In 2010 I was introduced to two YouTubers, Charlie McDonnell and Alex Day who had set up their accounts in 2006. Previously YouTube for me was a platform to watch music videos and ‘Drunk Cooking with Hannah Hart’ so moving on to new content felt like a privilege. I absolutely loved the dynamic that the two YouTubers had together, and how their influence of not washing their hair with shampoo inspired my then boyfriend to do the same (which was gross FYI).
Lady Godiva the song created by Alex Day was such a marvellous song that I still occasionally find myself singing along to it today, this helped garner my interest in to media as a whole and how it can effect a mood or a situation. I recently read Living and dying on the internet by Alex Day which outlines his career on YouTube and the consequences of naïveté in general life. I found the fact that he had hidden himself away for 7 months rather than dealing with the situation then and there a bit of a cop-out. But I also see the point of not knowing what to do, and the argument of ‘he said, she said’ and how that would have had a negative impact on him too. Although it later came out that a lot of what happened became exaggerated it just shows how much an impact other peoples opinions of you can impact on your mental health and wellbeing. I did find that Charlie not being friends with Alex understandable at the time, but I also thought that friends ought to stand with each other, since they had gone through so much together. This book was incredible to read, as I do not usually read autobiographical/biographical books as I am not usually interested in them (apart from Anna Kendrick’s book as she is hilarious), but I resonated with this book as it brought back nostalgia to when I also first started using the internet and the sound of dial-up modems and playing pinball when you’re waiting for said modem to boot up, internet nowadays is much faster and reliable, and it makes such a difference in both a positive and negative way. I feel that having such a wide platform and being an ‘influencer’ is such a daunting career as you have to know what to say to make sure people aren’t harmed by your content, or it feels like that more so these days, and having anything negative towards your brand is harming yourself and others. I also find that the bigger the audience is that you cater to, I see a lot of YouTubers personal lives crumbling beneath them which is sad to see and I feel that there ought to be more help for the YouTube community that do suffer with mental health issues. Do read Alex Day’s book, it is eye opening and it shows how much as a person he has grown, and it just shows how damaging a misunderstanding can be. Buy the book here; https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0993020429/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_BoMMBbJ94B6BY Blurb; ‘Sorry’ she said, ‘it’s just I’ve never met anyone famous before.’‘Sorry,’ I replied, ‘you still haven’t.’ In 2008, the media reported that Alex Day was the first person in the UK to make money from YouTube videos. He was described as ‘a YouTube star’. But he didn’t feel like one. Alex watched as his channel grew, leading him to a YouTube party in Sydney, a video convention in Los Angeles and a world record attempt in London. He signed up to new sites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. But as his professional life flourished, his personal life unravelled when a series of damning blog posts exposed his past and left him with no friends and no home — and no audience. How would you cope if your worst mistakes were written up and torn apart by thousands of strangers, right before your eyes? A book about ambition, failure and responsibility, Living and Dying on the Internet is a timely and unparalleled look into the evolution of YouTube, the culture of public shaming and an insightful account of how the internet has changed — and changed us — over the last ten years.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
About MeHi I'm Charlotte, I review books for fun and read a lot! Archives
September 2020
Categories |