The problem with being a YouTuber

Kabir Vega Castellanos

HAVANA TIMES — I have already spoken about YouTubers in a few of my previous articles, but today I want to touch on another aspect of this phenomenon.

Five years ago at the “Cuba Offline” event, I discovered Mox and his program “What Da Faq Show”, and German with his creative web series “Hola soy German”. After a long time following them and watching them evolve, I discovered “Vegetta 777”, who I found fascinating from the outset.

German used to be my favorite, as he was the one who made me and my family laugh the most. But, today, I find it impossible to share his videos with people I know.

His current website “Juega German”, besides leaving behind the complexity and originality that used to be captured so well with perfect video editing skills, also throws respect for intelligence out the window. Now, he deals with any subject, it doesn’t matter whether it’s something obscene, ridiculous or just straight up “stupid”. Creating a good product is no longer the goal, now the goal is to create a lot, even though this compromises quality.

The same thing happens with Vegetta, whose Gameplays used to be an hour long and he used to highlight all of his efforts when he played. Today, except for some live streaming videos, it seems that he’s just waiting for the opportunity to cut the recording. Series on his channel which used to be really moving because of the number of happenings, now seem to be signed off without having done anything important.

To my surprise, Mox (the one I liked the least) is the only one who has kept his style. His show is centered around criticizing videos that his followers share with him, making jokes and mocking them. His videos might be simpler in their execution, but at least he hasn’t lost his spontaneity and jokes, which were his hallmark.

I’m aware that YouTube is a site for very fleeting entertainment, which makes it very difficult to keep up with more complex videos. If you opt for quantity, you’ll always lose quality. Plus, the pace of capitalism is so violent that it forces you to produce premature products.

However, when it comes to YouTubers, the deterioration of their work is their own doing. While they can keep producing daily content online and thereby maintain internet surfers’ attention, those who took a risk and bet on quality are the ones who will go down in cyber-history.