Big YouTube creators complaining of fatigue - Would you want to be so unlucky?

[R-Rated]

I heard this on the way home, and if this is in the wrong section - Mods please move it to the right one:

https://www.npr.org/2018/08/13/6339...sfying-fans-is-burning-out-some-youtube-stars

and it got me thinking again of a pattern that seems to be in fame. Person struggles to be an artist. Person succeeds. Person thrives. Person plateaus. Person either walks away or comes out with some personal issue for sympathy.

I know of plenty of people that work 60 hours or more a week just to provide for their families to have the bare minimum so when a rich and famous person who worked hard to get to that peak of fame then calls out "poor me, please don't leave" I just feel . . .well like they are being a tad greedy in some way.

I don't know. Maybe I see online social media somewhere between creating art for art's sake and create a commodity for the consumer. If you cannot create a quality product in the amount the market demands then why complain? Why not share the spotlight with others.

Then again, maybe I got this whole thing wrong?

 

[lupin]

Tell me you don't get the same feeling on a small scale when your trying to produce videos to a schedule.

I know there was a period where I was ready to give it up after trying to make two videos a week.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

I am having a blank at the moment, fortunately I have some videos banked to put out. When a creator has put out content over and over and over and over, they will find a point where they are tired. A large creator is still a human, to compare them to average Joe who works 60hrs a week on minimum wage is flawed. Average Joe could have possibly studied harder, not got the cheerleader pregnant, taken a right turn instead of a left at a fork in their life. Now I am not judging a minimum wage hard worker, they do what they have to do to survive, and it is often unfair when there is a divide of wealth. But, someone who creates and is expected to be a performing monkey to those who elevated them to that point will burn out.

The awesome thing about YouTube/social media is that if you don't like the things someone is saying, you can unsub/unfriend/unfollow, or just not open that web browser. Unfortunately the internet breeds trolls and they bite at creators who do not pander to the trolls whims or requirements. An actor is in a movie/show and they are paid for that role, for that portion of their life. A content creator is also paid for their time, but they have viewers who feel they know the real person, not a character in a movie or a soap opera, so the viewer feels they are owed by that creator, and not the other way around, which it would be if they were in a movie.

I have a "day job", and at times I feel like I have had enough of it, sometimes the management have ideas I disagree with, but I keep on going in, I keep on doing it.... why? I do it because I have a set role, I can perform to my contract and that gets me my pay packet. A content creator has to entertain, but they can't keep doing the same thing over and over, else people will get bored, so they have to constantly look at their content model and adapt it, to keep it fresh. There are only so many ideas for a motovlog, and unless you have a teleportation device, you are normally limited to a radius of roads. Again, this would get boring very quickly if not mixed up a bit.

Just because a creator has 1 squillion subs and each video gets a billion views does not mean that creator is not allowed to have bad days/weeks/months.

As for asking them to move over, that is like asking that person working 60hrs a week who is looking a bit tired and jaded because they are working their guts out to hand over 50hrs or whatever to a chap who only has ever worked 10hrs a week because he looks fresh and full of energy and enthusiasm to do more hours.... in a few weeks/months time, that new person would be looking as tired as the person who was screwed over on their hours they needed to survive on.

Wow, that got a lot of words outta me.... Just my opinion, probably wrong, but it is my opinion.

 

[R-Rated]

I am having a blank at the moment, fortunately I have some videos banked to put out. When a creator has put out content over and over and over and over, they will find a point where they are tired. A large creator is still a human, to compare them to average Joe who works 60hrs a week on minimum wage is flawed. Average Joe could have possibly studied harder, not got the cheerleader pregnant, taken a right turn instead of a left at a fork in their life. Now I am not judging a minimum wage hard worker, they do what they have to do to survive, and it is often unfair when there is a divide of wealth. But, someone who creates and is expected to be a performing monkey to those who elevated them to that point will burn out.

The awesome thing about YouTube/social media is that if you don't like the things someone is saying, you can unsub/unfriend/unfollow, or just not open that web browser. Unfortunately the internet breeds trolls and they bite at creators who do not pander to the trolls whims or requirements. An actor is in a movie/show and they are paid for that role, for that portion of their life. A content creator is also paid for their time, but they have viewers who feel they know the real person, not a character in a movie or a soap opera, so the viewer feels they are owed by that creator, and not the other way around, which it would be if they were in a movie.

I have a "day job", and at times I feel like I have had enough of it, sometimes the management have ideas I disagree with, but I keep on going in, I keep on doing it.... why? I do it because I have a set role, I can perform to my contract and that gets me my pay packet. A content creator has to entertain, but they can't keep doing the same thing over and over, else people will get bored, so they have to constantly look at their content model and adapt it, to keep it fresh. There are only so many ideas for a motovlog, and unless you have a teleportation device, you are normally limited to a radius of roads. Again, this would get boring very quickly if not mixed up a bit.

Just because a creator has 1 squillion subs and each video gets a billion views does not mean that creator is not allowed to have bad days/weeks/months.

As for asking them to move over, that is like asking that person working 60hrs a week who is looking a bit tired and jaded because they are working their guts out to hand over 50hrs or whatever to a chap who only has ever worked 10hrs a week because he looks fresh and full of energy and enthusiasm to do more hours.... in a few weeks/months time, that new person would be looking as tired as the person who was screwed over on their hours they needed to survive on.

Wow, that got a lot of words outta me.... Just my opinion, probably wrong, but it is my opinion.

Good points. Before I respond, I want to see if any of the other forum members have a take on the issues/article since this is a world forum.

 

[SighBored]

We can't imagine what it is like to be a big YT star, but I can assume it's not always blue skies and sunshine. When you are famous, you have do find ways to keep the fame train going, this in turn demands that you keep yourself in the trending zone, posting trending stuff, coming up with new trending ideas, etc. It's not as easy as in sounds but that's the price you pay if you want to ride the fame train I guess.

 

[Theodor]

You work hard, take a vacation, you discover the next payday is not what it used to be.
You work hard, can't get a vacation, you burn out.
You don't work hard, life still sucks.
Go figure, maybe fame is not the answer.

Anyway, the personal sad story, for sympathy. If this has worked for others, why not take advantage of the same move? Anything to keep the coins coming. Pay a journalist to make you famous again.

 

[scottrod]

I find it hard sometimes juggling work, family, house move, gym and vlogging!

If I dont get a video out I feek let down and dissapointed in myself haha.

I dont take it too seriously though. The videos are made its tbe editing that takes the time!

 

[WheelyPerd]

Everyone always wants more right? First its, get a 100 subs, then 1000, then 10000. I imagine its 10x worse if you are a "full time youtuber".

 

[HeyItsRick]

I think getting burnt out is why it's important to focus on making this fun and not losing sight of that. There's lots of youtube creators out there who I enjoy that will put out 1 video maybe every week, sometimes every 2 weeks.
I'm sure if you make this a full-time thing where your next meal is depending on the ad revenue that would be stressful.
But RULE#1, Live within your means.
YouTube is fickle and they can change the rules as we learned when they started demonetizing videos.

If a creator doesnt stick to a schedule it doesnt turn me off to the channel, the content is what keeps me.
Take BroScience for example, Donnie makes a joke out of his upload schedule at the end of every video and goes about a month between uploads (used to be every week). Yet here I am still crawling back to have a good laugh at him breaking down the most alpha exercises or stereotypes in the gym.

I do feel bad for those big youtubers who feel the need to constantly churn out content. The way I look at it though is that as long as your content is good, people will stay with you no matter who infrequent you upload.

That said, I gotta improve my content lol.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

 

[R-Rated]

Is there a Cliff notes version of his talking points? Seemed to just hammer on being burned out at some point and taking time off.

So how's that different than any other job?

Oh, his point that the find a job you love is a myth...not true. I had one once.

Now, back to the debate. Name any job other than big YouTuber/actor/artist of some sort where the worker can say, "Hey boys, I have hit a wall and need time off. In the meantime, can you all still hang around my workplace so I look viable and get paid? "

Some of you hit it on the head. If we become reliant on the YouTube income only then we too might be faced with the same dilemma so maybe the answer is to diversify or have a steady job to live off of and use YouTube as a way to support a hobby.

 

[R-Rated]

Tell me you don't get the same feeling on a small scale when your trying to produce videos to a schedule.

I know there was a period where I was ready to give it up after trying to make two videos a week.

Actually I don't but then again I live for challenges. I tend to thrive in that situation. I just have to be mindful not to let bad energy run off on me.

 

[Hippo-Drones]

I personally think that there is a huge difference between the pressures on a full time content creator and a one who does it as a hobby. So I agree in a sense, but, BUT....
There are not many big successful channels that put out content on a schedule that are not doing this full time. Yours and my idea of successful are possibly very different. If a creator gets to the point where they can't continue with the lifestyle they are used to just on YouTube, then they have to face reality and go get a job, but if they have not gotten to that threshold point where they have to make a decision, surely they are still entitled to be stressed about their finances, and to sometimes struggle to create content of a standard on time each week. The main difference between those and the hobby creators is they are expected to put out content, when they don't they will either lose subs or be inundated with people pressuring them to make content. So they make the odd video saying what's going on, that they are struggling so their audience is able to understand what is going on.
If my content was as popular as "Do it with Dan"'s and the like, I think I would probably still keep working, but that is because my job is a good one (I am not rich, but I have a comfy lifestyle), if however YouTube was putting a similar paypacket in my bank each month that I would not even be able to dream of even getting close to as a minimum wage school dropout, it would not make any sense to keep working at KFC for bugger all money. The stress at knowing your only hope of a decent paypacket is YouTube must be unreal on those people.