The millennial is a group of people or a generation that is anybody who is born approximately in 1994 & after. YouTube is a company that allows billions of people to actively post, watch, share and find original videos online. Created in 2005 YouTube is a fairly recent site.
The reasoning behind growth of YouTube is more and more people are uploading and watching video content. Heltai (2016) reveals that millennials (aged 18-34) prefer to watch digital online content compared to television. This was concluded in a 2,940 corespondent survey shown below.
But why?
Soat (2015) writes that the reasoning behind the social media addiction is biological. The neurochemical in the brain known as dopamine but also referred as the “reward chemical” releases when certain settings happen to a person. Usually when something good happens it makes the person happy. This “reward chemical” is released when enjoying a YouTube video or even when people get a like on their Instagram photo.
According Koob (1992) ongoing research shows that dopamine is addictive. But because this chemical is also released when people gamble or smoke, amongst other activities. These addictive activities have an age restriction of 18 in the UK. Yet there is no age restriction for social media. Millennials are brought up with having mobile phones from a young age and have access online in an instant.
YouTubers can now make a living wage off being a full time video creator. A recent term created for video blogs are now called vlogs. These “vlogs” are usually people video blogging about their personal life. Some YouTubers even make daily vlogs. For example Jon Olsson has 625,881 subscribers to his YouTube channel and is on his 320th daily uploaded consecutive vlog. Millennials as viewers are getting more obsessed with the perfect life as his net worth is just over £4 million, presenting luxury cars and expensive travelling does not portray the most realistic life style for millennials constantly watching videos online.
These YouTubers make millions from monetisation from advertising deals on their channels to sponsorship deals but promoting company products. Warwick and Allen (2014) reveal that YouTuber KSI started out earning around £1500 a week 9 years ago but now with 15 million subscribers is predicted to earn £20k+ a week.
One issue with famous YouTubers who make a lot off how many views they have per video is that they only show the best parts of their lives. Their videos are filtered with what content in their lives are shown, they only show you the best bits of their lives.
Choudhury et al (2013) researched signs of depression that link to millennials spending too much time online. They conclude that people who binge watch online excessively showed greater negativity but little social interaction but at the same time a vast amount of time spent online.
O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson (2011) states a contrast that the addiction to these online videos may not be all negative. Millennials may learn from videos and help to determine ideas or innovate from videos. There are millions of tutorials on YouTube that mean you could for example learn how to mask an object in photoshop within minutes or even learn basic HTML/CSS website code.
Back to the main question. Trust is what makes the viewer continuously put their time in the hands of the YouTuber, usually they are a role model to the viewer. The issue with trust online is it is not a complete relationship, Burchell & Wilkinson (1997) says that through trust relationship model trust needs human interaction in person. None the less the millennials who have been brought up by having YouTube accessible in the touch of a screen do believe in the relationship they have with the creators of the videos online.
In brief whether the brain is too lazy to read a book in this day and age, videos are becoming easier to access, better quality and readily available for free.