last night me and david spent a few minutes on youtube after watching a sunday night movie. we accidentally stumbled upon a video with a youtuber just talking a lot of shit about another, very well-known, youtuber.

now, we always stay away from any kind of drama videos like that. the only reason we (stupidly enough) clicked the video was because of the fact that the youtuber being trash-talked seems to be such a sweet and calm person that we were surprised that anyone felt like making a hate video about her.

but we should of course know by now that no one is safe from this kind of utterly incomprehensive internet drama. or irl drama for that matter. doesn’t matter how old you are, how professional, how calm and sweet. how little you deserve it or how little you respond to it. if you have something others want, you’ll get the hate.

there’s only one reason that videos like these exist, and keep popping up like weeds on steroids.
it’s because they work.

if you make a banter video, a rant, a trash-talk, you will get clicks. because it’s not only the person making the video who’s addicted to drama, it’s everyone who watches them too. it’s the new form of gossip tabloids.

and there are whole channels entirely devoted to making banter videos. that do nothing else. and we see them gain followers like you wouldn’t believe. or don’t want to believe.

for us, youtube is about being creative. about sharing who you are and what you love with the internet world. it’s about a passion for expressing yourself through the medium of film. we only follow youtubers who share that belief, and as soon as a drama video pops up in our feed, we unsubscribe immediately without thinking twice.

the video we saw yesterday was the first trash-talk / response video i’ve ever seen actually. i’ve made a point of refusing to give that shit my time. and after seeing the utter nonsense and bullying of that video and feeling just awful afterwards, i’m even more determined to stay clear of it going forward.

i used to be a bit more interested in drama as a teenager. reality shows, gossip, and the like. now, i can’t understand why. my life must have been truly boring and unfulfilling for me to be looking for intrigue and drama elsewhere. as i see it, there’s no other explanation for it. just being bored and unhappy.

my life is dramatic enough as it is today. work is stressful, we move around a lot, we are creative everyday, we have a lifestyle that feels meaning- and purposeful. we have goals and dreams.
so much so that we’re instead looking for peace and quiet, not drama and intrigue, whenever we have some time off work.

it’s at times like last night that i feel a bit reluctant to call myself a youtuber. a blogger is easier, since it’s not a community, it’s a platform you’ve built by yourself, setting up your own rules of conduct. i don’t want youtube to be about response videos and bullying. i want it to be a safe place for people to come to get inspired, to learn new things, to feel like they have support from people all over the world. it should be somewhere where creativity and originality is what matters, not how much hate, hurt, drama you can cause.

and we made the mistake of clicking that video last night. because by clicking it, by giving clicks to the trash-talker, we gave them our support. we took sides with the bully. that’s what we do when we watch their videos. because they get money and momentum with each click.

let’s think about that the next time we’re scrolling through our youtube feed, shall we ?

love // jenny

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COLUMN : no more drama