‘Being’ a YouTuber: A Confession

Posted: 6/1/2024

Script and References

Summary: In this video, I talk about my journey as a YouTuber. I explain how I used to feel really proud of myself, but then I realized I had a lot more to learn. I discuss how important it is for me to be responsible and honest in my videos. I also share my plans to make three kinds of videos in the future: educational videos, personal reflection videos, and videos where I analyze and discuss interesting topics.

Outline

Introduction

  1. Being a YouTuber is not simply uploading videos regularly. (p. 1) 1a. Having a large view count or subscriber count is a sign of power as a YouTuber. (p. 1) 1b. Numbers are the power of influencers, showing off for them if they’ve done their job. (p. 1)

Sources of Influencer Selfhood

  1. I am a YouTuber when I am doing YouTube, but am not when I haven’t uploaded in a long time. (p. 1-2)
  2. We use signs of trust to confirm our pretensions that people are truthful to us. (p. 1)
    3a. Subscriber counts are a sign that viewers can use to trust a YouTuber. (p. 1)
  3. A contract of good faith arises between YouTuber and viewer - the YouTuber has the viewer’s credence, the viewer has what the YouTuber authors. (p. 1-2)
  4. An “I” and a “You” are assumed whenever a YouTuber puts out content - the YouTuber is a master over the viewer in some way. (p. 2)
  5. The YouTuber shapes who they become through their actions, actualizing their soul with each action. (p. 3)
  6. If a YouTuber is not fulfilling the call-response circuit by uploading, they are not being actualized as a YouTuber. (p. 3)

Unintended Consequences

  1. We stay the same enough over time for others to recognize and trust us, but inconceivable consequences arise if we look back at our changes. (p. 3-4)
  2. I began thinking seriously about political issues in middle school, which fed my ego that I was conceiving of what was right. (p. 4)
  3. The praise and recognition I received in high school for my accomplishments fueled my ego and certainty that I could do no wrong. (p. 4-5)

Self-Reconstruction

  1. Entering college and encountering professors and peers who knew much more than me crumbled my ego and made me question my self-worth. (p. 5-6)
  2. Anxiety and depression arose from no longer being able to make sense of things when my ego crumbled. (p. 6)
  3. I produced an order out of the chaos of self-criticism by recognizing my situation in history as an actor who can forge myself. (p. 7)
  4. Taking a philosophical, self-reflective approach provides hope and a more complete form of egoism compared to seeking external validation. (p. 7-8)

Being Towards the Future

  1. I want to take how I intervene as a public figure online very seriously, spelling out my methods clearly. (p. 8)
  2. Citation, clarity, consistency and dialogue are formal conditions I want to institute for my YouTube content creation. (p. 9)
  3. I want my videos to educate by presenting worthwhile knowledge, reflect on my own self-development, and speculatively recognize social conditions. (p. 10)
  4. The romantic vision I have is to create resources to raise consciousness about the human condition and liberate people by voicing their experiences. (p. 11)
  5. One reason for clearly laying out my commitments is to create referenceable resources to enable making concise arguments in future videos. (p. 11-12)
  6. I want to be absolutely responsible for everything I say as a thinking being who shapes the world with my actions. (p. 12)

    Glossaries

    Marx: “capitalism,” “labor”

Freud: “id,” “ego,” “super-ego,” and “unconscious desires.”

Hegel: “dialectic,” “self-consciousness,” “immanent critique,” and “master-slave dialectic.”

Aristotle: “syllogism,” “efficient conditions,” “formal conditions,” “material conditions”

Literary Terms: “romanticism,” “modernism,” “postmodernism,” “avant-garde,” and “nihilism.”

Media and Communications Terms: “hermeneutics,” “semiotics,” “simulacra,” “hyperreality,” “propaganda,” “agenda-setting,” and “public sphere,”

Moral and Philosophical Terms: “deontology,” “utilitarianism,” “virtue ethics,” “moral relativism,” and “existentialism.”

Critical Theory: “Frankfurt School,” “cultural hegemony,” “reification,” “alienation,” and “culture industry.”