) I was watching a ton of video games -- was supposed to be studying but I found something more interesting.
People not understanding the attraction of someone playing video (or pinball) games...probably suck at video (or pinball).
Say it ain't so! (Score:1)
Whaaaaaat? Achieving monetary success doesn't fill that gaping void in your soul? The adoration of strangers doesn't fill the same gap as true friends you hang out with every day? Money doesn't buy happiness? Capitalism isn't perfect?!
It's like nobody ever told us!
Thoughts (Score:2)
Need help, maybe? (Score:5, Insightful)
Does he really do it all himself? Seriously, hire a team and cut the stress level by a huge margin.
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He only earns $500k per month. He doesn't have enough to hire a team. /sarcasm
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He can outsource pretty much anything else though so all he has to do is arrive on time, drop in a chair and play the game.
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Other than that, how much setup is there for streaming a game? Turn on the lights, webcam, screen recording software, sign in to Twitch and maybe have a can of coke ready?
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In most cases there's also editing for YouTube, promotion, reading or filtering e-mails/messages. Lights, camera and audio setup, depending on your environment, you may also need noise and echo reduction for it to look semi-professional or in some cases even be audible. Most streamers overlay messages or ads onto the video, so that takes some time to do and rework every so often. You also need a computer that runs optimally at all times, often more than one (one to play games, one to transcode the data into
Just another method to get attention. (Score:2)
This is just another attempt to grab more media attention. When whatever stupid thing you posted on YouTube has passed, you have to do what you can to keep the attention. Did you ever notice how many low grade trying to 'comeback' actors and musicians have ghosts and spirits in their houses today.
I know why they're unhappy. (Score:4, Insightful)
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That's not necessarily the problem though. The problem is that money brings with it a bunch of responsibility and most people can't handle nor ever planned to make a million dollars. So they waste it and never have any saved, if you suddenly are $3M in debt while making $6M/y you get stressed out.
Re: I know why they're unhappy. (Score:2)
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Oh ick. (Score:3)
For years, YouTubers have believed that they are loved most by their audience when they project a chirpy, grateful image.
ok, let me stop you there.
"youtubers" as a specific genre or style of presentation and platform is way more narrow than "people posting to youtube". I'm not saying you're wrong, but let's be clear on what we're talking about. This is a specific "cultural trend", like how all air traffic controllers are trying to sound like that one NASA employee in Houston they heard announcing the countdown for Apollo. Or how drill sergeants all wish they were Gunny (RIP). Or how all Slashdotters are neckbeards.
But I get you. "youtubers" as a genre. The sort of stuff you see Youtube recommend when you go there without a history. The "common denominator". And personally? FUCK THAT NOISE. It is the most banal and fake shit I can imagine and it grates on my nerves whenever I hear it. If the talking heads are sad about having to maintain a fake personality, WELCOME TO TELEVISION. It's a job. In other news, Keisha isn't really drunk 24/7, CNN reporters aren't staring into the void with half-dead eyes outside of work, and that cure girl working retail isn't actually that happy to see you.
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."
....Really? Wow. Ok, this is so over the top it must be a hit-piece by an old codger at the Guardian. I guess giving people reasons to hate millenials pays?
Get Real (Score:1)
In the yet-another-money-doesn't-buy-happiness-dept we have people self-employing themselves for 500k struggling with depression? There's an awful and growing segment of the population who are caught in the glow of their own avatars and it is NOT healthy. Get out and form some friendships, invest your millions of dollars and understand that followers are NOT friends. They're leeches who have come to consume YOU the product.
You will never be happy if you can't make the distinction.
Social Media is a comparati
Every high income profession is stressful (Score:1)
So being a professional attention whore is hard work? Being professional anything is hard work. Grow the fuck up.
Waaaaah! (Score:2)
Waah, pay attention to me!
*** time passes, attention-whoring YouTubers get their validation, money rolls in ***
Waah, I'm depressed, pay more attention to me!
*** sheep go BAAAAH and give the attention whore what (s)he wants ***
..I'm sorry, but let's be honest, aren't many of these people on YouTube just attention whores? More like attention vampires, maybe? Suck up all the attention, into the black hole it goes, never satisfied, always wanting more, more, more?
..oh, please.
Sympathy for those trying to make a living, but (Score:3)
not for those making a killing. There are tons of people creating great videos (or other works) out there on the internet that are just trying, and often failing, to make a living from it; those people I have a lot of sympathy for. People like the two guys behind Cool Ghosts [coolghosts.net], who amongst other things have put out perhaps the best video game review 'TV' episodes of all time [youtube.com].
By contrast, people that are making enough they could easily retire and live an extremely comfortable life for the rest of their days? Those I don't have sympathy for. They aren't actually stuck in any real rut, and their artistic output tends to be a lot less laudable anyways.
It's an age-old problem and dichotomy. It brings to mind the song "Coup D'etat" by Sleepless Nights [bandcamp.com], about the music industry:
Who killed Sam The Record Man?
Music fans with blood-stained hands
"God damn, Celine sold less Greatest Hits this year"
The only hearts that beat close to mind
Are the casualties of the retail line
Part time artists, Scraping bottom and barely getting by
Brace yourselves, here comes the Coup D'Etat
There goes the old dead world
Rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, rebuild, now
Brace yourselves, here comes the shakeup shift
Golf carts are crashing hard
And I could really give a shit
For old Gene Simmons and tin-can Lars
Need their hands on my money like a hole in the heart
Art needs to suffer, not drive expensive cars
Aluminum and plastic, and more plastic still
Making mountains of ephemera in the county landfill
I remember when rare sound wasn't just a ratio kill
Brace yourselves, here comes the Coup D'Etat . . .
Fuck em (Score:2)
When I hear "youtube star" I instantly think "douchbag", and so far they've only gone down from there.
Just like other celebrities (Score:2)
It seems a lot of celebs spend a lot of energy chasing reviews and accolades, which becomes a driver of their self image, before eventually arriving at the crushing realization that fame and fortune aren't all they're cracked up to be, and ultimately don't fill the emptiness they experience every day.
Stressed, Depressed, Lonely, and Exhausted (Score:2)
(Doctor) "Don't do that."
Perhaps there's a lesson herein.
Making money off of no real talent and work.. (Score:2)
doesn't make one happy? I would have never thunk it.
Get rid of public view counts and subscribers (Score:2)
CGP Grey came up with idea that initially sounds silly, until you think about it...
Get rid of publicly seen view counts, subscriber counts and thumbs up/down counts for all videos and channels. The creators would still see them privately. It would take a lot of the pressure off.
sympathy (Score:3)
There was little sympathy on Twitter for the millionaire.
This. Fucking arseholes. You think such an income comes for free? You think regular people who do actual work for their money don't get stressed? People who earn your money in a year have higher job demands, so STFU.
Most of the "YouTubers" that I've had any exposure to (thankfully, very few) don't know how to do anything else and have never held an actual job for any length of time. They don't have any idea what life outside YouTube looks like. Most people who have had an actual career understand very well that higher salaries come with higher demands and very often with higher stress levels. We can easily extrapolate and understand that we could probably earn twice as much as we do now, and what the cost would be.
I've been a CEO in my life. I honestly don't want again. I prefer having a life, thank you. I'm more happy now, and trying to get rid of the last remnants from that time, the last requests and demands.
YouTubers, from what I understand, are similar to musicians or actors. Most of them have little audience and very small incomes, but a relatively low number of stars goes through the roof. It's a steep curve with a small tip. So your choice is to be on top or not, there's not much of a middle where you can be comfortable with acceptable stress level and income.
But you know what? That's a choice you made. Give me half a million a month and I'll be happy to work my arse off 24 hours a day seven days a week for a year, invest most of the profit nicely, then retire back to my current job, but live at a higher comfort level because my house is paid off and I still have a few millions in a nice portfolio that gives me a really nice passive income.
Oh yeah, I forgot. I have an actual profession that I can go back to. Poor YouTuber. Maybe spend your money on learning something? That's what smart pro-athletes do, who understand the most clearly that they can't be a soccer player or runner or jumper for many years.
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Dumbasses are doing it for the money (Score:2)
What the title says. The dumbasses are doing it for the money and the attention, not because they think it's fun. Just fucking do whatever you want to do and whatever you think is fun to do. Don't do what you think other people think is fun to watch you do. The people who think what you do is fun to watch, they will find you and watch what you do.
It's the same stupid gimmick musicians have been going through for the last 60 years. Playing music is fun, playing gigs is fun, getting signed for a big music dea
I don't care.... (Score:2)
TANSTAAFL (Score:2)
YouTube "celebrities" are just discovering something that everyone else in the entertainment industry has always known - it's incredibly demanding and much harder than it looks. Audiences are fickle, and you are at their mercy.
Narcissism is unrewarding (Score:2)
The root issue is Narcissism. They need increasing amounts of egotistic admiration otherwise their ego/self image will suffer. At first they can achieve rapid growth in subs which feeds their ego, but they need for more attention to gain the same endorphin high, but ultimately there subscribers will plateau they will not get the highs.
Even those that do not start as Narcissists, will acquired situational narcissism as long as they receive constant positive feedback, it rewires their brains to need the end
I sympathize! (Score:2)
the real story (Score:2)
The Game Theorists channel had a very insightful.. (Score:2)
...wow do people need to get a life... (Score:2)
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There is so low quality on youtube, and I hadn't realized twitch made that money since it's inherently unplanned and ad-hoc and so low quality too. It really diminishes most of any value you get. Very little editing, very little variance from last week's uploaded video, and half the video is spent begging for viewers to subscribe.
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Maybe some of the stress comes from knowing you have to make your money now because in a few years it will dry up. Like sports stars.
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If you make all the money in one year, you're paying high taxes. If he earns $2 million in 4 months, he's only keeping half that, so that's at least double. Plus the inevitable expenses due to being new to money, because nobody figures it out on Day 1 that they need to resist being stupid and invest everything.
Also, being that young, nothing can go through retirement accounts, so all investments are taxable for decades. Plus being young, he's needs to plan for at least 60, probably 80 years to be smart. Ev
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Or he could work 6-8 months, buy a big fuck-off house and sign up with an old school media company that would love to have someone with strong presenting, editing and audience engagement skills.
It'll fund him a decent lifestyle, especially now he's already got the house, and give him far more workable hours and a social life.
Better than being a 22yo millionaire suicide.
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WTF does that have to do with having a job?!?!?
You work to earn money to live your life for necessity (food, shelter, etc)...and hopefully a bit more than that to save for elder years, and a bit above that for a lifestyle that makes living today happy.
For 99,999999999999% of people that's the ONLY reason they work....most don't give a flying fu