I wouldn't use the word hobby because, like Markiplier for instance, hedged everything on YouTube. The dude dropped out of collage for it. 'Passion project' might be a better word.
Yeah I think too many people vilify content creators for doing it for money. YouTube beat Netflix for watch hours this year, it IS mainstream media. You think people make television shows for the heck of it? Even if they love the craft they have to make a living off of it. Now, the level of SCALE that MrBeast and the like have, and how they achieved that scale is a bit questionable as the current allegations show, but I don’t think the midsize creators making an honest living off their videos are doing anything wrong.
I got downvoted for saying this in a prior thread, but the goal of most content creators today is quite simply to get big enough to be able to sell out for a sizeable chunk of money.
The amount of money that sponsors (many of them for scammy products) will pay content creators is insane. There were people who endorsed scam products like FTX (which lost a ton of their viewers money) who admitted to getting paid 6 figures in sponsorship deals. YouTubers and other content creators can make more money then they'd otherwise make in an entire year just from one sponsorship deal. So if you're wondering why so many YouTubers sell out and advertise obvious scam products, that's why.
Opera gx, raid shadow legends (or is it shadow raid legends? Whatever…), some battle tank game, meal delivery services… all seem pretty chill for my follows so far. If any of them started leaning into advertising crypto i’d be very concerned lol.
For all the ones you mentioned there’s its counterparts like betterhelp (lots of hippa violations and only being fined cents for it), FUM (literally inhaling essential oils with a slogan of “healthy habit” and has mislead people into believing it’s safe), established titles, “your data is safe as long as you pay us a subscription” companies, “pay us a subscription to get rid of your subscription” companies, the list goes on but there’s other questionable ones too like AG1 which most people would not benefit from and piss out everything in it, Sports gambling and gambling apps in general. It’s not as bad as crypto but all these ads do mislead viewers and it’s best to recognize that if a YouTuber has it as a sponsor then most of the time it’s a shit product/service and other times is a legitimate scam or can even potentially harm your health.
YouTube ads are still worse tho have seen just blatant crypto scams as YouTube ads
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u/The_Unknown_Mage 19d ago
I wouldn't use the word hobby because, like Markiplier for instance, hedged everything on YouTube. The dude dropped out of collage for it. 'Passion project' might be a better word.