To Be In Gen Z: Notes On Gen Z From The Inside Out 1ST CHAPTER RELEASE

 

CHAPTER 1: YOUTUBE

YouTube Logo

In today’s society there are many different views on YouTube. Most of Gen Z unanimously agree that it is quite cool, enjoyable, and despite the fact that it is, admittedly, flawed (like everything else in this universe), I think it is overall a good platform when controlled and understood.

Millennials are rather divided on the topic, many finding it useful and enjoyable in moderation, while others think it is overused and wasteful, and Gen X considering it any of those options or just an additional method to get things done, neither necessary nor impractical and then again, some are completely clueless, while Traditionalists are almost exclusively pretty clueless, with few understanding the internet (again, I have spoken to people from these generations).

In this book/guide, I will always attempt to speak from a neutral standpoint, so I will therefore discuss both pros and cons, but I will, as the title suggests, be focusing almost exclusively on the perspectives of Gen Z, the generation I belong to.

So, YouTube is a platform where any person can post videos that fit certain guidelines and criteria, and build it into a profitable and enjoyable career. It can also be a fun hobby, and is a platform built to share and create brilliant communities. Most videos are between 5 and 25 minutes, unlike the common misconception of more movie-like lengths.

I, like other YouTube viewers, often get asked questions about who particular YouTubers are or what they do when names crop up in conversations. So despite the order frequently changing, the top three most subscribed to (subscribers are people who chose to be notified of a channel’s activity) channels (the page where something is posted to) and their respective YouTubers (the people who run these pages) have been the same for about a year now, and each is aimed at a different target audience in Gen Z. All of the following information was the case at the time of writing

Number 1, the channel with the most subscribers, is the much despised T-Series, an Indian Music channel that has faced frequent hushed-up lawsuits and a whole lot of controversy. It is a mega-corporation linked to Bollywood that posts around three music videos every day. It is predominantly aimed at the later end of Gen Z and earlier part of Millenials.

T-Series logo

Second, although he was first for many years, is the only other YouTuber to have passed the 100,000,000 subscriber mark at the time of writing, PewDiePie. He is a 31-year-old Swedish (although he speaks English in his videos) YouTuber called Felix, who films one video every day from his house, the videos being of a range of topics. His target audience is mostly in the middle of Gen Z, but also largely the older members.

PewDiePie, creator of the YouTube Channel with the second most subscribers with his wife, Marzia and Maya the Pug, his oldest of three dogs

Third is a young children’s show known as Cocomelon - Nursery Rhymes, another Corporation. The name is pretty self explanatory; it is an animated nursery rhyme channel.

Cocomelon is the YouTube Channel with the third most subscribers

Just to give you an idea, other large channels include 5 Minute Crafts, Dude Perfect, many Official Music Channels, such as Justin Bieber’s, WWE, Set India, etc.

As you can probably see, YouTube has many different communities and video types, some of the biggest being Reaction Videos (e.g. some of PewDiePie’s content), Music Videos (e.g. T-Series, Justin Bieber Official) and DIY Videos (e.g. 5 Minute Crafts). However content can also be found on Beauty (James Charles, Jefree Star), Animation (TheOdd1sOut, JaidenAnimations, Andrea Terbea, whose content helped me a lot with this book, SomethingElseYT), Football Content (HITC Sport, HITC Sevens, OneFootball English, 442oons) and so much more.

YouTube also has systems in place to protect its audience. YouTube Kids is good for very young audiences (I would say about 5 and under), but as the content is extremely limited YouTube understands that the vast majority will opt for normal YouTube.

YouTube therefore takes careful measures to protect its audience, and has an elaborate set of rules. Some people sneak under the radar, but because these are almost exclusively minor channels with very few views and subscribers, it is near impossible to find dangerous content on the platform unless you are looking for it, because recommendations mainly arrive exclusively from the most mainstream and popular, and therefore carefully monitored, channels. You are also urged to report any dodgy content with a few easy steps that can be found on YouTube, Google, etc.

Instead of hating on YouTube and arguing with your kids about it you can use it and monitor the amount of time they spend on the platform. The easiest way to do this while still giving your kids responsibility is by setting a maximum amount of time to spend on YouTube, or in general a monitored screen time limit.

Just please note that it is helpful for your child to separate gaming and watching time from time using platforms such as Google Docs or Duolingo, or else you will see their online learning, writing, etc (if they do any) go down. This book would not have been possible to create without this important distinction, nor would my blog (which you can check out at noahmt.blogspot.com for content on Harry Potter, Rick Riordan Books and Soccer, among other things).

The method I like to use when using the platform for limited time is subscribing to channels I enjoy and picking out which content to watch beforehand. Remember to put stuff you don’t have time for in Watch Later, and check out a new Channel or look at Watch Later if you have extra time. Also make note of the average length of a youtuber’s videos and how often they post before subscribing.

A subscribe button

The most important question is, however, why does Gen Z want to watch YouTube? And the answer is simple. YouTube is a (mostly) non-judgemental megacommunity with so much interesting and unusual… everything! So often YouTube is an example of how if those who are competitive with each other in the business world collaborated so much could be better.

The best example is in the Animation community, where most of the Top Dogs, such as TheOdd1sOut, JaidenAnimations and SomethingElseYT are good friends who often go onto each other's channels and do collaboration videos. You can also find this with MrBeast, one of the most respected and largest YouTubers, with the way he idolises PewDiePie, and how PewDiePie, in turn, does many collaborations and videos with YouTubers often a twentieth or less of his size, helping their channel grow into much larger channels and fulfil their dreams of making a respectable living off YouTube.

This megacommunity also has many subcommunities and sometimes a single channel is even considered a community, generally the larger ones. YouTube is Gen Z in essence, all the weird and wonderful squeezed into one single platform, with a mix of hurting and healing, gaining and losing, an accepting place where the most normal and the most eccentric people can sit together as one and watch some weirdos pour ice on each other’s heads while shamelessly advertising their useless products. Ah, YouTube.