Are You Chasing Your Tail to Please YouTube?

I’ve recently watched quite a few videos that are focussed on older folks making good progress on YouTube. That’s ok to a point. But I’m convinced that putting an emphasis on success isn’t a healthy approach for smart seniors.

After all, YouTube is one of Google’s* tools designed to strengthen the brand and generate lots and lots of dollars. And it does that very successfully because we, the industrious video-uploaders, are fundamentally a means to an end. Beyond that, we don't matter one bit.

With that in mind, I’d rather not think of myself as a YouTuber. I use YouTube to meet my personal needs. I’m a UK pensioner who makes videos and puts them online, where they are largely passed by. That does bother me, if I'm honest, but not anything like as much as it used to. Creating popular videos to a good standard that can be watched without interruption isn't as straightforward as it seems — not for me anyway.

I’d rather not think of myself as a YouTuber

Like elderly men everywhere who lock themselves away and build complex and sometimes very valuable train sets, I make videos as a distracting hobby that keeps me creative into my old age. It can be demanding, and takes a properly focussed mind, but once in a while it all falls into place. Success is nice — and rare — but it really doesn't matter. Why should it, unless we’re on YouTube hoping to generate cash to help pay our bills. In some contexts I can understand that.

There’s so much advice about how to be successful on YouTube that I have to wonder if this overemphasis obscures the fact that ‘success’ can be measured in other ways — better ways. Many computer hours that result in videos we are pleased with is being successful. I don’t need more than this.

For some, popularity clearly feeds their ego and keeps them motivated. I don't want to be like that. I've enough faults. Recognition, likes, hits, subscribers, lots of engaging comments, achieving goals that keep us popular — these are the curse of the social media mindset and can lead to dissatisfaction, disappointment, frustration and even shallowness.

Getting the most out of our favourite YouTube channels is expensive

Some 'YouTubers' stress over stat minutia and will use every trick in the book to keep people watching and coming back. But in truth, getting the most out of our favourite YouTube channels is expensive. It costs £12.99/$13.99 for one month's ad-free viewing. Just six months spread over a year will cost almost £80. And if we don't pay up, the videos we make and watch will be shot through with crass ads.

But it gets worse than that. Even when we do pay up, there are so many YouTube videos that are sponsored, we end up being bombarded by advertising anyway. There's no escaping it.

*“Google’s marketing strategy is heavily anchored in data-driven advertising… At the core of this strategy lies Google’s unparalleled data collection and analysis capabilities… In other words, Google is a marketing and advertising company… Every search query, every click, and every interaction with its vast array of services contribute to a deep understanding of consumer behaviors and preferences” (Marketing Explainers).

In other words, we are Google’s commodities, something to use to generate vast sums of money.