Hey you!
My name is Thomas “TomSka” Ridgewell and I think we should talk about honesty and emotional manipulation on YouTube.
I recently watched a very interesting video by Bobby Burns that detailed some of the “tricks”
YouTubers use when trying to convey an emotional message.
Allow me to demonstrate some of them now:
I really- I can't believe I'm gonna talk about this, but it's- It's really important.
I need to poop.
I need to poop really bad.
Now, you might have seen these tropes in a lot of YouTuber’s videos, particularly ones
discussing serious, heavy, or generally emotional topics.
What Bobby lists these methods as is a form of “emotional manipulation” - implying
they’re calculated tactics used to make an audience feel sympathy and also generate more views.
He doesn’t say the emotions or messages are fake though, just that the presentation
itself is disingenuous essentially exploitative.
I’m not here to argue against Bobby's videos or deny the existence of these tropes because
I myself have used all of them at one point or another - I think the best examples of
this would be my vlogs ‘The First Girl’ and ‘My Friend Died’.
However, what I’d like to do is offer a deeper explanation than simply
“they get more views and sympathy”.
I’d like to argue that YouTubers don’t do this because they want to, but because they have to.
Public perception is a huge part of what we do and people have a hard time believing in
our sincerity unless, ironically, we act in an insincere fashion.
It’s not enough to say something, we have to perform it.
When I'm at conventions, for example, I’m deeply humbled and flattered by the experience
and genuinely excited but no one would believe that if I acted the way I naturally would
in that situation.
Hey man, how’s it going?
Thank you so much, that’s really nice of you to say.
You wanna get a photo?
Yeah, let’s do it.
When I act like that - like myself - I get told I seem tired and get subtweets saying
stuff like “I met TomSka but he didn’t seem like he wanted to be there and I don't
think he liked me“ and that really sucks so, to accurately convey how I feel, I have
to act it in an unnatural way.
Hey man, how’s it going?!
Thank you so much!
That’s really nice of you to say.
You wanna get a photo?
Yeah, let’s do it!
So, going back to the world of emotional videos and vlogs, the same thing applies.
If we want to express something true, we often have to overdo it or else our sincerity will be put into question.
When you’re talking about something emotional, you have to appear emotional.
Another example, when I made the vlog “My Friend Died” I wanted to get off my chest
just how not-okay I was and so I made a video talking about that; but when I watched the
footage back I knew, from experience, that people would mistake my composure for me being
dispassionate and not as upset as I claimed.
It took a couple tries to shoot a video where I not only expressed how I felt, but showed
it in a way that people would believe - with just the right amount of tears…
And yeah it’s fucked up that I even had to do that, but the alternative - being called
a liar - would have been soul destroying.
I think that covers a lot of the motivations behind the use of these tropes but it doesn’t
explain why all these videos look the same.
Well, I think that one’s pretty simple.
To show people that something is “real”, it has to be the opposite of everything they know to be “fake”.
Everyone knows that YouTubers plan what they’re going to say, ramp up their personality, edit
out the crap, and so none of that can present in these videos or people will just precieve it as just another performance piece.
We intentionally fuck up to make everything seem less intentional.
Yep.
As for stuff like using dramatic lighting or sad music.
Yeah, that one is pretty on-the-nose.
But in our defence, that’s our jobs; we know that videos need lighting and music and
if we’re gonna use them, we’re gonna use the appropriate ones for the situation.
It is cheesy but it helps to convey the message and it’s that or nothing.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s…
Fucking weird.
It is.
But it’s not just a case of “this’ll make for a better video and really rake those
suckers in” - it’s about applying a necessary performance to accurately convey our own sincerity
in a way that audiences will believe and understand.
It’s sad that it’s even necessary but…
It works.
It’s not a case of manipulating the emotions of your audience, it’s about manipulating
your own emotions for your audience.
I don’t really know if that’s better honestly…
Hopefully I've made a good case for this, but let me know your thoughts and I'll see you next time.
Do check out Bobby Burn's video because it is quite interesting...
Yes...
TomSka out.