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What do you think about YouTube rewind 2019?
What do you think about it? I personally think it's just another rewind showcasing how YouTube is prioritizing more generic audiences and content because YouTube has pratically turned into online video and is more focused on growing into audiences who use the Internet for entertainment and to pander to advertisers and since YouTube is more the, rather than a platform, pretending the entirety of YouTube is or at this point even could be a united community without massive, world-wide changes to society is just incorrect. The list format like watchmojo is probably to pretend they have backpedaled and that they're now unbiased. (Also they have done it in this format before.)
I usually don't bother with the Rewinds because it's nothing but ultra-popular channels I generally don't have any interest in (streamers, influencers, etc.). This year the one channel I recognized, and was thrilled to see on the list, was Andymation for his massive flipbook video. Guy is super talented and deserves more recognition for what he does.
I'd rather see YouTube put some effort into things like Spotify does and do a personalized year in review. Show me my most-watched channels, show me my favorite channels' most-watched videos, etc.
I'm never going to see LGR, 8bit Guy, Modern Rogue, etc. on these kinds of lists, yet they're all full-time YouTubers who churn out quality content. So I just don't really care about YouTube rewind.
That sounds like an art piece. I would like to watch that.
"A composition of people begging for attention but every time someone says 'bell' it gets 10% faster"
1% faster and 1% deeper fried.
There was a comment made by one of the gaming streamers I follow last year or the year before along the lines of "YouTube Rewind shows just how massive YouTube is because I don't know any of these people and no one I know (also professional streamers / YouTubers with millions of YouTube subs between them) does either". When the platform is as big as it is, you can have people with millions of subs who aren't on the list. The site is so large that it has many, many, many large channels and yet they're barely noticeable compared to the largest channels on the platform.
I agree. There are over 15,000 people with more than a million subscribers and by looking at this other channel that has just reached a million we could iterate that over 1 to 2 dozen channels become eligible to gain a golden playbutton every day now. If they want to continue making rewinds that are relevant to the audiences watching them, they would have to make at least a dozen rewinds for any of them to be even slightly relevant to most people, not to mention the dozens of languages YouTube is watched on.
The things I watch on YouTube are not that different from what I used to watch on NatGeo and Discovery channel. I don’t follow influencers or popular trends. So rewinds are meaningless to me and I don’t watch them anymore.
I watch a lot of similar things, so any recommendations? Here are a few of mine if you're interested:
You bring great recommendations that will bring me great joy, thank you!
I'm afraid I watch much less YouTube than you, so I don't have a lot to contribute. But I'll do my best!
I just realized this is similar to the premise of the anime Dr. Stone!
Somehow this years disappointing powerpoint made me like last years video more. At least last year they tried and put some effort in, even the first one they did which also was a slide show had more effort put into it. If this is what rewind ends up being I would rather get more info and detail like spotify does and personalize it more.
They learned hard last year that they cannot control YouTube's userbase, so they decided to phone it in this year. If it's going to be shat upon either way, why put in the effort?
Somehow YouTube fails to understand YouTube.
Because YouTube (the company and infrastructure) and YouTube (the creators and audiences) are only barely connected by an umbilical cord of technology. What possibility do they have to understand each other? From the business side, there's so many people out there, it's barely possible to manage even basic filtering on them let alone understand their experience. From the person side, the company is arcane and monolithic. How do you bridge that gap?
Hiring a diverse team of savvy and reputable content creators might help.
To do what? Give their honest experience to the company that could ruin them with a flick of their finger? Spread YT's perspective to the masses?
IDK. I think a hidden premise in my proposal is that YouTube would have to act in good faith. I admit that is far fetched.
I think that there's definitely a possibility that YT could act in good faith, but the imbalance of power makes it unreasonable to assume that they would. Even if you were optimistic, it's a global upside if YT changes, and a personal downside if they decide to blackball or demonetize you for obscure reasons. This is where an entertainer's union of some sort becomes very important. It's only with somewhat equal power that a true conversation could be had, and that's not possible with the current dynamics.
I just watched the interview with the CEO on 60 Minutes. I did not get the impression that something like that is plausible. She did not give a single straight answer. Sounded like a lot of corporate bulshit to me.
What are they supposed to do? "And one of our favorite highlights this year was the death of Etika. RIP!"
I get what you're saying, and I know that YouTube has evolved and has a community within it, but it feels weird to read this. It's been a long time in internet years, but for me the concept of YouTube channels and celebrities still feels new, and only a small part of YouTube. I'm subscribed to a few original content channels, but I still think of YouTube like it's 2006, where it's is the place to find old sports, music, or movie clips.
Ok... that just means you're one among the 2 billion people who use the platform and your neesh of YouTube usage is one among probably thousands.
You mean niche?
Yes, I should probably stop writing it like that.
To be fair, if more people spelled it wrong, I would've learned it's not pronounced "Nitch" years before I did ;)
Both "neesh" and "nitch" are considered correct pronunciations. "Neesh" is actually a more recent form of pronunciation, "nitch" is the more historical way.
Hank Green has a good take on it: I Think I Liked YouTube Rewind, Actually His take is essentially that YouTube is not one unified community, but a large platform on which many disparate communities are built, and that Rewind 2019 reflects that by highlighting the diversity of YouTube.
Yeah I watched that video and it was great.
I liked the first 30 seconds.
It references something I am familiar with.
The rest, not so much.
"Wow, I have not watched nor do I care about any of these channels."
Perhaps I've just aged and grown tired of "popular" things.