In the past month, popular online personality Tyler Oakley has earned more than thirty million views on his youtube channel. The views may not sound like much compared to other videos with millions of views, but Oakley nevertheless earns a living wage through his videos.
Vlogging, a term indicating a mashup of “videos” and “bloggers,” is the process of documenting and sharing one’s daily life through online videos. With platforms such as Vine and YouTube, many vloggers are beginning to amass millions of fans and subscribers online. The more popular vloggers, such as Pointless Blog, Miranda Sings and Tyler Oakley will consistently gain millions of views for each video they post on YouTube. Many vloggers are able to earn money from their videos by allowing YouTube to place ads on their content.
“Why do I think Youtubers catch the attention of high school students? Well, I really like how they can easily relate to the younger generation,” says Junior Parisa Kabiri. “I mean, I love Tyler Oakley so much. He’s so inspiring, and he’s not afraid to be himself. I also love PointlessBlog, because I feel like he’s super genuine, which makes him really relatable.”
Junior Christina Chang also enjoys watching PointlessBlog. “I love that he does so many collaborations,” says Chang. “He’s really funny, and I love it when Youtubers collaborate because they do funny challenges and weird things, like the cinnamon challenge. Collaboration videos usually get more views too.”
Collaborations, or “collabs”, are videos where one or more Youtuber get together and make a video. Usually, Youtubers will make two separate videos and post them on their own channels. Recently, Pointless Blog did a video with popular singer Ariana Grande which has garnered more than four million views.
“I love it when Youtubers collab because it’s interesting to see how Youtubers interact with each other,” says Sophomore Meghana Gadiraju. “It’s so funny when Miranda Sings does a collab.”
Sophomore Matt Chinn also likes Youtuber Miranda Sings, a character played by actress and singer Colleen Ballinger. “Miranda is awesome just because she’s really funny and knows how to brighten someone’s day, even when they’re really sad,” says Chinn. “I think people like her because she’s actually pretty normal in real life, which just makes it funnier to watch her playing Miranda Sings. I think she’s just so original.”
For Gadiraju, when it comes to making a funny video, originality is a key quality. “If everyone did beauty guru or question and answer videos on Youtube, no one would really watch them. I watch Tyler Oakley just because he really isn’t afraid to put himself out there. He’s really good at connecting with the audience.”
“Being relatable definitely attracts many viewers,” says Chang. “The reason why I love watching Tyler Oakley so much is because he’s so down to earth, and he doesn’t care about what anyone else says about him. That, and he’s also super cute.”
Sophomore Adeline Yu disagrees, saying, “I feel like it’s kind of pointless watching Tyler Oakley. Yeah, he’s cute, but I don’t think it’s interesting watching someone just sit in front of a camera and talk about random things. Some YouTubers definitely deserve the fame they get from their videos. But others don’t even try in their videos.”
“I think YouTubers definitely deserve the fame and money they get,” says Gadiraju. “It’s not like they just talk in front of the camera, they have to edit and plan out what they’re going to say, and it’s still entertainment. If you’re entertaining millions of people every week, I’d say you’re pretty talented.”
