When you're making YouTube videos, how does that make you feel?
It makes me feel like I'm already famous.
When you first get on YouTube, sometimes you feel so excited.
- Your mind is going to blow. - That's what happens to me.
There's a camp in Katy, Texas that teaches kids how to be YouTube content creators.
According to YouTube, 1,000,000,000 hours of videos are watched
on the site every day, and a recent study in the US found that 85% of children
surveyed watch videos on the site.
Kids want to be YouTubers.
That is what they aspire to be and it is devastating.
Absolutely.
As a YouTuber sitting here on this set right now, it is absolutely devastating.
- So I don't. - Fully devastating, don't fully agree.
Lock your kids up. Don't.
Okay.
Lock your kids up. Don't let them do this.
Don't let them do it. It'll ruin their lives.
All right.
Not that my life was ruined, but just don't let them do it, all right?
Let me give you the details. Yeah.
So, look, I have a different point of view.
We're the OGs of YouTube.
We're the first YouTube partner channel ever.
And.
And so I get a lot of the reasons why these kids are into it.
My kids are into YouTube.
And I think there's some positive sides to this too.
But first.
So let's give you the numbers and then I'll explain why I think this is bad.
Okay, so nearly 30% of kids
ages 8 to 12 listed YouTuber, 30%.
They listed YouTuber as their top career choice
in a global survey conducted in 2019.
Three times more than picked astronaut.
I mean, I wouldn't pick astronaut either, so I don't begrudge them for that.
Astronauts sounds terrible.
Okay, like the restrictions, the qualifications,
you're going to go to space.
Why anyway.
But the same year, a morning consult survey of Gen Z and millennials in the
United States found that more than half of 13 to 38 year olds, that's 54% wanted
to become social media influencers.
And they have a number of reasons why.
Look, they think they're going to make a lot of money.
In some cases that can be true, but it's become a very saturated market.
So the likelihood of them becoming very rich and famous and wealthy
as a result of this, it's just not as easy as they think it is.
Okay.
Then the other part of it is, this is so depressing.
Some of them feel that building an online community of friends
will help them feel like they're part of a community, that they have friends.
So if they're having trouble making friends in real life, well, at least they
have their online community to turn to.
And I don't want them to do that because the online community will turn on you
and the drop of a hat, I guarantee it.
They will.
In fact, they will drum up nonsense drama to make content off of you.
Okay, that is what they thrive on.
I don't want these kids to think that these people are their real friends.
They're not your friends and their parents should know that.
Well, again, I think it's a little bit more of a mixed bag.
So first of all, like people are always surprised, like, oh,
now the kids want to be YouTubers.
Why is that surprising? They're the new celebrities.
In the old days, kids wanted to be movie stars and TV stars,
and now those things are almost dead.
And YouTube is what kids almost exclusively watch.
So of course they're going to want to be YouTubers.
Where's the when when do they run into astronauts?
So it's the least surprising poll ever.
And they also are seeing all these YouTubers get super famous and super rich.
Of course they want to emulate that. Right now there are positive things.
So when a lot of the kids say, look, I have people who are haters in school and
and when I do something like this, I find people who will accept me for who I am.
Let me read you a comment from Aaliyah. Aaliyah, let's go to graphic five here.
Aaliyah, who said she has a hard time finding friends with similar interests,
said that YouTube could help her meet and befriend like minded people.
Quote.
If I have more fans online then I actually feel better.
Aaliyah said, Oh god, it's so depressing because I know
they don't hate me for who I am.
Not yet. They will eventually, I promise you that.
Yeah, but so that goes to one of the downsides.
So Anna's, you know, has said I'm a personal perspective that maybe
colors the way that she sees it.
But but she's not wrong. They should tell the kids be.
The biggest downside to this is do not let the commenters on YouTube
make you feel judged and and affect the way that you think about yourself.
We're adults, we're grown ups, and we no one, literally no one's more
used to it than us since we've dealt with it longer than anyone else.
But for these little kids, if they're not ready for it,
and even 1 or 2 negative comments can really send them reeling, let alone what
happens on YouTube on an industrial scale.
So I love that they're encouraging the creativity
and they're teaching them hard work too.
It is hard. They are they're.
Learning skills, editing stuff like that. So credit where credit is due and these.
Camps are inevitable.
Of course they're going to make money because everybody wants to be YouTubers.
They're going to create them. People are going to go to them.
I like that they're being as responsible as they can be.
But you really got to emphasize, do not let the kids think that their
self-worth is tied in to what others say about them online, whether it's YouTube,
Instagram or any other platform.
Thanks for watching the video guys.
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