The future seems bright where technology is concerned, and blogger Jordan Lejuwaan believes that amateur video content creators will reap monetary rewards if only they follow a few simple rules. Lejuwaan believes that the internet is a great leveler in terms of its access, meaning it does not take major investments or for content creators to be marketing wizards in order to produce videos on Youtube and other social media websites. Anyone can go from being an unknown to an Internet sensation. Even kids as young as 10 years of age are raking in thousands and will continue to do so. For Lejuwaan there is only an upside, where not only are content creators making money but they will also be offered lucrative deals from major media outlets as well as movie production companies. All of which may be so, yet before uploading that first vlog or video, there is in reality much to consider.
While it is true that anyone can become famous, or infamous, on Youtube, the fact is that not many are making money. The few simple rules Lejuwaan alludes to can be insurmountable for the millions of bourgeoning content creators who have started in their bedrooms while using a smartphone. He fails to mention the requirements that Youtube has for monetization, essentially meaning how videos, and their creators, are paid. Their rules continue to evolve, making it more difficult to earn revenue from said creations. For example, Youtube only recently changed their monetization guidelines which now require content creators to accrue 4,000 hours of viewership over a 12-month period and reach 1,000 subscribers (Alexander).
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"Youtube and a Debatable Future".
As social media continues to grow in popularity, content creators, now and into the future, must also compete with established celebrities and popular actors such as Will Smith and Dwayne Johnson (Frazin). The rules that entangle content creation and monetization, coupled with growing competition, are merely two issues facing Internet-fame wannabe’s, but for the end user the growing variety of content means there will always be something of interest or entertainment that can be accessed any time, day or night. This has been true since the beginning of social media websites, such as Youtube, and will remain so going into the future.
Youtube, and other social media websites that allow for content creation have been in existence for a great deal of time, and the existence of Internet celebrity and its potential as a cash cow are what makes the notion of attempting to draw viewers so tempting. Youtube will offer its users pretty much more of the same for years to come, however a looming question persists considering that the website continues to change its rules concerning monetization: Who will control the content, advertisers or content creators? As the rules continue to change and seem to favor advertising, it may be that the website may become increasingly more like a television network and far more autocratic in regard to its content (Gerould). This is not entirely bad, considering controversies regarding hate speech and other issues that are debated, new rules created by Youtube (and other social media platforms) may be successful at reducing the numbers of channels, for example, dedicated to hate and violence (Gerould). While Youtube will continue to develop algorithms to address such issues, said technology will also continue determine users’ own viewing preferences in order to deliver content it believes are matches to those preferences (Dredge). Youtube will become more competitive with mainstream media or television outlets and may, in fact, become its own television network of sorts (Dredge). But these are only a few considerations as Youtube, its content creators, advertisers and viewers, move into a relatively unknown, and debatable, future.
- Alexander, Julia. “YouTube’s Lesser-known Creators Worry for the Future After Major Monetization Changes (update).” Polygon, Vox Media, 17 Jan. 2018, www.polygon.com/2018/1/17/16900474/youtube-monetization-small-creators-adsense.
- Dredge, Stuart. “YouTube is 10 Years Old, but What Will It Look Like in 2025?” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media Limited, 16 Feb. 2015, www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/16/youtube-in-2025-future-predictions.
- Frazin, Cara. “Youtube the Future of Television? ? Medium, 12 Feb. 2018, medium.com/scaleabout/youtube-the-future-of-television-427d4bf809c2.
- Gerould, Margot. “Will Brands or Creators Decide the Future of YouTube?” L&T Co, 21 June 2018, landt.co/2018/06/will-brands-or-creators-decide-the-future-of-youtube/.
- Lejuwaan, Jordan. “10 Ways the Next 10 Years Are Going To Be Mind-Blowing.” High Existence, highexistence.com/10-ways-the-next-10-years-are-going-to-be-mind-blowing/. Accessed 3 Dec. 2018.
