Dear Open Letters, We need to talk.

When I first decided to become a writer, I was mainly inspired by those who had interesting opinions on social or pop culture issues that were fun in order to escape the reality of being a lonely, hard-working college student. Some of my biggest inspirations just so happen to be YouTubers like The Nostalgia Critic and The Young Turks, aka people who make comedy out of the world around us but still find a way to bring very insightful and intriguing arguments on the matter they are parodying. So it's sort of a surprise to me how someone as hard working and smart as The Nostalgia Critic, aka Doug Walker, is still only known by a few, even though their comedy is so funny and smart.

Now, you may be wondering, 'Hey, what does some old guy reviewing bad 80's kids movies have to do with me?' Just wait a second, I'm getting there.

After the debacle with The Fine Brothers and their attempted Trademarking of the term 'react', many fed up video creators made a very valid point on the monopoly of YouTube by pointing out how the majority of smaller channels with unique and entertaining videos and a cult fanbase are not given as much monotization as other YouTubers and that the majority of Youtube's most popular videos are ones that many call "Bait Clicks".

This is where you come in dear Open Letter.

You see, the definition of a "Click Bait" video or article is defined as "Website content that is aimed at generating advertising revenue, especially at the expense of quality or accuracy, relying on sensationalist headlines to attract click-throughs." For example, say someone posts a video or article that's entitled "I Think I'm Gonna Die", but when you click on the link, you discover the person is actually fine and simply had a bad flu virus in their system. It's a lot like comparing a popular pop song about going to the club to a rap song about trying to survive in a life of poverty and crime, while one has a lot more meaningful commentary to it, we all know which one will rake in the most attention and revenue.

Don't get me wrong, Open Letter, I know you mean well, that all you wanna do is tell us about your social anxiety, divorced parents or supportive high school friends in order to inspire people who may be in the same dilemma or appreciate the things we already have in our lives. But if I'm being perfectly honest here,

I know it's harsh, but it REALLY needs to be said. We already know people have had the same hardships as you have, we know that you 'know what we're going through'. But here's the thing: WE ALREADY KNOW. We already know that being hurt by other people totally sucks, we know that life is hard. But when you're preaching to us about your life story of how life has screwed you over but you 'overcame the odds', it's kind of like begrudgingly going to a preachy church youth group or Anonymous Meeting and listening to boring inspirational dialogue and watching people cry in a circle the entire time and applaud the 'brave warrior' who presented.

Does the thought of that make you cringe as much as it makes me cringe? Then I think you may be getting my point.

I know you mean well, I know you want everyone to see you for the right reasons, but I really need to say it. I am a hopeful journalist/creative writer who writes thoughtful and inventive articles that mean so much to me in order to find people who are like-minded or to inspire other readers in a creative way. So whenever I see my article being judged marginally next to an article titled 'An Open Letter to my Dead Cat', where my article only gets 10 notes while yours gets 10,000, I can't help but be a little pissed off about it.

You see, this isn't just me getting my ego crushed, this is me seeing the road the world of online writing and media is going towards and seeing the integrity and ingenuity of writing for the public diminishing and being replaced by articles that simply don't teach us something.

Writing is mainly used to teach the public something new or bring out bigger and better ideas, as I believe it should be. So to see the majority of popular media being pointless feels fodder, it's incredibly disheartening.

So as a final note, dear open letter, here's the only advice I can give you:

Seriously, please stop. You're not improving the lives of anyone, you're not being 'witty' or 'inspirational' you are simply trying to make interesting the basic things that literally nobody cares about or likes. So please spare us the inside jokes with your roommates or the memories you had with your dead cat, it's for your own good.

Sincerely, An annoyed and disheartened writer.

And to those who want to keep writing these pointless articles because all that matters to you is 'the most views' or 'the most notes' because attention to your pieces matter more to you than actually being creative or informative in your writing, just....just please don't. But who am I kidding, this will only get a few people talking while yours will probably make the front page of the Wall Street Journal someday.

sigh.