so so let me start with a joke peter mckinnon mr beast and casey neistat walk into a bar
they sit down and after a five second long mini at break the bartender says to them
you guys are just here for the keywords aren't you
hey guys welcome back to our channel, the number one place for people who love design art and all
things creative my name is Laszlo you are watching Dantier and Balogh's channel and in this video
we're going to take a deep dive into some big big topics like creative burnout mental health
and youtube everything that i think is wrong with algorithms and the long-term effects of
algorithm-based content creation in general yeah all of that let's go so here in the uk
it's mental health awareness week and as it happens i came across with some very very
alarming statistics over the weekend in regards to the creative sector and mental health inspire
well-being which is an Ireland based charity organization has conducted a research a couple
years ago and they have found that people who work in the creative industries are three times
more likely to develop mental health problems as opposed to workers of any other professions
anxiety depression alcohol and drug misuse are present in creative professionals lives in much
much higher rates than the general population what's even worse as i was reading my way through
all these arguably sad and shocking statistics i didn't particularly feel surprised by any of these
at all please note before we go deeper into this topic that i am not by any means a health expert
so everything i say in this video is either my point of view or data that is backed up by
research conducted by people much much smarter than me i'm gonna leave some links down below
in the description if you guys want to do your own research as well on this topic the thing
is a creative piece of work always feels personal to its creator which means we are willing to work
on it harder and longer oftentimes sacrificing or well-being for much much less of a reward
because creation comes from the heart it's a bit like or you know it's a bit like her baby right
and we all think that it's going to be worth it in the end once the project is finished once it's all
done we get the rest right well no that was the old creative model answer the 2010s the decade
of algorithm-based content creating algorithms algorithms algorithms such a funny complicated
word that you know five years ago the average person wouldn't even know how to begin to spell
and today we all think about that word on a daily basis i know i do on paper these suggestion-based
systems recommendations but a great idea you get to the content you want to consume quicker right
you don't need to worry about chewing your way through irrelevant stuff you don't see adverts
which has nothing to do with your needs or in fact any content that disagrees with your lifestyle or
your world view great well not great but you know the problem arises once the system decides that
now you have left a big enough online footprint that they can work with and from that moment
they get to push only the kind of content in front of you which somewhat resembles the stuff
that you have come across with before and that i find incredibly frustrating i hate the fact that
i follow about a thousand people on instagram and still every time i log in i keep seeing the same
20 25 people's posts i hate the fact that i need to go out of my way to find new youtube channels
which oftentimes provides just as great if not better content than the bigger ones forget getting
your work judged by an audience the audience doesn't even show up because they can't find
you you know sometimes i do wonder if instead of making all these meticulously scripted videos what
if i just spend 10 minutes shouting keywords in front of the camera and be like casey neistat
mr beast peter mckinnon pewdiepie casey neistat mr beast peter mckinnon pewdiepie casey neistat
mr beast and this nonsensical meaningless video would probably rank higher in search than any of
the other videos i have done so far and don't get me wrong big channels are big chanels for a reason
i mean peter mckinnon for example is so incredibly talented making videos for youtube that he could
make a video about peeling potatoes and it would be mind-blowing i mean i would watch
that but at the same time i can totally see how this current system is discouraging newcomers
people stop trying prematurely but they just start making content that they are not passionate
about in the hopes of ranking higher in search we start this endless race chasing our own tales with
the algorithm worrying about things like having the right keywords in the video only posting at
certain times of the day or what colors to use in the thumbnails things that are in no way shape or
form influence the quality of the actual content and this is what burns people out really quickly
leaving them anxious or depressed if they don't pay attention to the early signs of these mental
issues you know when i was a kid i always thought that the people who were stressed at work had the
40-something blokes with their suitcases and their ties you know the age-old hollywood movie cliche
that he can't show up for his son's baseball practice because he's stuck at the office
again now in present day if you just have a quick look you can find that almost every big youtuber
is touching on these subjects of burnout mental issues and creative block 20-something-year-old
boys and girls are feeling overworked in this hustle culture that's going on these days this
fact alone should be worrying enough i mean if the big channels are feeling this way how do you think
the small ones are doing talking from personal experience i had some darker times in my life when
i felt like my professional career or in fact this whole youtube thing is going nowhere i'm still
struggling with this sometimes i'm very familiar with the feeling of worrying about things that
are beyond your control and no matter what anyone else is saying online things like the algorithm
and social media platforms they are beyond your control algorithms change way too quickly to ever
fully comprehend them recently one of my favorite youtubers holly exley has made a great very honest
video about how she thinks instagram is not good for artists anymore how it's ruining illustrators
careers by forcing them to produce unrealistic amounts of content while also pressuring them
to use their new trendy shiny but totally irrelevant functions like reels and igtv and
all that another video that really blew me away in this topic is made by this girl called amanda
amanda mariana i hope i pronounced that right who argues that even if you go viral that doesn't help
because that creates these unrealistic standards that you set by your own past self you know like
an 80s band with a one hit wonder you will spend the rest of your days trying to recreate the same
level of success which again can very easily lead to burnout and depression and other issues social
media is a catch-22 at this point damned if you do damned if you don't and we are all affected
by it really even if you don't consider yourself a content creator your place of work's future can be
decided by the level of search engine optimization they are doing algorithms at this point influence
every aspect of our lives from political views to what are you planning to watch next on netflix
now after all is complaining do i have a solution to offer for content creators
well yeah kind of i'm not saying that i'm beating the youtube algorithm in any way but i feel like
i have found a way of creating that works for me i'm quite simply rotating topics on week 1 i
would do a video geared towards graphic designers these are all tutorials or software tips industry
insights then on the following week i would make a more conceptual arty video where i would talk
about illustrations books movies whatever i find inspiring at the time then on week 3 i make a
video like this one all about content creation and the use of social media in your creative practice
and jacqueline does the same with her interior architecture and interior design videos some of
them are for the professionals and some of them are for people who only have casual interest in
architecture and design now some might say that our channel is not niche enough for quick growth
because of all this wiggle room we have given to ourselves between topics but honestly this
is the only way me and jacqueline don't feel like we are being chewed on and then sped out by the
spiral of youtube algorithms this diversity does mean that certain videos and topics will
outperform others in this channel this video for example is probably not gonna get as much views
as some of our more fun lighthearted tutorial type stuff but i don't care because this is the content
that i want to make these are the conversations that i want to start and encourage in this channel
even if it only gets hurt by a selected few you know rumor has it that most hollywood actors do
these kind of rotations in terms of their careers as well the average actor would do something arty
for themselves then they would do something which is a bit more like you know blockbuster
material then they would do one as a favor because they happen to be good mates with the director so
or method is nothing radical keep that on mind whenever you're feeling down about yourself or
your work just make sure you take the time to step out remove yourself for the situation and
try to understand why you are feeling the way you are feeling i know it's a very cliche thing
to say but the amount of likes and subscribers and the numbers on the screen those numbers
shouldn't be the way you are measuring your success also don't forget even if your post
only get like you know 50 or so views that's 50 actual human beings who went out of their ways
stopped whatever they were doing at that given moment and they graced you with their attention
that is a privilege in itself and that shouldn't be taken lightly so in return provide them with
authentic content that you care about focus on the craft and make the content that you want to
see out there to build your like-minded tribe and as the ever wife steve martin
has said when they asked him about the key to success be so good that they can't ignore you
okay guys i hope this didn't come out too preachy while you are here join our design
tribe if you're into this kind of content we aim to give you two videos every week about art
design illustration interior design architecture all those cool things and everything in between
leave a like if you enjoyed this one and i'll hope to see you this time next week
bye
you