Found this post at a great time where I'm slowly having a falling out with youtube and trying to use less of it. Not necessarily because "youtube is evil" but I'm starting to appreciate the beauty and minimalism of just written articles and blog posts. I enjoy going through them at my own pace and I don't need to look at a guy for him to read what could have been a blog post to me or watch those stock clips while he reads it. This is especially true for code content. Obviously I'm talking about a small subset of all videos on youtube (tech/news content ish).
I was actually a long term subscriber to youtube premium but I cancelled maybe a month ago. I was hesitant for a long time because I thought the value I got from it was so great that it was worth paying, especially since youtube splits the premium revenue 40/60 or 50/50 with creators. On top of that I also had youtube music. It felt wrong to do all these mental gymnastics and go the adblock route because of the creators. The author in the post touches on this point.
But as I started getting into Lemmy and reading blog posts more and more (also started reading a book), I understood that a lot of that perceived value was because that's the only thing I used and knew. There's a whole world out there and since then I've slowly started minimizing my time on it. Again, not because it's bad but just because I feel for a lot of content there are other things out there. It's a choice. Learning to enjoy reading a light book vs watching Youtube before bed, for example.
I do think there's some dishonesty and delusion going on in a lot of people's minds when it comes to adblockers. They use adblock and think they're somehow doing the right thing and they're so righteous about it, yet they continue watching Youtube and never donate to any creators. I have a few friends like that.
Since I don't spend that much time on it anymore, honestly I just watch the ads. Not as big of a deal as I once thought, and they make me want to spend even less time on the platform. I used to also use it for white noise or background music. Now I just use mynoise.net -great platform, would recommend.
Just a random stream of thoughts on my youtube experience.
Do content creators need to be paid? I guess i just never thought of making YouTube videos as a viable career path. Donations? Fine. But i really think so much of the problem with a giant social-media/video site like YouTube is that when mass creation is monetarily incentivized, it can create a whole industry for garbage videos designed to generate clicks to put money in some bottom-feeders bank accounts. I'm sure it also helps some people out who have no better way of making money or perhaps as much money, so it's not all bad at least.
Maybe I'm just getting too old, but i remember when YouTube first came around and there wasn't a heavy emphasis on self-promotion for ad revenue. The world was a different place then too, and tech was a lot less accessible. Less viewers, less videos, less capabilities for making/editing them as well. I don't know, i just have a hard time justifying the YouTuber as a legitimate occupation. I love some of the creators out there, but i think the ones i enjoy most are doing it because they enjoy making the videos in the first place. I've actually considered making some repair videos to share some of my knowledge on stuff, but the incentive has never been about making any money. Perhaps i would change my tune if i made a video that made me some. I suppose the successful YouTuber has been added to the list of the youths' aspirations alongside the famous musician or athlete or movie star that my generation always dreamed of becoming.
I guess it's just another instance of the inevitability that seems to loom over every aspect of our lives: anything that becomes popular will eventually be turned into a vehicle for advertisement. ๐ซ
Entertainers have gone through many names and mediums through history, and just because technology has come to a point where the masses can throw garbage at the wall doesn't mean the entertainers shouldn't be paid.
It's like complaining that musicians shouldn't be paid since the record store is full of crap you don't like.
Yes, people who do labor deserve monetary compensation. We live in capitalism and people need to pay rent and buy groceries.
you dont get to enclose the commons and then tell me what a piece of shit i am for refusing to pay rent and hopping the fence.
I do think people should be mildly encouraged to make and share videos as a hobby, instead of a profession. Or as something you do because you want to contribute with society, much like when you edit a Wikipedia article.
However, there's a limit on what you get from unpaid hobbyists and contributors; they still need a job, so they'll have less time to create the content; and the fact they're being paid also encourages them to polish the content a bit better.
That's doubly true for videos because making videos takes a bloody lot of effort. For example, some LPers out there spend ~12h a day playing a game, then a few more hours editing the video, just to share something that is 30~60min long. The result is extremely enjoyable, in a way you wouldn't get if the LPer was just doing it as a hobby.
So I think the biggest question is not if this should be a paid job or not. It's more like, "since some will take it as a job, what's the best way to make sure they get paid?". Currently those people are basically declaring fealty to the the e-landlords of the advertisement mafia, not because they want to do so but because the alternatives out there (like subscribestar, patreon [yet another mafia] etc.) are barely viable for this.