I’m curious about the audience demographics of these videos.
I see these random videos with thousands and sometimes millions of views recommended on the trending section. These people are not famous stars of anything other than just being a regular family that decided to share their daily life on YouTube.
Sometimes they are very wealthy and I understand seeing snippets of the lavish lifestyle could be interesting to others. But most of the time these are average/medium-high income families. No mansion, no Bugatti.
Many of the trending videos have a reaction as bait ( ie. “Telling my partner I’m pregnant” etc) but when skimming through these channels most of their content is mundane stuff: “our breakfast routine”, “last Friday at the park”, " weekly update", etc.
What’s so appealing about this? I couldn’t care less but their following obviously says a lot of people do. Who watches this and why? I don’t know anyone in my circles following this type of content, do you? Why would millions of people follow some random stranger online?
Some people just like following other people’s life around. It’s the reality TV on today. You can create strong parasocial bonds with people who don’t know you.
I don’t personally follow any such channels, but I do follow other small Internet celebrities and grew do care about them. Like I was shocked when Simon Griez had brain cancer, and I feel sorry for Diane the physics girl for her 3 year long covid battle. These people have no idea who I am.
Many times these channels start small and many users follow them since the beginning, so a bond naturally grows. Then the quality of videos grows as the income starts coming in.
Escapism.
I feel the same way about all the generic instagram influencer accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers. Selfies, holiday pictures, photos of food/jewellery/clothing/accessories etc. You could basically merge all these accounts into one as the content is the same. I genuinely don’t understand why they got so many followers and what the reasoning is behind the decision to follow such accounts.
Don’t they just show a life that many people wish they could live? Those influencers are usually very good looking, drive nice cars, wear designer clothes and go on lavish holidays.
Seeing a normal/non-famous person have it makes it more believable that one day you’ll have that life as well.
Either that, or it’s just horniness meets para social relationship 🤷♂️
Escapism.
Some people dream of expensive cars, some people dream of sailing off into the sunset, and some people dream of pregnancy reveals. All these videos offer people something missing in their own life, or an alternative they can daydream about between episodes.
Wait
So my ex wife dreamed of being a hoarder, 600lb person, and teen pregnancy? Jesus how many red flags did I miss?
Close. She dreamed of gawking and judging others without being judged in return.
Some people may be less fortunate and could be living vicariously through other people’s vlogs as a sort of comfort thing maybe?
