The Anatomy of Jake Paul & the Future of YouTube
Jake Paul, a 20 year old YouTuber from Ohio just hit mainstream media this week. The news report shows a number of tweens pulling stunts like burning all their furniture in their pool and making money for it. When the reporter approaches Jake, he proceeds to shout out his fans and then climb the news van, “because why not?”. Meanwhile, the reporter rubs his head and wonders what the rest of the viewers are, how is this kid famous? and more importantly, why?
The Grand Plan
This is only part of the story though, Jake Paul is not the product of coincidence nor did he stumble onto fame as the rest of us would like to dismiss him to be. He is the founder of several companies and is followed by millions of kids across the globe many of which are under 17.
Jake has a vision to build a brand that outlives him, to create several more ‘Jake Paulers’ and to eventually make enough money that he himself wouldn’t have to work a single day and still make millions. The idea is simple but quite smart, why create a social media presence that is centred solely around me and that competes for attention with many who are already out there (including his own older brother, Logan Paul) when I can create a team of people who can collectively capture attention spread out over several channels.
In comes the idea of Team 10, a number of like minded, similarly aged, YouTubers all living under one roof, creating content that feeds their collective network of online presence. The idea is if a person likes the content one of them creates then they are likely to like the content the rest of them do, as a result, they all help each other grow their online following. Team 10 is not just a whimsical idea, its a real life success story that started off with big name investors like Gary Vaynerchuk and is currently turning profit. This is also how Jake managed to grow his subscribes at a rate YouTube has never seen before in about 6 months he had grown his following on YouTube only by 8 million subscribers and on the rest of his social media platforms to a collective 17 million followers.
Everything is Content
What main stream media is just realizing is that to vloggers and YouTubers, anything is content… ANYTHING. If they can film it and it is entertaining, shocking or funny then it is content that they will share. Embarrassment is not a factor here because chances are they’ve already done that for themselves in their videos. The main entertainment value for many vloggers like Jake Paul is doing that which others wouldn’t do themselves and you as a viewer get to live vicariously through that experience and laugh at their mishaps, pranks and frankly straight out stupid things they do.
So when news outlets, parents or older people look to ‘punish’ or put a hault to phenomena like Jake Paul by exposing them they are doing nothing but feeding into their content creation machine. A direct line can be drawn between the Kardashian reality TV shows and Jake Paul today. The idea that putting your eventful life into the spot light will create a brand and following around you was born with the Kardashians. The difference today is that reality TV has moved into a new form: YouTube vlogs where the subjects are their own producers and editors of the content. The underlying idea, however, is the same: everything and anything can be content, especially the drama. Case in point, the news that Jake Paul was going to be evicted that was avidly shared by many and even a picture circulating by many that he was being arrested, all was a hoax. Are his neighbours annoyed at his shenanigans, yes. However, he had managed to manufacture the news machine surrounding him by circulating a picture of his arrest. At the end, that was utilized to create more drama and viewership around him. All at the end to turn into a prank on his viewers orchestrated with a few other actors. So while we were all avidly watching hoping Jake Paul would finally face consequences to his actions, he still was making money.
The Future of Entertainment
So to all the twenty somethings, elders, parents who are baffled at the stunts that Jake Paul is pulling and his ability to get away with it, that was you a decade ago watching the Kardashians. This phenomena is here to stay and it is the new form and face of entertainment. The blame here is not to be placed on those who’ve learned to profit best off of it. Rather, it is it to be placed on a general culture where this is considered entertainment. Where watching online drama unfold is the best past time. Where douchbaggery is rewarded. Where taking down every ounce of respect for those around you is ‘savvage’.
It would be a disservice to say that it was only Jake Paul that was pulling this off well, but he is definitely at the forefront. Others like David Dobrik, Liza Koshy etc. are following a similar track, albeit to a more tame extent. They still pull of stunts, pranks and try ridiculous things, film themselves on the daily etc. However, they are more calculated with their actions whereby their pranks are harmless, often involve each other as opposed to the general public and sometimes have good side effects. Personally, I would predict that David and those akin to him are likely to have more longevity with their content than Jake but I don’t think that as a genre and form of entertainment this will disappear anytime soon.
YouTube as a company feeds into this
Lastly, it is important to note that YouTube is not an innocent bystander in all this. YouTube actively promotes Jake Paul and those who produce content similar to his. Their recent aggressive demonetization of content that is political or controversial in nature has effectively rewarded those in entertainment instead. Videos deemed entertaining, regardless of the danger factor in them, are more likely to be monetized, have advertisements prior to and during the video and thus are effectively rewarded by YouTube. Its in a sense easier and more rewarding to create content that is entertaining in nature with pranks or puns than it is to create any other type of content on YouTube at the moment. As a result, the circle of entertainers on YouTube is ever growing and long time YouTubers are growing more weary of sharing their candid views on their videos lest they risk their video being demonetized all together. Not only that, but videos that end up being promoted by YouTube on their trending or suggested videos pages are those who are less controversial such as those by Jake Paul and other entertainers on the platform. For more on YouTube’s changing policies check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfDDFbX46i8&t=430s
The Jake Paul Anatomy
When fame and legacy is sought for its own sake, this is the result. Jake Paul has found a sure fire hack to fame and to being rich. It takes effort and thought, granted. However, it is a hack that he is able to reach through many factors:
- his age
- his audience awareness
- willingness to put his whole life online
- YouTube’s encouragement for similar content
- his whiteness and the privileges that come with it (lets face it he gets away with a lot more that others would not have been able to, including the amount of disturbance that he’s given to his neighbours)
Jake Paul is a result of a culture and many factors, he was not born in a vacuum and he is here to stay.
