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Monday 16 May 2016

Using 'Dan and Phil' for views'



Sup guys, Cutiejea here!

First, I might be able to do 2 blog post per month... who knows. Just to let you know.

Ok for this post, I may get love or I may get hate. Either way, I need to get this out there. I tried to make a video about this but it always end up me not making sense whatsoever so I've decided to let it go but after jumping in to YouTube again and seeing another kind of video that I will be mentioning here in this post, I need to speak my mind out.

Also for this post, I will not mention names and show any videos because it will lead to an online war where I don't want to get deep in to.

So lets get started.

Today's blog post is about how YouTubers are using Dan and Phil or targeting fan groups for views.

Listen, I'm fine with whatever video you want to make since YouTube is such a creative space. You can bring up YouTubers as well to show that you've been in the loop, like you know what this space is and all that but there must be some line between 'being original' and 'using fan groups'.

Lets start with you guys accusing me of using 'dan and phil' in my channel. Listen, I make original content as well. To be honest, I make more original content than my fandom content. It's ratio is literally near a coin toss and I try to pursue more on my original content. And also, I've been in the phandom since 2014, I co-run @PhandomAus on Twitter and even written fan fiction (one of them got shortlisted for a university level creative writing contest). So if I make D&P videos, it doesn't matter since I have some involvement with the group.

My issue is people who are like 20 - 30+ people who are making videos about them. The weird part is that they look like they have no idea who Dan and Phil or any other youtubers are but know that if they make D&P content, they can attract an audience.

I'm not accusing youtubers like 'Crank that Frank' that he's part of this group, no... he's fine, there are others and I will not name them.

Listen, I'm not saying that you can't make these kinds of videos, it's your channel, do whatever you want. However, I make D&P videos when necessary, I don't have the ability to make them all the time. Even if I do, I make a decent amount of views. And I'm part of the Phandom.

The other group thou, they have no idea who they are, they just have to do a single Google search to find out who they are, read @UpdatedPhan on twitter just to have accurate constant updates about them and in the end, make a simple video and get more views than me. (Let me repeat, these people have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA who Dan and Phil are and GET MORE VIEWS for making basic to near-advanced content while I get at least 100 - 500 views when I make Phan videos).

I know I have no right to complain or anything since people will nag, saying 'make better content' or 'you suck' or 'you have a really small following' and other bullshit. But that's the thing, I tried EVERYTHING I could do and I also have other plans as well to post online but I feel like it's kinda unfair that there are people who COMPLETELY have no idea who these people are and get more views than me.

Is this fair? No! But can we do anything about it? Not really.

And that's the thing, I think people doing something like this is really unfair but there is literally nothing I can do about it since I'm just a small person. I don't think even my online friends can help me fight this battle since it's either they don't care or it's nothing to be worked up about. I know this shouldn't bother me but my recommendations feed lately besides Undertale, Drama Alerts and British Vloggers video recommendations, I will stumble across a video where people who are SOO OLD, reacting to PINOF or Phan Fiction just to get views!

I dare you to find these channels and question them about the advanced knowledge in the phandom like 2012 or V-day or anything else. Or better yet, ask if they went to TATINOF or MET THEM IN PERSON (Get Photo/video proof) or check their social media accounts if they post/reblog/retweet D&P content.

Same goes for other YouTubers that these people 'pretend' to know. Ask them the advanced knowledge about them, if they met them, if they bought a decent amount of merch. If they can't answer that, then they're just using them for views.

Anywho, this is just a rant that I've been having a hard time expressing through video and decided to type it all down in a blog post.

But do you have anything else to add in the conversation? Let me know!
My name is Cutiejea and this has been my Life Out of the Camera.

Tuesday 3 May 2016

Social Media – The Impacts it creates for Young Girls (ft. AmazingDogpie)

Sup guys, Cutiejea here.

Ok, so recently, I had a university assessment task where I had to write an essay about anything based what I've recently learned in university. So what I did what I chose the topic how social media has an impact on young girls. For this project, besides using academic articles, I used a lot (and i mean a lot) of YouTube videos, We the Unicorns articles and I interviewed 2 of my online friends who are Sophie (AmazingDogpie) and Ataska Mercado (The Voice Kids Philippines Contestant).




I got 12/20 for the essay btw! (don't ask).

So I kinda promised to share what I've written but due to privacy and stuff, I'm only allowed to share my interview with Sophie. So underneath is the near edited version of my essay of how social media impacts the mental health of younger girls.

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Social Media – The Impacts it creates for Young Girls

Social Media has changed how we communicate, perceive and share ourselves to others online as it has given us the opportunity to connect with different people around the world. Big named people like celebrities uses social media like Twitter to communicate to their followers and through this, it has also given anyone the opportunity to become famous. However, the use of social media for young girls opened up topics such as body image, mental health, and identity as this has evolved on how women were portrayed in the past in traditional media to the digital age where anyone with an Internet connection could be affected and the unclear difference between the online and real life identity.

For the sake of this topic, I also interviewed Sophie Milton (aka: Amazingdogpie), a songwriter with 2 thousand subscribers on YouTube via Twitter to give her viewpoints on the subject.



Throughout history, women were portrayed in media as ‘the perfect housewife’ and how they should be ‘serving their husbands’ and so on. This was accepted as it was the social structure until the 1990’s when women began to fight for their rights. Now in the 21st century, especially in this decade, social media has played a role in our society and a role on the degradation and portrayal of girls and women as the affected age has dropped from married and single women in their 30’s back in the last century to girls as young as 13 or lower. From ads to music videos and celebrities shown offline and online, girls and young women are mostly affected.

Sample ads in the past from Boredpanda.com:







In ‘My Great Big Adventure’ (2015), kids and teenagers were discussing why they use social media. A group of girls said that they enjoy using social media as they know there are people out there viewing their content and have the ability to showcase their lives and brag about it to them while a group of teens talked about how they use social media just to communicate with their distant relatives. Social media has changed on how we communicate with others all over the world and this gave the idea of the world going smaller.

When YouTube star Zoe Sugg posted a selfie with her in pajamas while her underwear is exposed on Snapchat, The Sun (2016) stated that Zoe’s exposing herself to her audience as young as 10 and deemed ‘inappropriate’. This created the #WeStandWithZoe campaign on Twitter (2016) as Zoe commented that it was a disgrace that The Sun reported about her rather than other important things as her post was meant to be innocent. This opened up a discussion of online identity as Zoe just wanted to post something innocent but she’s now categorised as a ‘celebrity’ due to the way she perceived in the online world due to the amount of attention she receives. Sophie said to me that she doesn't see herself as a celebrity but her fans love to praise her in that way and also mentions that she gets targeted for her talent due to the accusation of copying another songwriter. This shows that once you reach a certain level of attention, you start to feel pressure between your real and online identity.


Zoe's selfie (source)


Essena O’Neill is a model with over 250+ subscribers on YouTube and over 700k+ followers in Instagram. In her online video (2015) she explains about how she hated her ‘online persona’ and talks about how her online life is ‘fake’ and she got all caught up on it. Her story has opened up topics on identity, body image and sexism as she mentions when she was 12, she would look up models and how to become one and she would compare herself to them. She didn’t care if it was artificial, she just wanted to be valued and be like them and thought it’s through a large following in social media that she will feel ‘accepted’. All the things she has mentioned equates to exposing herself as ‘the perfect image’ and how people will only follow you if you become the person they want you to become rather than yourself.


 (The re-upload of the video)

But even just owning an account can girls still receive hate. Research (Bonanno & Hymel, 2013) shows that 57% affected from cyber bullying were females in the average age of 14.2 years. According to Blackery (2013) she thinks that girls get more criticized than boys online and the worse part is the anonymity factor where people can hide behind the screen and say whatever they want and it’s somewhat true as according to the Daily Mail (2015) girls aged 11 – 13 now feel more under pressure and are more likely to worry.

Fletcher (2013) thinks that the hate comments that females get on the Internet is based on appearance and targeting their self-esteem hence why it’s hard for girls and young women to brush it off. Sophie stated that in real life, she couldn’t talk about her online problems to her peers as she thinks that she will be judged. Stephen & Wilcox (2013) stated that our self-esteem can be enhanced through the use of social media and it can also determine our behavior. This shows that the feedback that young girls can receive can affect their mental health and how it could be pressured and feel less about themselves just through their interactions online and how they want the world to see them.

A resolution for this is that young girls need to be presented with someone who can motivate them to be themselves rather than to be an image of what they want to be as well as the awareness of the existence of online support networks as according to Mehta & Atreja (2015) users communicate with other people who may have experience the same issues and at the same time, being anonymous about it.

Therefore, young girls needs to presented with relatable role models and be supported with people they trust offline and online in order to prevent the stigma affecting their mental health.

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So this was my essay (or at least the edited version due to privacy reasons) but this just shows that it is possible to use YouTube for your homework ON A UNIVERSITY LEVEL and somewhat get away with it.

But why did I tackle this topic?

The reason is because it gives a bigger scope on how girls are portrayed online and how it impacts us in some way. You may not see it but there are times when people give the wrong impression on how girls show themselves in media and online as they take their persona in a literal sense rather than something else.

I know because it has happened to me!

Prior to when I was forced to delete my channel, I was told that the way I presented myself as this punk, badass, opinionated person isn't what they want me to be and that I should maintain a certain image of 'innocent', 'sweet' and 'cute'. It was annoying and it hurts as they didn't want me to express myself in a different image which made me feel like myself and  more on the image they wanted me to be got me bullied! 

Girls are given the pressure to maintain innocent and be a role model to perfection where in reality, it's not like that. We don't want to be this 'figure' of perfect.

But what are your thoughts on my little essay that I wrote for my uni assignment? I hope you like it. But I guess by this point, I will have a comment war where people will start questioning everything.

My name is Cutiejea and this is my Life out of the Camera.

Ps: Here is the reference list



References:

  • Sales, Nancy Jo (2016) Social Media and Secret Lives of American Girls, Time Vol. 187(6/7) pg 26 – 26, Retrieved From: http://time.com/americangirls/

  • Smyth, Sara (2015, April 20) Toll of social media on girls' mental health: Sexualised images fuelling rise in anxiety among pupils aged 11 to 13, Daily Mail, Retrieved From: http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1674166886?accountid=36155&rfr_id=info%3Axri%2Fsid%3Aprimo

  • Stephen, Andrew & Wilcox, Keith (2013, June 1) Are Close Friends the Enemy? Online Social Networks, Self-Esteem, and Self-Control, Journal of Consumer Research, DOI: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/10.1086/668794

  • Mehta, Neil ; Atreja, Ashish (2015) Online Social Support Networks, International Review of Psychiatry, 2015, Vol.27(2), p.118-123, DOI: 10.3109/09540261.2015.1015504

  • Bonanno, R. A., & Hymel, S. (2013). Cyber bullying and internalizing difficulties: Above and beyond the impact of traditional forms of bullying. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(5), 685-97. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9937-1

  • NineBrassMonkeys (2012, Dec 15) How to Get Views | BECOMING YOUTUBE | Video 2 (YouTube Video), Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCEOSWQtnR8

  • NineBrassMonkeys (2013, Feb 25) Girls On YouTube | BECOMING YOUTUBE | Video 7 (YouTube Video), Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsRHDdHsFo8

  • The Fine Brothers Entertainment (2014, Sept 21) Teens react to Nicki Minaj – Anaconda (YouTube Video), Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Uf7UpkbfmY

  • YouTube Spotlight (2016, March 8) #OwnYourVoice: Standing Up for Gender Equality (YouTube Video), Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAHDs83-YTc


  • iKaryn (2015, Nov 03) Essana O’Neil – Why I REALLY am quitting social media - (Original Video), Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1Qyks8QEM

  • Alanah Pearce (2013) Why You Shouldn't Want a Gamer Girlfriend (YouTube video), No longer available online

  • Pew Research Center (2015, April 9) Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015, Retrieved From: http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/

  • The Australian Broadcasting Company (2015, Feb 16) Social Media [TV Show], My Great Big Adventure | Series 2, Episode 5, Australia, Retrieved From: http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/mobile/videoDetail.html?s=4102942-1393381

  • The Australian Broadcasting Company (2012) Body Image [TV Show], My Great Big Adventure | Series 1, Episode 7, Australia, Retrieved From: http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/mobile/videoDetail.html?s=4310964-1473372

  • The Australian Broadcasting Company (2015, Mar 10) Self Esteem [TV Show], My Great Big Adventure | Series 2, Episode 8, Australia, Retrieved From: http://www.abc.net.au/abc3/mobile/videoDetail.html?s=4102942-1401826

  • The British Broadcasting Company (2016), The Rise of The Superstar Vloggers [TV Documentary], One Click Away, United Kingdom, Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA3LVgIKoFY

  • YouTube Red (2016), A Trip to Unicorn Island [Video Documentary], Worldwide

  • Zoella’s YouTube channel, Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/Zoella

  • Zoella (2014, Sept 1) Channel Trailer | Zoella (YouTube video), Retrieved From: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26SySrPnJDY

  • Zoella (2016, March 23) Comment on The Sun’s Article of her selfie [Twitter Post], Retrieved From: https://twitter.com/Zoella/status/712356726654291969

  • Hudson, Charleyy (2016, March 23) Zoella Fights Back Against The Press Trying to SLUT - SHAME Her, Retrieved From: http://www.wetheunicorns.com/news/zoella-pants-calvin-snapchat-selfie/


  • Hudson, Charleyy (2016, March 24) Team Internet Made #WeStandWithZoe The Top Twitter Trend, Retrieved From: http://www.wetheunicorns.com/news/westandwithzoe-zoella-snapchat-twitter-selfie/

  • The Sun (2016) YouTube star Zoella ditches wholesome image with bedtime Snapchat... of her in her knickers, Retrieved From: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/7019272/YouTube-star-Zoella-ditches-wholesome-image-as-she-Snapchats-bedtime-knicker-pic.html

  • Townsend, Benedict (2015, Nov 3) This YouTuber Just Quit Social Media And You NEED To Hear Her Explanation Why, Retrieved From: http://www.wetheunicorns.com/news/this-youtuber-just-quit-social-media-and-you-need-to-hear-her-explanation-why/

  • Smosh.com (2015), 'Social Media Is Not Real Life': Teen Instagram Star Explains Why She's Quitting Social Media, Retrieved From: http://www.smosh.com/smosh-pit/articles/social-media-not-real-life-teen-instagram-star-explains-why-shes-quitting-social

  • McCluskey, Megan (2016, Jan 1) Instagram Star Essena O’Neill Breaks her Silence on Quitting Social Media, Retrieved From: http://time.com/4167856/essena-oneill-breaks-silence-on-quitting-social-media/

  • Degrading Women in the Media (2011), Retrieved From: http://degradingwomeninthemedia.blogspot.com.au/

  • Fawcett (n.d.) Women in Media, Retrieved From: http://www.fawcettsociety.org.uk/policy-research/attitudes-media-culture/

  • Women in Advertisements and Body Image [n.d], Retrieved From: http://womeninads.weebly.com/history.html

  • Tom (2014) 23 Vintage Ads that Would be Banned Today, Retrieved From: http://www.boredpanda.com/vintage-ads/

  • Bullying Statistics (n.d) Cyber bullying Statistics, Retrieved From: http://www.bullyingstatistics.org/content/cyber-bullying-statistics.html

  • The Guardian (2014) The Seven Digital Deadly Sins, Retrieved From: http://sins.nfb.ca/