Can we talk about daily vlogging for a second?
Because when someone makes a video about their life every day,
you get a chance to see something that's more intimate and real
than any TV show or any movie, really.
Okay....If I make you one of these...
Do you wanna make these with me ?
(song playing in the background)
(Laughing)
We were so busy the last three days at the Prank Academy with all the... [I pulled a prank--]
After watching a few you can get a sense of who they really are as a person.
and you get to see the most exciting parts of their life.
Oh, what a view... oh, and that's where we were last night!
Oohhh, there's no parking sensors... Ohhh!
(screaming)
(distant screaming and laughter)
Ohh my god, you guys.....THIS BIKE IS INCREDIBLE!
Now you may have heard in the last few weeks that we've actually had some of the biggest vloggers quit...
...It's not clickbait.
I really am ending the vlog.
You guys, I want to take a year off the internet.
'Kay! ...Hold on -
I need to take a year off the internet.
I don't...
I don't know how I'm gonna keep doing the vlog, so...
It's just not worth it.
It's almost like there's something inherently dangerous
about letting so many people into their personal life...
And it might be--
it might not be the best idea
for the people watching, either.
You know?
What if it wasn't a good idea to spend so much time immersing ourself
in... someone else's life?
You know?
Because the thing is... vlogs are fake.
Right? They're presented as if they are...
like, a journal of thoughts
and feelings. You know, like,
"Dear diary, here's what I did today..."
But, the thing is, if you knew that
many other people were going to read
your private diary...
You'd probably think quite carefully about what you included.
All I'm saying is that it's incredibly easy to edit out
the bad parts,
or the boring parts.
It's really easy to just stop the cameras
as soon as you're having an argument,
or... to fake a smile and, you know, say that everything is great,
and how much of a great day you've had,
even if you're actually quite down.
A lot of stuff goes on, that we don't record, of course.
'Cause we only wanna show the positivity and awesomeness of our vlogs,
and we don't show a lot of the hardships of our vlogs. We try not to.
...And...
So, everybody thinks everything's perfect. Everybody-- that we have a perfect life, and...
It's really not at all what people sometimes think.
Everybody has problems.
Everybody has issues.
And... we choose not to put that in the videos, usually.
Now, of course, we all kind of do this.
We tell people about the highlights of our life, rather than...
you know, offloading all of our deepest, darkest fears and insecurities
on our friends whenever we see them.
But, the point is, when you spend this much time with someone
and you get to know their life in quite an intimate way,
almost as if you're living with them,
then... it's easy to start believing that maybe their life is as flawless
as it looks, you know?
And so, inevitably, we end up comparing our own boring, problematic, unedited lives
to these people who can quite easily make their lives seem impossibly good.
Now, of course it's not all bad.
I personally quite like watching vlogs,
of people who are, maybe a little bit more positive, or a little bit more adventurous than me,
because it can kind of... I think it can kind of rub off on you,
and it can inspire you to, kind of, like, you know, live your life to the full;
all of those kind of clichés that a lot of them throw around.
You know, so it's not, it's not all bad.
But I just think, that... because a lot of people see vloggers as their friends,
right, because they've let you into their life so much,
it can feel like a friendship, it can feel like you get to know them.
...But I do wonder whether that is gonna replace, or has it already replaced, some real-life friendships.
You know, we all have that desire to basically hang out with people who we like,
you know, we have that desire to be part of communities, to have friends,
and, I just wonder whether; if we spend 20 minutes with this vlogger, every day, watching their videos,
and if we spend half an hour watching this other one,
and we spend all our time, you know, captivated by these well-edited, little snapshots
of these exciting little bits of life...
I do wonder whether we won't then seek out, like, real relationships.
Whether we won't seek our real friendships,
because we feel that we've already got our fix. You know?
I don't really know if any of this is making any sense...
It's obviously just a whole bunch of opinions.
Um... But I'd like to hear what you have to say about this.
You know, is vlogging just, something that we should, like, stay away from
because it just makes us jealous of other people's lives?
Or is it genuinely something that is very authentic, and can actually be very helpful to our lives?
'Cause, I... I'm really not sure, to be honest.
But yeah, as always, I will look forward to reading your comments.
I'm sure someone will have some very good counter-arguments to what I've been saying here,
and I will look forward to that, too.
But, I guess I will see you next week.