When I was younger, the internet was such an amazing concept to me, even though the only thing I knew to do on it was play flash games. Around 6th grade, was when I was “introduced” to YouTube and started browsing and following creators that fit my interests.

In the beginning, I followed creators who played video games and mods, which shifted to retrospectives, and that led me down the path to comedy and streaming and, now, long-form content like podcasts and commentary videos. 

I followed these creators for one thing — their persona. Currently, though, I’ve I noticed that personality has taken a back seat for clout.

What spurred me on to write about this was from a penguinz0 video that came out recently titled “Worst Prank Ever.”. In this video, he goes over how a TikTok teen was arrested because of a “prank” he did where he was going around sucker punching people from behind and then pulling a gun on them afterwards. That’s That is not even a prank;, that’s that is just blatant assault, and it was all for likes.

Talking about TikTok, I’m I am not going to lie when I say it brought the worst out of people. Uploading entire movies, tv television shows, memes, and other creators’’s content is not only lazy, but they are also infringing on copyright. Committing crimes, for example, the devious lick, has become a trend. The number of videos I’ve seen sayingI have seen many videos saying, “If you watch me live and do this specific emote or like this video, something will happen in the game!” At that point, I’m I am not even watching for your personality.

This leads me back to YouTube where now clout has taken over. When Roman Atwood and FouseyTube were still relevant, pranks used to be fake. Nowadays, a YouTube prank involves assaulting individuals or going into a department store and being a nuisance to the employees who are there to make a living.

Ever since the rise of Mr. Beast, copycats have been popping up everywhere.  From Jimmy’s bombastic attitude to his mannerisms, and shamelessly recreating the exact same videos he’s done word for word, it’s it is what Pinely has coined as The Mr. Beast-ification of YouTube. 

There are even creators who changed their content for clout like SNEAKO who, in my opinion, made good introspective videos about life when he started out, but once he was introduced to Andrew Tate, he started taking the red pill and became a caricature.  

The most egregious to me are creators like ImJayStation or Before They Were Famous who profited off Etika’s and Mac Miller’sthe deaths of Etika and Mac Miller death not even a day after they died. “YouTube has proven to me you can’t even die right,” Pyrocynical ended up saying in response to the insensitive videos made after Etika died, which is still relevant to this day.

I could go on and on about how clout changed the content creator space, but you get the gist of it. Clout has turned so many creators into emotionless husks who care less about how their content will affect others and only care about the incentive.

I hope this article does not deter you from content creation, though. Clout can get to your head and make you egotistical, but if you humble yourself, remember where you came from, and make content that you want to make rather than what’s what is trending, while it might take a long time, you will appreciate it in the end even if it may take a long time.

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