I know I am not the only person who has discussed the decline of popularity of some of the *previously* most loved and popular YouTubers, however I have some of my own opinions on these YouTubers. I started watching YouTube as a young teen, I don’t actually remember some of the first YouTube channels I was subscribed to, it is completely possible it was just a bunch of ‘Make-up Tutorials’ because I was a 12 year old girl after all. YouTube had started to become very popular for those kind of videos when I was a teen, apparently YouTube was no longer for funny cat videos (I’d take a cat video over a Jake Paul/Logan Paul video any day). YouTubers like Meredith Foster, Bethany Mota and Zoella became some of my favourite YouTubers. Flash forward to today, they’ve become some of my least favourite.
Pretty much all of my teen years were spent watching ‘Zoella’ before she ‘wrote’ her books, brought out a beauty line or homeware line. I don’t know if Zoe was always a very talented manipulator of younger viewers or whether she was once a genuine, humble, selfless young women making videos for ‘fun’. Now, I don’t know which one of those statements is true, I hope it is the second one but even the thought of her realizing she could con young viewers is just as bad to be honest. Obviously, most people who are in tune with the ‘scandals’ (if you’ve call them that) of YouTube are probably aware that Zoe, or should I say her ‘management’ decided to charge £50 in Boots (Boots sold for the recommend retail price set by the supplier) for a 12 day advent calendar that was worth around £15. A lot of people have had a lot to say, when I saw the calendar in store myself I personally thought it was rather steep for a 12 day calendar, it’s not like it’s a Chanel beauty advent calendar after all, but when I saw videos of what was actually in the box, I was utterly shocked. I was shocked that she thought, or her management thought they could get away with charging £50 for products you could get in Poundland or Home Bargains for under £15. Like I said I used to love her, whether it was a genuine ‘Zoella’ I loved, or my young mind looked up to her because she was so good at making you believe she was like you, I don’t know. Her videos about her fight with Anxiety and her cheating ex, related to me, so as a young naïve girl I related to her. She could have very well went through those horrible things, but now I’m wondering whether it was just an act for views, subscribers, and eventually money. I also cannot be the only person who has noticed her content has gone down hill in recent years, she doesn’t seem to put much thought into the things she posts these days, I stopped watching before Christmas 2017 because her videos became boring, unoriginal, and repetitive. I stopped watching ‘PointlessBlog’ years ago because it became painfully obvious how much of a fake he was, however it took a little longer to see it with the ‘perfect’ Zoe.
As for other YouTubers, I have to say that my subscriptions bar has gotten pretty small these days. I was coming onto YouTube, seeing a load of videos from people I no longer care to watch. One of those people who I unsubscribed to was Oli White, he is one man that I cannot stand anymore. I am pretty sure I found out about Oli many years ago through watching Joe Sugg’s videos, but in recent years Oli has become unbearable, mainly for two reasons – the excessively loud shouting in videos like he’s filming at a concert where no one can hear him and the other reason being his crappy personality.
However that is NOT the thing that pisses me off the most, surprise, surprise, it is about the prices they charge for their ‘merch’. Merch can be a great thing, it can be a way for fans to express their feelings towards an artist. Most musical artists will have merch when you go see them at a concert, but the difference between YouTuber merch and merch at a concert is that merch at a concert is cheaper. That is INSANE to me. I pay less for a t-shirt supporting a world famous artist then a t-shirt with a few words on from a ‘famous’ YouTuber. I recently found ‘JAACKMAATE’ on YouTube and started watching his videos (more like binge watching…its not creepy, I swear) and I completely agree with ALOT he says about YouTubers, including his video about Oli White’s hoodies. I’m sorry but I could never justify myself paying £30+ for a hoodie that says ‘what is up’ on it. I know for a fact that I can get a hoodie with more detail on from BooHoo for £15. I could NEVER justify the price to my mum either. Something I have always said, as I don’t see the point in big, expensive name brand products is ‘you’re not always paying for the product, but for the name on the product’. I don’t care if your shoes are Nike and cost over £100, if they’re shit quality, they aren’t worth it just because they have the Nike name plastered on them. I know for a fact I can find good quality products for a fraction of the price name brands will sell them for. These YouTubers aren’t stupid, they know people will buy the products simply because they’ve got their logo stuck on them. Prime example is Alfies Deyes’ tops, his tops are literally plain t-shirts with a ‘PB’ logo on a small part of the t-shirt. Creative!!! Who is buying these? I wouldn’t be wasting my money on these, not for me, not for future children I may have. Nope. Nope. NO. Like with most of the world, greed is playing a big factor in the production and selling of unoriginal, boring, predictable products.
Every ‘big’ YouTuber has their own merch these days, like they’re some massive artists with TONS of talent. Now, I do agree some products brought out by YouTubers are quality products, but most YouTubers are just throwing products out that take 5 minutes to design and £5 to produce for greedy reasons. It’s not because they want to ‘share their designs and work with us’. That’s bull! They want money.
I feel like I have slammed YouTubers throughout this whole post, which I guess I have, I could have said A LOT MORE. I am not even going to touch the disappointment of the human species that are Logan and Jake Paul. Regardless of what I have said in this blog post, I do still watch some YouTubers and still do have some favourite channels including; SORTEDfood, Lindsey Hughes, Joe Sugg (just hope he doesn’t turn out like his friends), Gabriella, Laura in the Kitchen, CupcakeJemma, Emma Blackery, and JaackMaate. Looking at that list, most of those are cooking channels, oh well, they still count to me, otherwise I’d only have 4 people to watch on YouTube, which is kind of sad.
If you have an suggestions for any more YouTubers who aren’t greedy, rapists, homophobic, bland, boring, unoriginal, uneducated, vein, racist and/or sexist I would love to hear about them!
If you’d like to buy a nice hoodie, t-shirt or cute phone case and don’t fancy forking out £30 for Oli White’s products, check out Boohoo! – www.boohoo.com (not sponsored, I just love Boohoo!)
Tweet me @lifeasshanx
Shannon x