Vlogged

Social media platforms are a space for collaboration, commenting, sharing and liking stuff. On most videos on YouTube viewers have the possibility to leave comments and give 'thumbs up'. Let's talk audience! Most vlogs that I've seen for this project are from YouTubers with a few thousand subscribers, meaning that they receive plenty of comments on their videos. This subject relates to digital citizenship. In a way, comments are a space to freely express opinions about the videos, especially as those who comment can choose to be more or less anonymous. Their real name does not have to show and they can choose a custom username. A major downside from this anonymity, and also the fact that commenting is indirect (typing on a screen from anywhere on the globe), is that it is easy for a viewer to leave negative comments. There are the 'haters' who comment negatively, are judgmental or even bully the creator or other viewers. Sometimes they'd be actively tr...

It’s time to discuss point-out-worthy topics seen in vlogs in Youtube-land. Examples will be discussed through the themes of digital citizenship and privacy.  Digital Citizenship is mainly about participating in on-line platforms. It includes protection, being careful about posting content and on-line behaviour. The first channel I want to discuss is Stellig, a youtube channel on which couple Darcy and Thomas post daily vlogs. A few months ago, Darcy gave birth to twins, and the baby girls have been appearing in every vlog from that day. The girls were born prematurely, so they spent several weeks  in hospital, an emotional and personal experience which the couple shared with their audience. They have been at home for quite a while now though. Thomas and Darcy show things such as feeding time, napping, walks and giving the girls a bath.  It's quite an interesting case, as these baby girls cannot say anything against their parents posting their lives on YouTu...

This post is a continuation of the previous topic, elaborating reality in vlogs with more examples and thoughts. Through social media it is possible to create a custom persona. This means that one can pretend to be or do things they normally don't. For example this girl who made everyone (including her family) believe she was on a holiday for five weeks, or these students who created a pretend social influencer and gained over 10.000 Instagram followers within two weeks. These experiments illustrate, again, how easy it is to make the audience believe nearly everything through social media and modern technology. Constructing a specific reality is possible through selection and omission. The selection of the things we do want the audience to see, omission of what we don't want them to see. Pretty straightforward. Obviously, for vlogs it is kind of necessary to cut and edit fragments, because no one would want to watch a 12+ hour video of every little detail of someone...

The one thing to always keep in mind when watching vlogs, or reading anything on the internet, is credibility. It is essential to not believe everything you see right away, and with vlogs this is also the case. The editors of the vlogs can cut out any bit they want, making things look different than they want. Bonnie, from BonColor even once said that she doesn’t include events such as arguing with her boyfriend, as it is private and not for her viewers to see. Cheers to that Bonnie! But just keep in mind that some vloggers will never admit to these things giving the impression that their life is perfect.  Dutch vloggers and YouTubers Saske de Schepper and Alwin Ritsier pulled a brilliant, in my opinion, prank on April first this year, on their channel Vet Gezellig . In short, they are a couple who live together who make mostly weekly vlogs showing their activities day to day, ranging from work, to parties, to chilled evenings at home. Besides making those videos they run t...