Take Two: Moving on from YouTube
A breakup letter to a platform that’s changing; and not for the better.
January 24, 2018
ear YouTube,
It’s time we break up, and it’s definitely not us—it’s you. Before you over analyze our relationship to figure out just where we went wrong, we’ll lay it all out for you.
You used to be a place where hopeful content creators with big dreams could share videos that they created with genuine care and effort. You were a place where people inspired and encouraged each other. You were a way to escape the unforgiving world by watching anything from funny cat videos to pasta recipes. What happened?
I know that those creators still exist somewhere, but it seems as if all you can talk about now is how someone painted on 100 layers of nail polish or ate Tide detergent pods for views. Is that really all it takes to get your attention? Maybe our values just don’t match up anymore, because you’d rather recommend a video titled “Recklessly Rich Teenager Spreads Negativity Through Poorly Written Rap” than one titled “Young Girl Pours Heart into Each Lyric of Her Original Song.”
And, by the way, this new group of people you’ve been hanging out with have really changed you for the worse. I don’t understand how you can just watch them become public nuisances while they pull dumb pranks on innocent people because it entertains their immature minds. We thought you had higher standards than that, but guess not.
Are these the so-called “social media influencers” you wanted to introduce us to? From what I’ve seen, the only thing they’re capable of influencing is their young, impressionable audience for the worse.
And when they do go overboard with their actions, you’re all too willing to forget about it after a half-hearted apology.
Maybe we’re at fault to. Because all we’ve done while you’ve been digging yourself into this hole is watch. And when you recommend a video titled “I DID THE 24 HOUR HANDCUFF CHALLENGE WITH MY EX,” we clicked on it because, if we’re being honest, sometimes it is entertaining to watch people do dumb things. But we’re leaning to be better, and I hope you will too.
We see the steps you are taking toward recovery and they are much appreciated. But despite them, we feel that the culture you have grown within your URL has been become toxic. We hope you can find your way back to the days when your biggest controversy was Grumpy Cat cracking a smile at 0:47.
Sincerely,
Unsubscribers everywhere
