Many people are trying to find new ways to combat boredom while being stuck inside. One way to stay occupied is by keeping up with your favorite creators on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat. However, many celebrities are moving to different platforms in order to reach their fans and attract a new audience.
Well-known celebrities are using platforms such as Youtube to create and post content. Although many musicians have been known to post YouTube videos for their music videos, these are usually run by other people. Now, musicians like Miley Cyrus are starting to take their channels in a different direction by posting casual videos.
Other celebrities like Will Smith and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson post vlog-style videos, documenting their daily lives. It is odd seeing these big name celebrities on a platform I use every day. Granted, I usually watch commentary videos by YouTubers like Cody Ko, Noel Miller and Kurtis Conner, which are very different from celebrity content.
During Cody Ko and Noel Miller’s podcast episodes, they discussed the topic of celebrities making their way to YouTube. It was interesting to hear a YouTuber’s thoughts on famous people joining their platform.
Both of them explained that YouTube is heavily endorsing these celebrity videos, which takes away spots from regular posters on the top trending list. YouTube is using celebrities’ channels as a way to promote the platform and draw more viewers.
Although these videos are not as creative or edited as a seasoned YouTuber’s videos, they are still generating millions of views. This is probably because people aren’t watching these videos for the content, but for the people in them.
It’s always fun to see actors and actresses in their daily lives, because we become fans of the characters they play without really knowing anything about them. This is a chance to get to know the people behind the personas. Celebrities like Kylie Jenner are, in my opinion, killing the YouTube game.
Many of her videos have high production value, where she is simply sitting down with her friends chatting or playing games. I think it’s the perfect way to get to know her and her friends outside of Instagram and bad reality TV.
In the podcast, Ko and Miller predicted that celebrities probably won’t keep up their YouTube personas after the quarantine ends. They hypothesized that all the new content was because celebrities aren’t working on many professional projects right now, so they are pouring their time into their YouTube videos.
Either way, I am intrigued to see who joins the platform next and how long they keep it up. I’ll continue watching them and wait patiently for Timothee Chalamet to join in on the fun.
Shelby Bordes is a 21-year-old mass communication junior from Rayne, Louisiana.