Someone in the gaming section the other day mentioned how Youtube was over once normies realized they could make money on it.
I agreed and elaborated. But I want to know something. That fake, overly enthusiastic, faggy way of talking they all do...how and why did they arrive there? How and why did the normies go "that....being a retarded faggot and talking like one...that's the gold rush boys!!!"
I want to know the progression.
When I was watching early youtube, the popular people had edge, were raw, and were usually ranty and negative, like most talking heads usually are, because that's far more entertaining to watch. A funny bitter guy like Anthony Cumia is 1000x more interesting than an Ellen Degeneras with her insincerity.
So what the heck made the faggy youtube voice/personality the golden ticket in the minds of normies? What was that pipeline that led there?
If you want the short answer, it’s women. Positivity and fake enthusiasm is the selling drive for the sahm and cat ladies and has been for decades (for example Oprah and all her copycats). Women drive 80% of consumer purchases and account for 78% of US social media accounts, they’re also far more likely to engage with brands on social media than men, so it’s not hard to see why companies and “personalities” all pander to the female demographic.
Indeed. I'd add that reality shows are another fine example of how some of this crap evolved. Create made up narratives and inject fake drama, capitalize on absolute cringe and "normalize" it.
And before that there was soap opera nonsense, but at least those took specific time slots and didn't cause nearly as much mayhem.
Yup. Even the teeth-gritting 'soy-grin' you seem in most fatfucks and numales is an attempt to be harmless and pander towards women.
Nailed it.
Women sitting around at home or in their private office at their bullshit corpo job binging social media all day.
Nailed it. The question is if it's sustainable or if [normie] women are going to ever burn out and develop the same jaded response to faux-hype that we have. Maybe if marketing can't keep the echo chambers airtight, some reality will sink in after a couple of generations. Maybe I'm overly optimistic.
There was a secondary force that became primary once the gold-rush was moving as you describe. That is, the 'viral marketing campaign' organizations that believed the best way to advertise was to get the social media engagement from anyone they could buy positivity from.
The mannerism of someone paid to shill is fundamentally different than the natural speaking forms of critique, review, or casual mention. The feedback someone on the take will get will be "more positive, more effusive" on and on. They're selling a product, and it is their overly gay hyperactivity applied to their audience.
The rest of it, is the hive-minding of what is successful and trendy. A mode of communication develops based on the norms and expectations of these particular audiences (those with something to hawk) and players (those who can act and manufacture 'engagement').
To my shame I confess that I used to be a fan of TheAmazingAtheist way back in the day, not because I agreed with everything he said but because he was genuinely highly entertaining and didn't have a filter. His decline was a long and slow one, but getting busted by HarmfulOpinions for shilling Candid was the final nail in the coffin of his credibility.
I mean you can write a formula and people do, because they're responding to a formula that is the algorithm.
It's a loop to be sure. But the fact of it all is that even when constrained, "The Market" as a force of nature is POWERFUL.
Good explanation, thank you!
The effect is especially jarring when the ads are done by more mainstream, non-gaming channels like fishing and hunting channels. In the video itself they talk one way, usually like normal dude-bros and/or hyped up 20 somethings, and then in the ads they put on the goofy YouTube voice and it's just fucking weird.
Because they're normies and that means they're essentially retarded, because that's what normies are.
Sheep. They're happy being led around by the nose and told what to think and say and do.
I think a lot of it was driven by what The Algorithm would promote.
I remember watching some youtubers as they started to get big comment on how they'd do things like change how they did thumbnails because the videos where they did their thumbnails a certain way "did better". I believe one of those things was "smiling face".
Also "enthusiasm" usually means "loud", and as we learned from the "loudness wars" in music and TV advertising, people are generally drawn to louder things.
Also you don't get big advertising deals by being "edgy" (though you can always pull a ChuckE2009 and get the big advertising deals right before ending the last video you ever make before nuking your channel with "we must ensure the survival of our people and a future for white children")
As an og youtube watcher, Phil DeFranco was always a fag and was on the leading edge of the youtube jobbers.
It’s probably linked to the id, to the narcissism of yotubers that show their face vs. not, combined with algorithmic and monetary influences leading to the always leftward yoke. Do not ask a man to deny that which is the source of his income.
Not gonna say who i am.. buy i did youtube for 10 years. First 2 years was great. Monetization brought in 1.5k a month from doing sexy video game videos. After demonetization, then guideline changes to get age restriction, and then using AI to scan your vids to enforce those guidelines.. kinda quit.
But of course, real girls that so bikini and lingerie try on's dont get aged restricted. But video game girl characters do.
Anyways i relied on patreon.. but was only getting 200 or 300 a month. Did that for many years till recently. Called it quits. Tried to be patient and ride it out.. that maybe things on youtube would change for the better.
This makes me think of the spoony 'betrayal' video and the general furor over things like SCOPA, a clear line emerged between the passionate and those who felt they were slumming it until they parlayed the exposure to schmooze their way into a will whedonesque shilling job.
What is SCOPA? I forgot about that betrayal video haha
Wasn't the first popular YouTuber that horrific Fred guy?
Because the Angry Videogame Nerd got a kid and wife and had to pretend to be angry?
He was always lame. Most of us were just too lame and young to see it in the early days.
He was our version of "Annoying Orange" or "Fred". I know that's painful to admit, but it's true.
It was just nice to talk about old games. I like Screw Attack better.
He at least made his show as a trailblazer on an untested platform and created an audience and industry when there really wasn't one prior.
That alone puts him miles ahead of any other later "youtube famous" guys.
Eh, his shit was silly, but there was an earnestness about the earlier stuff that had appeal.
His content was definitely designed for a certain demographic, being nostalgia bait for the generation that grew up with the NES. Even the shitty games from that era are memberable, because there was no reliable way to find out if a game was any good before you bought it like there is now. How many people's game libraries are full of turds from LJN because they liked Friday the 13th or Back to the Future and nobody warned them? Raging against the NES's version of what we would now call shovelware hits the spot for those that were there.
Cringe culture happened. Where any and all shows of sincerity ran the risk of being called "cringe" and mocked. You couldn't be openly passionate, emotional, or even serious anymore because someone would call it cringe and have a bunch of seals whooping with them about it.
So now you had to have these over the top shows to prove you were doing something "ironically." Because if it was ironic, then it wasn't cringe because you already knew it was cringe and that made it funny all over again.
Its a really clever thing they pulled by doing it, because now most people are hesitant to be openly nerdy, or angry, or even happy around others. Which means they are less likely to spread those emotions and risk having people thinking things they shouldn't.
Bingo, I was thinking about that the other day. To really touch someone's soul, you need to stretch your hand out to them. But stretching your arm out means you are at risk for people to hurt you and hack away at your arm...but it's the only way good art is produced. That's why bravery and some self esteem is needed in being an artist.
People are so self conscious that it is impossible for them to create good art. They don't get hurt because they keep their hand close to their chest, but they never touch anyone either, they never make people feel, don't really make them laugh like people used to, don't really do anything.
Art is now about the artist because the "audience" is scary. To be a great artist you have to desire to reach out and touch the audience, but people are like you said afraid to show any sign of sincerity.
On the positive side, its also left them completely defenseless against a lot of confident sincerity.
Say to someone's face you are a racist/homophobic and unapologetic about it, and they often cannot even fathom such a thing. They can handle "ironic racism" or people who are afraid of social shaming (which cringe culture falls under), but cannot deal with someone unconstrained by such strings.
You forgot to mention the nail-polish-on-guys trend.
Google pushes them. All part of the plan to normalize your brain to content that is fake and gay.
Because that's the "way" to make it on youtube, human expressions in the thumbnails CAPS in titles, no normal lulls in conversation to give the sense of urgency when listening. etc etc. It's like ending a price in .99c instead of a whole number.
It works so everyone does it and experimenting with something else just isn't worth the risk. In hindsight it was always going to end up like this. It's like asking why people start 90% of chess games with D4 or E4.
Nobody, not even you, wants to hear someone talk about their hobby in a way that makes him seem bored and uninterested.