YouTube Rewind 2018 Is A Trainwreck
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YouTube Rewind 2018 Is A Trainwreck

Is it too late to put out the fire?

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YouTube Rewind 2018 Is A Trainwreck
Marc Anthony Brown

Over the last couple of years, YouTube Rewind has been seen as becoming more and more disconnected with its creators. For over thirteen years, people across the world have been able to upload different types of content that they enjoy. YouTube itself was originally built on the platform of creator content. However, for the past three years or so, YouTube as a business has been leaning to a more corporate territory. There's the YouTube Premium Membership that blocks ads and allows users to stream music in the background without the need for YouTube App to be open.

More and more celebrities have found a place on the site and rack up millions of views a video like Will Smith, John Oliver, and Trevor Noah. And what is regarded as the most troubling is YouTube's push to be more advertiser-friendly. This has had vastly negative effects on YouTube as a whole as creators across the world are constantly hit with copyright strikes and/or demonetization on their videos. All these factors have led to 2018 becoming a bad year for YouTube in the eyes of its users. This has led to YouTube Rewind becoming the most disliked YouTube Rewind video in the history of the series. As of December 8th, 2018, it has over three million dislikes. Where did it all go wrong and what is the solution? Can YouTube have a better year in 2019?

Before we continue it is important to at least watch the YouTube Rewind 2018 video before diving into this response piece. Now I regularly use YouTube, pretty much every day. It is my most used app according to my phone and I am proud to say that. I support YouTube as a business and wish for it to continue to be a great streaming platform. Heck, I pay every month for YouTube Premium. But that doesn't mean I won't call out the site's problems.


YouTube Rewind 2018: Everyone Controls Rewind | #YouTubeRewindwww.youtube.com

2018 has seen a massive shift in ads on YouTube. It all started with Logan Paul in early January of 2018 after sharing his video of a dead body in a Japanese suicide forest. This sparked a snowball effect on everyone else on the platform. May advertisers did not want to associate their products with content deemed not suitable for all audience. So, YouTube reworked their algorithm to demonetize certain videos that they deemed "not advertiser-friendly." This move has suppressed many content creators' videos. One excellent example is YouTuber Philip Defranco.

Defranco is a YouTuber and host of his new show of the same name. Five or more times a week he releases news videos on current events. Now he and YouTube have a decent working relationship. But that relationship can be strained sometimes as his news videos can be suppressed from time to time. The news is not always sunshine and rainbows. There can be controversy like in August when he did a report on a Catholic Priest abuse scandal in Pennsylvania. In the video, the Pennsylvania Grand Jury released a document of over one thousand pages detailing abuses made in several dioceses in the state over the last seventy years. Obviously, this is a horrible topic to talk about, but it is also an important one. However, the video was obviously "dinged" by the algorithm and it did not appear on some users' watch page. Defranco addresses this in some follow up videos.

It is understandable that some advertisers do not want their content on stuff not suitable for everyone. But in reality, I am not going to associate an ad by Pepsi with a news video discussing this abuse scandal. It's comparing apples to oranges. The purpose of this algorithm is to take down the outliers, the ones who abuse the system. However, it seems to have really destroyed a lot of creators' livelihood.

And like other large social media companies, the help/support team is hardly ever present. YouTube leaves their creators in the dark as they implement new changes to their site. Each new change affects a creator differently, so it would be nice for YouTube to be clear on their plan to their users. This is probably one of the biggest disconnects right now with YouTube, the lack of communication. I am not sure how it can change in 2019, but here's hoping for the best. But it seems that more well-recognized star power is taking shape on the platform.

YouTube's motto in the past was that anybody could be a creator. Now it seems like celebrities are homing in on the power of YouTube and creating their own channels. I enjoy personally watching the daily clips from Trevor Noah's or John Oliver's talk shows. But at the same time, I am more interested in the videos of my favorite YouTubers. Certain celebrities do not need YouTube because they are so popular. I am not saying they are not allowed to have a channel, I am just saying they don't need a channel because they seem to be doing more harm than good. Kylie Jenner for example, her video about Stormi has over 78 Million views. And is one of the most popular YouTube videos on the site. And while I sometimes enjoy the Kardashian family and their antics, I just feel like the number one most viewed video on the site for 2018 should not have gone to Kylie.

Now there are celebrities that bring a new life to YouTube. Will Smith's new channel has taken the site by storm. And while he still has that stigma of being an actor, I feel like he is sort of blurring the line between a YouTuber and a celebrity. Other channels are able to mimic the kind of production his video receives, and I feel as 2019 rolls around, the gap between the two will soon be non-existent.

According to The Fine Brother's recent video on YouTube Rewind 2018, this year only one hundred or so YouTube creators were asked to be a part of this year's rewind. Last year's YouTube Rewind had around 250 creators featured in it. While the smaller size cast this year was able to portray a more coherent storyline for the video, it really made the video lack substance. Now every year people complain about their favorite YouTubers not being featured in rewind. That is just a nitpick people need to get over due to the vast size of YouTube. I am not expecting my favorite channel CacophonyandDiscord to be featured when users like Markiplier and Liza Koshy have millions of more followers. But certain YouTubers that I am not even a fan of should have been featured.

PewDiePie is the biggest still, even after T-Series tried to dethrone him with subscribers. As of December 8th, 2018, he is at 75 Million subscribers. When the campaign started, he was around 67 Million Subscribers. While his relationship with YouTube has not been friendly, he still deserves to be in the video. It is more important to feature the content creators that helped build YouTube to what it is today than not featuring them at all. And it seemed that a lot of the YouTubers in this video I did not know, and I find that kind of odd because I usually know a lot of them. Like last year I was able to point out dozens I knew, and I wasn't even subscribed to them all.

2018 has been an eventful year. In the United States, there has been political change with the younger generation making their voice heard and trying to ask for change. In other parts of the world, large events have taken place like the Paralytic Olympics in China or FIFA 2018 taking over the world this year. None of that was mentioned this year in the sit-down moment for 2018. Before discussing the social change aspect, I have to address the trends this year. The entire video seemed to be talking about Fortnite and the impact it had on the community which has been large.

However, that wasn't the only thing this year. Avengers Infinity War has taken the world by storm. Each new trailer becomes the most viewed movie trailer in history. It made 2 Billion Dollars in the box office and led to hundreds talking. But nope, nothing on that. Or the celebrities that passed away like Stan Lee or Steven Hawking who changed the world in their respective fields. Or how the Royal Wedding this year, instead of writing a story around it like the video suggested it was trying to do it was just thrown away to a quick joke. All that can be forgiven in retrospect, but the certain things can't. I am referring to the campfire segment of course.

Now I believe in social change. I marched in the March for Our Lives event in Cleveland, I call out politicians in debates that are tearing our country apart. And I make sure as a man that I am not allowing myself to undermine women in my day to day interactions. But I do not like it when entertainment just hammers it in. Because it turns me off, a supporter of all this positive change, and it most likely turns off the individuals who we as a community are trying to change for the better. Also, some of the stuff mentioned in this year's Rewind video had me tilting my head.

For example, I'm still not talking about my mental health in public. There are laws just passed before the new year taking away aid to mothers and their children (Ohio Heartbeat Bill). And there are still dozens of refugees out there searching for a home. You can't have Superwoman say, 'You know who really needs to be in this rewind video" (3:43) and not feature the people you are talking about. The scene really became tone deaf compared to last year's 2017 YouTube Rewind. That rewind had a nice Segway into the more controversial topics and still kept the video feeling upbeat and everything.


March for Our Lives in Cleveland (March 2018) Marc Anthony Brown

I feel showing people around the world who are still struggling like the March for our Lives advocates or the refugees in Mexico or Syria who are still fighting for a better life and it would have been a nice touch to show us coming together with them in a call to action for 2019 to be the year we finally help them. But just having people who are the most removed from these certain topics talk about it around a campfire and not having any history of contributing to the change really makes me scratch my head at the overall scene.

To conclude this piece, YouTube Rewind 2018 was a travesty. It really was a slap in the face to all the users who wish for YouTube to be improved and have clearer communication with its users. We don't want a corporate takeover of YouTube and wish for it to remain what it originally promised. A platform where anyone can be famous.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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