Youtopia-The Fascinating World Of Vlogging

When it comes to the app I spent most of my idle days on, Youtube wins by a clear majority over Netflix and Pinterest oh and even Instagram (clearly not interested in people offering themselves up for validation, or am I?)

By far, every person is infatuated to some amount by their crave for the red play button logo video app, uh...okay maybe some are now switching to TikTok but yes Youtube is a staple in the social media diet of many households and there is no reason why it shouldn't be. Amassing over 1 billion of daily viewers and videos uploaded every minute,spanning about 300 hours of HD videos, Youtube becomes an area of visual aesthetic that vary in nature from the best video journalism channels to amateur recipes filmed at home to pirated movies in low quality and compilations of cuts from reality shows on TV Offering the best exposure in terms of quantity and quality, Youtube has really catapulted since its launch in 2005.

Amongst the niche of genres that provide Youtube with its unique appeal, vlogging remains the primary category. People from all around the world who have an interest in any venture can take up vlogging to build a channel around that particular interest and then proceed to earn income from the app if they gain a substantial amount of subscribers. I'm sure a lot of people would be familiar with the various types, but according to me, the most frequent sub-genres remain daily vlogs, techie oriented, shorts (short films), mukbangs, lifestyle which includes an array of beauty and muas, and singing/dancing covers.

Although Mukbangs have risen in popularity since the last year, many people are unfamiliar with it; they are eating shows in which the vlogger feeds on enormous quantities of food and interacts with the subscribers. The most popular ones are Stephanie Soo, Veronica Wang, Nikocado Avocado, and the other East Asian mukbangers generally hailing from Korea from where this trend emerged. Asmr channels have also been incorporated into these sub-genres widely termed relaxing and calming.

Meme culture has invaded Millenial functioning to the fullest, and therefore it isn't hard to notice that people on Youtube also profit from (weirdly) owning up to their meme status and maintaining it making fun of themselves, its er.. fun being a millennial. Youtubers such as Emery Bingham and Trisha Paytas follow trends that seem to be in unison with making a fool out of themselves to make some cash on the side; suddenly songs like Kolaveri Di and PPAP make a lot of sense.

And if these antics aren't enough, the Youtube world frequently goes through drama or as the lingo goes "tea" where mostly amongst the beauty vloggers, some controversial topic is always brewing leading to usage of the cancel culture in which some person, through their problematic actions or words are often deemed cut-off by social media or "canceled" which of course is toxic in the long run especially as viewers only see one side of the story. One of the leading figures in Youtube is Pewdiepie, who has the most subscribers second only to T-series.

Youtube vloggers hold a lot of sway over public opinion and also representation, although diversity remains one dimensional to some extent. Nonetheless, it remains a site for accessible broadcast of information which on many terms can be called legitimate (at least relatively better than WhatsApp broadcasts *phew*); it continues to be one of the most used apps offering a world view which is more transcultural and unique through one medium also providing a creative outlet for those who struggle to fit into the standard of nine to five jobs; it really is a boundless void of personalized imagination.