- Hey YouTube world, it's me Evelyn.
(groaning)
I want to go to Mars.
We're here, we're doing this.
You know those times when like, every force
is working against you.
And that'll do one that'll stand in front of this camera.
Alright, he tried everything, he tried!
I was sick, what's new?
I been having to need to film a video,
but I sounded like trash, sounded like a wet hamster.
So, now I'm filming something last minute,
that I had something to film and I didn't like any of it,
like, it was all trash.
I'm just like, this close to gonna go and get Whataburger,
so instead, I'm gonna talk about my responsibility
as a YouTuber, as an internet cousin,
as someone you just know from within the confines
of this screen, of this box, of this device.
Through the ones and zeroes, you know what I'm saying?
Or the algorithm, amen, that brought me to you.
What is my responsibility to you?
In these trying times, trying, they trying me!
Alright, I feel tried!
Recently, one of my internet cousins
asked me to make a video about
on what's being going on lately here in the United States,
considering all the executive orders made by number 45.
Hey, I really need, I would really like to hear
your opinions about this particular thing.
I need somebody to cry and I need somebody to feel me.
And I was like, scurrrrt!
But what if I wanna be happy, today?
What if I need to be happy?
Now, my assignment is to, you know what I'm saying?
Feel all these things to make sense of things
on all of ya'll's behalf and I'm just like,
that sounds pretty self-sacrificial,
and I don't really want to.
She's not the first internet cousin, love you, mwah!
That has asked me to react to something
or to post about something.
I always can ponder, I'm always pondering
my role on the internet, you know,
what am I supposed to talk about,
what am I supposed to be here for?
And I had whole like, Twitter thread about this
I'm not gonna go find it.
I am here to give you a Capri Sun
when you're thirsty.
To make you laugh
when, you know what I'm saying, you wanna cry.
I cannot engage in the same way that
everybody else can engage,
or that your favorite educational YouTuber can engage.
It is their job to educate you, to inform you,
to make you aware of things,
and it is my job to make sure that that person
doesn't like, throw themselves off a building,
you know what I'm saying?
It's my job to give you the Capri Suns,
it's my job to reel you back in.
You know, and we need each other.
I can't exist without them fighting on my behalf.
You know what I mean?
And they can't exist without people like us
telling them hey, have you drank water lately?
Have you like, closed your laptop?
Have you taken a shower?
Does anybody know where you are at the moment?
Hey, I saw you went to the protest,
do you wanna talk about it?
In a non-scripted video sort of way?
And I feel like that's what I'm here to do.
And I feel like
that's what I've been doing,
and I feel like you like it when I do that.
And of course I come in with my little
my little something, I say my little something something.
It can be very easy to get consumed with the tweets
and the livestreams and the everything.
I'm not saying ignore any of that,
I'm saying consume wisely, consume efficiently,
and consume responsibly.
I deleted social media off my phone.
It's very easy to read reactions
before you ever get to the news.
I know what everybody thinks about everything,
without even clicking to read the story.
And I've already internalized it, taken it in.
If I'm supposed to come on here and make people laugh,
kiki, gesticulate
in a joyful and playful way,
I have to take care of myself.
And the way I take care of myself
is I have to distance myself from the emotional,
albeit deserved, reactions to things.
But I know it's happening.
And so, I usually go on NPR,
their podcasts, they have an hourly news podcast.
Every hour, they post five minutes of news updates.
That's it.
I also get my daily dose of fake news
from the New York Times morning briefing.
It's literally bullet points
of what happened in the world.
And it's a great way for me to stay informed,
it allows me and empowers me to hit my Googles,
alright, shout out to our failing education system,
'cause I do not know how some of the most basic
of things work in politics.
And then again, when I'm ready,
open it up to the opinions of people and journalists
and commentary and analysis and
all these other important things.
I don't know if this video is coherent,
but it exists, and now it is in your eyeballs.
And there's nothing you can do about it.
I wanna hear from y'all, how are y'all doing?
Is we good? Like, is we good?
And if you not good, it's okay.
Tell me about it.
This video, however chatty it was,
is sponsored by Audible.
I'm working with them throughout the year.
Shoutout to 2017 goals!
To bring you more video content, better video content.
Audible has a massive selection of books,
fiction, non-fiction.
So, right now in Audible I am listening to
Between the World and Me by Ta-Neihisi Coates.
I know, I'm lame, black woke card revoked, blah!
There's quote that really sticks out,
Ima share the quote.
"This is your country.
"This is your world, this is your body,
"and you must find some way to live within the all of it."
Right?
Audible.com slash Evelyn to download my recommendation
Between the World and Me,
or you can get your own book for free, yes.
And the book is always yours to keep
even if you stop using the service
because they not trifling and they care about your mind,
alright, and the things you consume.
I'm gonna go like, suck on a lozenge.
And you know, I hope to hang out with you in the comments.
And I'll see you on the internet somewhere. Bye!