Asklemmy @lemmy.ml

1y ago

Who is a Youtuber you find to be overrated ?

114 comments

Wouldn't it be easier to list ones who aren't overrated?
I really don't understand the popularity of the "big" YouTubers. PewDiePie being the prime example from a few years ago, though I don't think he's still making videos.
- Pew is still making content but it's more vlogs about him trying to stop being a hyped up youtuber and to find work life balance while now also raising a tiny bebe.
  So he moved to Japan so that people wouldn't recognise him as much, started making friends and is now living quite a normal life to what he used to do.
  
  Never use to watch him, but actually enjoying his content as of late.
  Edit: probably because he’s an internet goofball around my age.
  
  That actually sounds pretty cool for him.
- While I agree that most the big youtubers are overrated, I still really like Markiplier for some reason. Idk, he just kinda grew up with me and he still plays games. Plus I like Distractable.
  
  I feel like this is pretty much the path the large majority of YouTubers take. They gain a following. Stay consistent over the years. Slowly grow. And after a while people just watch because that's what they've always done for years. The person could post a video of them just like peeling a potato and plenty people would still watch just cause.
  
  He is rich enough to not desperately beg for likes and comments at every other breath. I don't even think YouTube paid people back when he got popular. Maybe they did and I'm just dumb, but I don't remember that being a thing.
  That simple omission makes his content easier to watch than most in my opinion. Plus he seems like an actually cool guy. I've never heard of a real life scumbag example of him. Not saying he's a saint or anything, but with his size of an audience, I would think news about him being a jerk would be spread around, but I haven't heard of any.
  Seems like he's pursuing other career paths at this point, as his posting frequency has gone way down, unless the algorithm isn't bringing him up as much for me, haven't really checked into it. But since making his 2nd big "choose your own adventure" project, he seems like he's doing bigger stuff.
  Which I'm happy for him in that regard. I miss the consistency, but he's just a busy guy now.
  Distractible I'm really behind on, but I do like it.
- I don't really follow any of the big ones, and the creators I do follow are pretty nice :)
  
  I mainly subscribe to ASMRists, and even then I don't follow the bigger ones because I don't enjoy their content.
  And one of the gaming channels I follow is brilliant and yet they have so few subscribers. Filthy Casuals, three Australian comedians chatting about games. Their Let's Plays are great.
- It would probably make more sense for them to be evaluated in comparison to similar offerings withing the respective "genres" which would be hard for those that don't fit in to neatly defined formats, but it seems that most do.
  I couldn't watch PewDiePie, it's damned irritating, but it's an entire format and style of video that some people like and he seems presumably to be the king of it and is widely emulated so it would be saying something then if you consider him overrated within that context. I couldn't venture an opinion though because I would just never watch that kind of video.
  
  While I dislike PewDie as an adult, had I discovered him at the age of 13, I'd have absolutely loved him.
  I feel like people frequently forget that internet demographics are very unique compared to the overall demographics of the whole population. It is definitely easier and more fun to spend lots of time on here while you're still very young, and generally have more free time and open curiosity.
- Jenna Marbles was genuinely a great youtuber.
  I feel like most youtubers are pretty obvious after money.

MrBeast and his many imitators. Don't get the appeal and the constant shouting voice is very annoying to me. I guess I'm just too old.
- The target audience is kids.
  
  That just makes it worse

Almost everyone that is on the popular front page feed. I loath the emotional content, drama, click bait type nonsense.
- Yeah, it's amazing how quickly you figure out you're not logged into your account when you load the homepage. Literally none of the videos that are popular is anything I'd ever consider watching.
  
  All I see in the "you're not logged in" frontpage is music videos anyways, and not conventional youtubers. I dunno how someone finds Mr. beast "organically".

Veritasium. As soon as he put out a video with sponsored content where he lied with science I immediately knew he could no longer be trusted. I completely stopped watching his videos that day.
- I kinda slowed down on his videos since that Tom Nicolas video, but I watched his video from a few days ago about blimps because blimps are cool. But it just seemed like a corporate ad. The amount of the video that's renders of products vs actual products is pretty bad.
  It didn't feel like a science video about blimps, it felt like half blimp startup ad, half simple blimp explanation. I don't know, it just felt a little devoid of depth.
  
  I would really like a channel that covers start-ups well, like explaining their idea and what they hope to accomplish then going into some of the challenges they face.
  Far too many seem to be nothing but reading the press release and the first couple of paragraphs of Wikipedia.
- Which video?
  
  There was this one from a couple years ago that was about self-driving cars and also sponsored by Waymo. Tom Nicholas made a video which IMO does a good job of covering the problems with that video, and the broader implications of this kind of content on YouTube.
  
  found it. https://youtu.be/5zI9sG3pjVU?t=983
  there's even people in the comments that don't realize the experiment was bad science and think that maybe these wipes are 'different'
  
  more people actually saying they're going to switch to flushable wipes.
  
  I don't remember which video it was, I'd have to go find it. At the end he sets up a 'science experiment' to show that wet wipes are flushable, unlike what everyone says. And the way he 'proves' it is clearly a terrible way to prove it, but if you aren't thinking about it you'll agree. I'll try to find the video.
- Damn, really? His concrete video was pretty interesting
  
  yeah. honestly it stinks because he did have good science videos. but as soon as he sold out and the way he did so I knew he was no longer an educational channel.

All influencer types. Influencing kids to be more vain, more selfish, more money focused, more vapid and empty?

So many tech YouTubers are overrated, but one who really stands out to me is JayzTwoCents. Somehow I have several memories of clicking on one of his videos and being shocked at him being confidently incorrect about something. I no longer click on his videos at all.
- Thats crazy I unsubsceibed from him just yesterday
- His alpha nerd persona comes across hard.

MrBeast is a horrible example of a person and everyone acts like he's a second coming out Jesus. He fucks up people's lives with his "charity" on a regular basis.
PewDiePie is one of the most annoying people ever born.
- How does he fuck up people's lives?
  
  Yeah I want to know as well. His content isn't exactly my cup of tea and can feel dystopia, but my dude flies around the world giving away free surgery to people and shit, and he promotes charities and foundations and actually moves people to donate to them. His thumbnails are creepy as shit, and his content feels like it was made to be cut up into a bunch of 6 second tiktok videos, but I don't really see a dark side here.

Mr Beast and his fucking thumbnails with open mouth and ugly mustache. How come such douche can make 5M views in 2days, it baffles me.
- I get why he got popular but I'm amazed that the novelty hasn't worn off

None, because I ignore the ones I don't like.
- Isn't it great, not being defined in opposition to triviality?
  But for real, everyone is mentioning the same ten creators. It's not a great question.
- I find them all overrated and I subscribe to zero channels. I only use YouTube when I'm looking for a specific video, and then I watch what I came for and leave without any interaction of any kind with the social aspect of the site.
  
  I subscribe to some YouTubers on the site, but the algorithm seems to understand roughly what I want.

Kurtuzeg. And alot of the "science" channels. They are so full of shit sometimes.
- science 'education' channels try not to be extremely biased and corrupt challenge
- Literally.
  Great video though.
  
  Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/-XNDM4eAn1U?si=yh5DcnvVnLUYpmJc
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
- Their videos about the immune system are really good and educational (according to me, who has no idea if they're just making shit up). But pretty much everything else they make is just pop science.
  
  I agree. Like most science channels, they're really good when they stick to pure science.
  The issues usually occur when they decide to weigh in on a social or policy issue that they're not qualified to talk about. Kurtzgesagt's blunders all seem to be related to climate policy videos and their wishful thinking regarding Hail Mary technologies saving us.
  For other readers, my bias is generally pro kurtzgesagt, I have several of their posters on my wall. Their social policy videos have just been really rubbing me the wrong way.
- Lol I just said this and got downvoted to the bottom.
- Sabine has been posting a lot of cringe lately. Such a bummer when a physicist decides to go down the 2009 history channel swerving out of their lane career path.

Another one I'd mention is Rooster Teeth (the whole gang). I watched some of their "shenanigans" videos and they were just destroying office furniture, doing shitty pranks and in general being man-childs.
I just thought all the mess they left behind for everyone not on camera and what a shitshow it must be for the production crew to work with a bunch of internet mini-celebrities. They were basically the OG streaming mansion.
Fast forward a few years and you hear all these allegations of terrible work conditions. Go figure.
- Stopped watching after the "I understand where racists are coming from" podcast bit

Mr Beast - all his videos look and feel the same. And there's nothing new that you learn from them.

MKBHD simply because I have absolutely no idea what the point in the channel is.
Obstensively it's a tech review channel, but really it seems to be a look at my cinematography and all this b-roll footage channel. Also iPhones, which is always boring because let's face it the last time Apple did anything close to innovative with the iPhone was the the 5C.
- I mean you nailed it. It's entertainment - validation for people who want to buy the shiny new Apple thing. "Look how cool it looks in these artsy shots", forgetting it's a carbon copy of last year's model.
- I use MKBHD as a source of surface information to find quick info about certain products. Of course the info he gives out is a little biased but the videos are short and entertaining. Still end up doing my own research before purchasing though.

I find that the majority of the "Big Youtubers" seem to be very overrated. I never got super big into Pewdiepie as a kid, and trying to get into his content during the 100 mil craze made me wonder how he gained such a following (not dissing you if you do enjoy his content, but not my cup of tea).
On the flip side, i really enjoy slimecicles videos. Watching him is like eating a bowl of chicken soup.

most Poketubers
there's this weird conundrum where a lot of Pokemon fans are older, mostly in their 20s, but the big name Poketubers almost universally aim for kids as their prime demographic
like that's fine and all, but why are you aiming for kids when you're playing a Professor Oak challenge, or something stupid hardcore? show the kids the shiny Rayquaza, show me your 900+ hour save file
also the ones that aren't aimed at kids are usually pretty low quality, sorry Johnstone, sorry Bird Keeper Toby, sorry Absol Plays Pokemon

Real Engineering
Some really uncritical videos about "pretty out there" startups. It's basically a PR channel.
- Practical engineering is much better imo
- Same with Undecided. Dude it's basically just a shill for random startups. He's basically just Popular Science magazine, the YouTube channel.

Is all of them a valid answer?
- No. There are plenty of YouTubers who make excellent content but are struggling to get views, hardly fits the definition of overrated. Just because they chose YouTube as a platform doesn't automatically invalidate their work. Besides, which other platform do you want them to go to?

It's hard to find someone who makes content that doesn't kowtow to Youtube's terrible system. Content takes time to make and time costs money but youtube will make these people break their spine bending over backwards to make sure they don't get demonitized and get the scraps of ad revenue that Google designs to give them. So now we get people trying to dance around stupid censorship rules, finding more and more sponsors because they don't get paid enough and have to scream figuratively and literally to get enough attention to pay the bills.

I don't personally get the appeal of many gaming YouTubers. I'm not personally very into watching other people play videos (not review, but just play). I can kinda understand some people wanting to watch that, but it always surprises me just how many people watch it and for how long.
It also seems all too common that they have very questionable views and their fans will defend them to the death. I don't get that either. There's some YouTuber creators I really enjoy, but if they said horrible things, I sure as hell aren't going to defend them at all, let alone to the degree that some gaming YouTubers get ardently defended.
- I watch some game playthrough streamers. I don't have time or the hardware to play, so I "watch" them in the background while I work. There's a lot of shitty content out there, but the ones I watch are really decent people, some of them with only <100k subs. Really knowledgeable about the games they play too. I am talking about people like Rhadamant, Quill18, Blindirl, ChristopherOdd...
- If it's a skill/competitive game I totally get watching. Like if I like basketball I'm gonna watch Steph Curry or an NBA game cause I'll learn how awesome people play the game. If I liked valorant or something i could totally see watching the top pros (or a really high level YouTuber) or comp matches from tourneys and stuff.
- I’ve really got into watching Willjum play Rust in particular, not stream, but his VODs. My wife doesn’t even play rust, but says he’s got a soothing voice and also enjoys his videos. They’re well edited pieces of Rust television.
- I watch a lot of gaming YouTubers and very rarely play games, I find the content really enjoyable as background while I'm coding or doing something on the computer. They're great because it's interesting enough to keep my brain active but also it doesn't matter if I miss a bit because I'm focusing.
  I don't watch the kind that say questionable things tho
  It's actually amazing how creative and funny a lot of them are.

Pretty much all of the ones we've ever heard of and most of the ones I haven't.

All of them lol

Vox, ig. Their videos are the video essay equivalent of a forgettable action flick.

Johnny Harris. I really hate the delivery style that he kept from vox. The "guys this is super bad and I'm really concerned but in a like cool and detached way." His delivery just reminds me of every dude I've ever talked to at an indie coffee shop.
His content may or may not be good, but I can't get passed his smarmy delivery to find out.

All of them

The School of Life. Terrible channel that sometimes offers potentially dangerous and incorrect info. They paint far too broad a brush considering how complex psychology is. I remember Big Joel did a good video about them a while back.

Any video game streamer.
- I hate screamer and mumbled streamers so won't watch any of them if I can do literally anything else. But I frequent "Call me Kevin" on Youtube, his edited videos are production quality but in my opinion his streams are top notch too.
  
  For some reason I can't get into his current stuff. I liked it before he did the face cam stuff.
  RTGame, however, I'll watch just about anything he puts out.
- Willjum edits his streams down into wonderful little movies.
  If anyone else knows of similar creators, I’m all ears. The game doesn’t matter with content this good. My wife’s never played Rust and still enjoys Willjum (though it may help that I can explain certain things that aren’t easily gleaned from context)
  
  I'll have to check him out, thanks.
  Ambiguous amphibian has some great narrative videos, mostly things like rimworld challenges or the Sims. Sonny Evans is great for GTA and red dead stories.
  I also really enjoy manly badass hero, his videos are often just straight playthrough of indy horror games with him narrating and adding comments, he's got the perfect voice for it and really engages with the game well
  
  Interesting, I’ll check em out.

Every youtuber.

I have a bookmark directly to my subscriptions
And apart from those i only watch the ones linked by friends etc (sometimes.. lemmy)
So i dont really know. I dont follow many of the bigger youtubers.

The only two I like are WhistlinDiesel and Electroboom. The rest all suck.

I hate to say it, but probably Binging With Babish.
I still love his channel, and he still puts out great stuff with some great employees, but he's moved away from his core theme and more into being a celebrity chef that makes standard meals, often butchering them.
His attempts at Poutine and the Full English Breakfast were abysmal, and showed almost zero effort or research, basically offending two countries. He also tends to veer away from accuracy, and more towards "his best take" on something from a show or movie. Finally, the stuff he makes that looks great usually requires the kind of equipment and kitchen tools that someone with several million followers on YouTube and a bustling media empire could only afford...
I love the guy, but it feels like he's regressing.

All of them

Kurzgesagt, literally just a propaganda mouthpiece
- How so? I usually find their content pretty interesting
  
  Often sponsored by organizations who would support the narratives their videos paint.
- 100% this. He’s an influencer for hire.
- Why are you even getting downvoted when someone else said the exact same thing?

Most of them

All of them.
- There are a lot of smaller channels that are just people who are really good at something showing off what they do. It’s pretty amazing.
  
  Agreed. Niche channels that I watch (woodworking, ham radio, four wheeling vehicle build tips) are usually pretty good.

Theyre all grifters peddling anything that someone will pay them to sell.
- Yup. I don’t really get the perspective that people have, “oh, creators have to make money somehow, so it’s okay that they manipulate parasocial relationships to shift the products of exploitative businesses like gambling to kids, or snake oil more-harm-than-good VPNs, or the very worst paid versions of much better freely available services like Dashlane.”
  Back in the day, people ran extremely ambitious projects, fan websites, services, etc. because they were passionate about it. Think about all of the free and open source software that you have used which hasn’t ever tried to guilt you into buying shit you didn’t need. Imagine if Audacity, LibreOffice, GIMP, VLC, Blender and 7-zip started showing forced ads for Raid Shadow Legends?
  Asking for donations or patrons or whatever is totally fine. Even taking sponsorships for more ethical companies that you would recommend to others even without being paid isn’t too bad, but the attitude that content creators can’t be criticised for exploiting their audience because they have to pay their rent always rubs me wrong.
- When there is months of content uploaded every second, it's not all bad.

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