Nas Daily: A message of connectivity and 12 million followers
BY HARRISON LINDER
Many people fantasize quitting their day job to travel the world, but few go through with it. Nusseir Yassin, an Arab Israeli Harvard graduate, is one of the few who has acted on this impulse.
In 2016, Yassin left his job as a software engineer at Venmo and began to travel the world on $60,000 in savings. Along the way, he created minute-long daily videos to share with family and friends through his Facebook page, Nas Daily.
Nas Daily quickly gained a viewership beyond Yassin’s immediate circle. Today, the Nas Daily Facebook show has over 12 million followers.
Many aspects of the Nas Daily programming has changed since its inception: The production value of the videos has significantly increased. It no longer sticks to a strict daily publishing schedule, and most videos are closer to five minutes than one.
Despite these changes, Nas Daily has maintained its essential ethos. It has always been about exploring places and people around the world to foster connectivity and understanding across regions and cultures. In a world that seems to be becoming more and more divided, Nas Daily’s message of connectivity is a refreshing change of pace.
Beyond its ethos, Nas Daily’s engaging cinematography, short and simple messages, and the distinctive goofiness that Yassin brings to every video have contributed to Nas Daily’s success.
At first glance, Yassin and his videos may seem pretty uncontroversial, but some of his videos have been criticized for their lack of nuance. In a video about Singapore that featured Prime Minister Lee Hsien Long, Yassin called Singapore an “almost perfect country.” A Singaporean internet activist group, The Alternative View, challenged Yassin to spend a day living like an average Singaporean before declaring it an almost perfect country. Yassin responded in a Facebook post that those who complain about living Singapore should go the Middle East to gain some perspective on how privileged they are.
Yassin and his team are in the process of moving to Singapore to set up the Nas Daily Media Company. They plan to use Singapore as a home base from which to travel around Southeast Asia and produce content.
On April 20, soon after arriving in Singapore, the Nas Daily team hosted a meet-and-greet in the Singapore Botanic gardens. People’s Action Party critic Kirsten Han criticized the event, saying that Nas Daily’s favorable views of the Singaporean government appeared to be getting it special treatment to set up a large-scale public event.
At the meet-and-greet, fans received free “swag” and given a chance to ask questions. Yassim said that, as a tourist, he typically does not feel comfortable criticizing the places he visits. However, now that he lives in Singapore, he will consider being more critical of his new home.🗨️
Harrison Linder is a student member of the AAJA and attends Yale-NUS College in Singapore.
