Saturday, September 22, 2012

You Call Yourself A Creator?!

To be a creator, you yourself must be creative.


I have a bone to pick with many so-called "creators" on YouTube. Stop asking your audience to do your job for you!

Recently, more and more, I have seen YouTuber's putting out these types of questions, "What should I make a video about?", "Anyone have an idea of a topic I could discuss in a video?", "Hey viewers, decide, my next video! Tell me what you want to see me do!" Okay, that last one isn't a question, but they're all the same. A so-called creator is asking their audience to be creative FOR them.

Now, I'm all for interaction, and most people enjoy a "choose your own adventure" story every now and then, but that is not what's happening here. People who have created YouTube channels have done so because, at some point, they believed that they had something to share with other people in the form of video. Your YouTube channel should be your creative outlet, not a place for other people to make you dance around like a puppet, unless that's your gimmick, and if that works for you and your viewers, then okay and please disregard this post.

As a viewer myself, I know that when I put on my favorite TV show or my favorite web series, I like to sit back and watch the stories the writers have dreamed up. When I watch Ze Frank, WheezyWaiter, Mickeleh, or the Vlogbrothers, I like to hear them talk about the topics and issues that are interesting to them. I like to see how passionate they are about the things they care about, which might be things I knew nothing about before. I like to learn new things, so maybe it's just me, but I don't want to tell the Vlogbrothers what they should talk about in their videos. (If I thought I had better ideas than them, I would make my own videos.)

Thankfully, besides Question Tuesdays,the Vlogbrothers are not the ones asking their viewers to tell them what to do. As in the case of Question Tuesday (videos in which the Vlogbrothers answer questions from their viewers), I think it is completely fine if a YouTube creator asks for audience guidance or interaction once in a while. However, this trend of YouTuber's not making any videos until a viewer comes up with a topic for them to discuss is ridiculous.

You created your YouTube channel to share yourself in some way. So do a self assessment. Find that spark inside, the thing that you are passionate about and go from there. Let that fuel your creativity. I spend enough energy on my own creative projects, so don't ask me to be creative for you too.

There is a huge difference between collaborating with your viewers to make a video, and you just being too lazy to think of anything on your own. Personally, I think it is better for you to not post anything for a while if you're just not feeling inspired, than to fall into this habit of asking other people to tell you what to do.

So there's my argument. If you're not feeling inspired. Go to a park, read a book, do some research, anything that you feel will help you out, but turning to your viewers and asking them to do your job is a bad idea. Why would anyone want to watch videos from a person who doesn't appear to have any original ideas? Don't sell yourself short. Instead, really sell yourself!

For everyone's sake, watch a CommunityChannel video and at the very least reinact one of your craziest dreams with yourself as all the characters before you start begging viewers to decide your every move. Dan Brown already proved that that was a bad idea, so just don't do it!