My Relationship with Vlogs

    In the years of my adolescence, I often felt lonely. Despite going to school and having at least a few friends, I still felt alone with them, never truly able to express or find myself freely without judgment. During that time, I was immersed in various YouTube personalities and videos of people playing video games, making content that middle-school King found hilarious and amusing. Over time, I would subscribe to certain individuals and grow a liking to their style of video and humor. There was one gaming content creator I liked called "WhosChaos," who moved out of his parent’s house to live with his online friends to make collaborative content as well as continue his gaming videos. I found out that he belonged to an organization (org) called Team Kaliber (TK), an org that was involved with various eSports, as well as content creation. From there, I was exposed to a whole world of people and a community that I was yearning for. Gradually, I started to watch the friends of WhosChaos and even started watching the content of the house and organization owner, Kosdff (Kos). 

    

    Kosdff founded TK and brought people into the org as content creators for the team house that they all lived at. Furthermore, he started a daily series of "Vlogs" that would feature members of the team house and the antics they all engaged in while living together. At the time, I had dismissed vlogs as boring videos of people thinking that their life was interesting. From what I had watched of them, it was just average people with extra charisma showing me the mundane of their life: going to the grocery store, playing with their dog, etc. At first, I did not watch a lot of Kosdff and his daily vlogs. From my previous impression, they were not something I would enjoy so I continued to watch whatever gaming or humorous IRL content the TK creators would put out. However, one day, I was especially bored and noticed a video in my recommended that featured everyone in the team house going outside for a paintball battle. My interest was immediately piqued at the possibility of seeing my favorite content creators fight each other with paintball guns. I noticed that the video was uploaded from Kosdff's vlog channel, and despite the previous sentiment I held toward the video format, I pressed on. After that, I was hooked; the vlogs Kos made were entertaining and held my interest. Though they were just videos of gamer friends fooling around and having fun, doing crazy shenanigans either out and about or at home. Suddenly, that lonely feeling that would intrude on my life felt less intense.

    Whenever I got home, I would check on the vlog channel and see what my favorite creators were up to. It became a daily ritual, and eventually, I branched out to a few other vloggers I would watch on occasion. I found creators like Roman Atwood, a family man who would vlog his family's life and their antics, as well as Casey Neistat, a YouTuber who was perhaps the most well-known vlogger in the community at the time. Vlogs, which I previously had no liking for, had become a secondary type of video for me to enjoy (Talk about second chances). In my present life, I hardly watch vlogs, but at the time, they meant something to me and I was invested in them, however, the true question is: why? 

    Vlogs were prominent in my YouTube watching during a time when I felt alone and dissatisfied with life. Vlogs offered a view into a whole other world, a whole different lifestyle. I got to see these content creators grow and live out their lives, move to new places, meet new people, and make new friends. Vlogs showed me the best parts of life and the fun that can be brought to the mundane. In Kos' vlogs, there was always a sense that the people I was watching were real, as close friends. It did not take much to entertain me when it came to them; all I wanted was to see them laugh and have fun. A video as simple as "hide and seek" was immensely entertaining to me, even more so than vlogs where a lot of money was spent on a project or idea.  In retrospect, vloggers like Kos and Casey Neistat likely did not get a single day off of work because they needed to film and edit a vlog with an interesting concept that would get views all in a day. Vloggers can get so eager for views that they feel the need to do over-the-top antics to capitalize on the possibility of more clicks. The issue with this is the vlogs start to be less genuine and engaging. For instance, Roman Atwood would feature vlogs of him blowing up stuff or riding ATVs, and I found those to be less entertaining than watching a house of goofball gamers cracking jokes while playing hide and seek. For me, the reason I watched and enjoyed vlogs was to briefly escape my dull life by being immersed in someone else's, watching them have fun making costumes out of household items, or buying and riding in a kayak, or making their 37-year-old friend do skateboard tricks in an inflatable costume, or any of the other crazy ideas that were filmed. Vlogs were great to me because they could be anything. I could watch the most sincere moment between friends, or the wildest, most elaborate activity. Anything I thought I was missing out of life, I could find in vlogs. Wanna watch someone live in New York City and film their life of adventure, or maybe a genuine family man having fun with his kids? well it is out there. In vlogs, there is something for everyone. 

    Like everything on social media though, vlogs only show people the best parts of life, without addressing the issues that make it less interesting. It would be weird if vloggers filmed and uploaded themselves washing the dishes, doing laundry, or filing taxes. This does not mean that all vlogs are disingenuous (though there are a lot of them that are scripted), however, the 100% truth of life is never fully shared online. At the end of the day, vloggers are simply entertainers tasked with making everyday life seem fun. It is almost like reality TV, being able to look into people's lives and become invested in them as a person, all while knowing that you will never actually get to know them.