DON'T START YOUTUBE BEFORE WATCHING THIS!

Lesson one. Clickbaity titles. Gotchu! Didn't I? Smash like!

When people ask what I do for a living, older people, basically, and I say I do YouTube, I'm always met with, "Oh! That must be amazing!" "You must earn a lot of money!" Or, "It must be so cool to have an audience that loves you!" And, yes. Yes, of course.

But... But am I gonna? version of a cute skrattar. He is gonna complain about YouTube again. Here it goes.

There's a side to YouTube that I think a lot of time, isn't addressed or at least in a way that is understandable for someone that doesn't make videos or for someone who doesn't really get YouTube because the only thing they'll really see is the fame and the money and that's all that matters.

But we started to see more and more YouTubers and streamers and online entertainers come out and make videos saying: "I'm feeling really down" or "I'm actually going through a depression." Or maybe just completely mad. If fame and money mean that you have to be happy and you can't complain about anything, are all these people just lying?

Michael, V-Sauce here. Let's investigate. I'm sure there are gonna be some people that don't agree with me on this. And I don't think this applies to everyone. It's not some rule or whatever.

But it's very easy to be a YouTuber or a new upcoming YouTuber. If you watch YouTube, I'm sure you can relate to stumbling upon someone's channel for the first time. You binge-watch all their videos, and want more and more and more.

You watch all the videos that they produce, and then after a while, you get kinda tired of it. And what was once very engaging and captivating suddenly doesn't seem as interesting anymore.

I think this applies to literally anything except my channel! some weird face tf. But this is the reason why some YouTubers or some channels can rise so quickly and still go down equally fast. A tired example of this - I know - LeafyIsHere, for example, maybe people don't want to give him this credit. But he really pioneered the commentary genre on YouTube, at least in a way that people hadn't seen before or at least introduced it to a lot of people.

But once it was all revealed, it was clear that there wasn't really much depth to his content or his chin for that matter. Smash like! laughs a virtual audience claps and cheers.

And all of a sudden, this channel that was exploding, people didn't care anymore and it just disappeared. I think every YouTuber that is recognizable has gone through this phase of the 'boom' of their channel.

Mine occurred, I think in 2015 or maybe before, I don't know. I do remember that when my channel really blew up for the first time, it was almost the most amazing experience of my life because it was all positive, I didn't have any haters at the time. It was just me and my audience sharing this journey and it was just incredible.

I felt unstoppable. I was getting all these numbers and it was just, I didn't get it. Like, how is it even possible? BUT what comes up must go down. And if you watch literally any other YouTuber that has been the biggest YouTuber on this platform, my future doesn't look very good! chuckles.

Let's say you are a YouTuber, let's say you've gone through this big YouTuber 'boom' and you finally got what you wanted. You finally got recognized, finally got an audience, finally got a lot of money, all these things that you always wanted. But then... people have already watched your channel and they're starting to lose interest. :(

Which is inevitable for everyone on the- that makes videos. And suddenly the statistics that was bragging rights, eh, they're not as impressive anymore. If anything, it might be better off if people didn't see the statistics, but they're all there. The views are all there, everyone knows if your channel is doing good or bad.

And once your fans start noticing that your channel isn't doing as well as it used to be... they're quick to point out why, you know? not us pewds, we love you. It's not because I got tired of your content, it's because of YOU. 👉 serious look.

You've changed, man! It's easy to shift blame on others, so this is only natural. But this of course leads to less appeal to your content. People are noticing, less people are watching, which brief pause spirals downwards.

That... people lose even more interest because they notice other people aren't interested. And then you feel down, thinking: What am I doing wrong? I'm making the same content I've always made. Uhh... camera zoom = self-realisation. I don't understand, man.

You don't understand. But despite feeling down, you still have to maintain this facade that everything is fine. Everything is great. People are drawn to this persona where you're energetic and hyper, like all the YouTube videos are, because that's what people like to watch.

No one likes someone mope away, being negative on camera. So you feel bad about your content, you feel bad about yourself, and you realize: "Wait a minute, I'm not in such a good place as I thought I would be."

Now I'm told that getting money and fame is the end goal to all things. That's how you get happy. That's what everyone wants. People would literally kill to be in my position, so what's wrong with me? Why am I not as happy as I should be?

Which makes you question yourself even more and makes you feel even worse for being not as happy as you think you should be. And you ask yourself: "Was I... was I even... happier before I started all this?" "Was it even worth it?"

But, hey! You just gotta work a little hard. You gotta suck it up and get on that grind. You just gotta keep making videos. YouTube is all about quantity. If you keep uploading, people will keep watching.

But now you have to work twice as hard to get people engaged with what before was so easy. When people watched you for the first time, they watched another video, another video. Now you have to try a little harder to get people interested or twice as hard.

And you realize you can't take a break because if you take a break, your numbers will fall. And if your numbers go down, people notice that you're failing and not doing as well. Or maybe they'll forget about you or maybe they just won't care if you come back.

And YouTube analytics doesn't tell if you’ve to go on a break, okay? YouTube analytics doesn't say if you go on a vacation. So you have to keep making videos and you're stuck at constantly producing content.

Because you’ve to keep the numbers up. Because otherwise, if you don't, your numbers will go down and your numbers are going down, that means you're failing. And it will just keep on going that way.

What if my friends notice that my channel is doing poorly? Are my friends even friends with me because they like me or because I have a lot of subscribers? You notice a lot of people online have the same amount of views and subscribers as their friends.

I don't think this is a coincidence. A lot of people collaborate on YouTube and they build each other up and get viewers from each other. But that only lasts as long. That also has a lifeline on it.

So, to maintain what you already had, the numbers that you got, you gonna compromise a few things. Just a few things... It's fine. trust senpai with this :)

Maybe I'll drop the facade, you know? Maybe you can drop the facade. Maybe you'll express honestly to your audience that, you know, I feel bad about my channel not doing as well.

Maybe you can cry on camera. People love that! That'll definitely get even more views. That would be great for the channel. Maybe I can share personal stuff in my life, people like that.

It's not really what I wanna do, but no one seems to complain, and it gets me what I want, so... Maybe I can share my relationship or maybe I can share my breakup. Maybe I can share my personal fight with friends or anything, really.

People want to know, so, there's nothing wrong with this, right? Any values that you previously kept get thrown out the window as a desperate attempt to keep getting views. Maybe some friendship fades.

You start asking yourself... well, why were we friends to the beginning? Am I even likable as a person? Well... Of course I am! I'm a YouTuber! ;) teeth sparkle with a ding, just because. classic PDP chuckle.

Maybe getting a few hundred subscribers makes you feel terrible when it used to make you feel so good about getting it. But because you used to get so much more, it means nothing anymore, and just, the numbers at this point have just completely taken over your life.

But maybe, thanks to all the expensive items you've got: the car, the house. You can show off that lifestyle, that's really popular on YouTube. Kids love that. And it doesn't matter who watches my content as long as I get more numbers, it doesn't... who cares?

Kids love to see what a great lifestyle a YouTuber has: how rich they are, what girlfriend they have, what house they have, what cars they have. They wanna know what it's like to be famous. They wanna know what it's like to have money.

And you're selling the same lie that - getting all these things are somehow gonna make you happy when it's just a lie.

This story is a mixture of, uh, other YouTubers that I've seen, other streamers that I've followed, and other online people in general, uh, and my own experience as well of what it's like to go from that 'boom' to... uh, maybe 'people don't really care.' chuckle.

And this isn't even acknowledging the people that don't make it. The people that put their heart and souls in making YouTube videos, grinding harder than anyone, just to... get the feeling and taste of what that's like, you know?

So if it's bad for a lot of big YouTubers, just imagine what that's like for the small YouTubers that don't make it. I always think of YouTube in a way as an addiction. You get all these numbers that make you feel good, but as soon as they go down, which they will, people just don't know how to handle it.

They either get really sad, or they could just go crazy. And we're really sorry to see this more and more - people making a desperate attempt to maintain an audience, doing crazy things, just anything, just to get more fans.

Just to stay the way they are. So, my tip for anyone that wants to start making YouTube videos is the same boring reply that I always gave, which is: Do it because you enjoy making it. Because if you enjoy making them, people will enjoy watching them.

And if people don't watch them, then you're at least having fun making them, so you can't lose anyway. In my 100 subscribers special video that I made 8 years ago, I said this:

Felix voiceover: "Like, what's the next thing? Do you wanna be on Machinima? Do you wanna be famous? Okay, I guess, I guess it's a little early to talk about those kinds of stuff, but I just wanna address this and say that: No, no I don't wanna be famous and I really mean it."

YouTube has probably many things than I could ever imagine, so much joy and so many experiences that I never thought I would have. And for that, I am really, really and truly grateful, but it's definitely been one of the- some of the worst parts of my life as well.

But it's a great learning experience. You may not believe me when I say this, but I truly am so grateful to say honestly that I still really enjoy making videos even eight years after doing that. So thank you for watching. a pause for you to cope with the feeling that this conversation has actually come to an end :(

And have fun with it. BYE! <3