Fun For The Whole World!
The Whole World Ruined the World Wide Web
The Atlantic published an excerpt of Mark Bergen’s Like, Comment, Subscribe. The excerpt focuses on when YouTube, in the late ‘00s, curated their front page with a team of coolhunters. Kind of like when you went to Blockbuster and you saw the staff pick (Blockbuster at this time was dying not dead). This became unsustainable as YouTube was grown by Google to consume the entire planet.
This reminds me of two things:
a) when sketch groups would post their videos exclusively online, creating videos that not only were funnier than was on TV, but eventually would migrate to TV. I’m talking Stella, Lonely Island, Human Giant, Whitest Kids U Know. Derrick didn’t officially have a show but it launched Donald Glover.
b) The fact that we have moved from such hilariously specific, idiosyncratic comedy to TikTok videos that use music, slapstick and sound effects to reach a global audience is parallel to TV in the ‘50s, when sophisticated shows like Your Show of Shows and Playhouse 90 declined in popularity as TV’s audience expanded nationally.
Entertaining the world is a boondoggle for every media industry of course. The effect on the Internet is most dramatic though, It seemed like there was a time when YouTube was poised to be Hollywood, telling the world what it liked, eventually on course to transmitting Chocolate Rain to the galaxy. But Google’s Skynet cyborgs AI gave people what they wanted.
An increasing number of creators are moving away from the ad-based algorithm and are using Substack, Patreon, even Twitch, to grow their audience for a small but dedicated following. 1,000 true fans, etc. This seems to be one of the few times in all of creative history where the better artistic decision is the same as the economically practical decision.
Disney has no problem perfecting its IP for a global market, but influencers who are consistently overworked and stressed? They are like small business owners. Worse; when they get big, there is no Shark Tank angel investor to help them with their global audience. It’s on them to look prettier and prettier for the entire world without displeasing one person from any culture. This is like opening a pizzeria in suburban New Jersey and delivering to the world without hiring extra delivery drivers, stores, etc.
Just make what you like and fuck the world.