By Robyn Forbes
Over the years, the growing omnipresence of social media has tremendously impacted our idea of what it means to be a happy family, or lead a happy life.
When Facebook began in 2004, it gave people the space to share the things that mattered to them with other people to whom those things also mattered. The site made the connecting process very specific by allowing users to create circles exclusive to family and friends. Naturally, there were moms posting photos of their newborns, and proud fathers sharing their kids’ soccer win.
Fourteen years later, that sharing experience leveled up many times over. YouTube, a popular video sharing website that launched in 2005, has given tons of families the platform to present their picture perfect lives to the world. Through daily, weekly, and bi-weekly vlogs, social media influencers, couples, and families are chronicling their lives for thousands, and sometimes millions of viewers.
Popular YouTubers often have multiple channels dividing their lives into categories, such as pranks and challenges, reactions and reviews, and their more personal home and family life. In an ongoing attempt to post entertaining content, many of these vloggers pull large followings across all of their other social media platforms, and thus acquire large spheres of influence.
By sharing their videos, YouTubers are also able to lock in an income by monetizing their content, and the more views their videos receive, the more money they earn. YouTubers can also choose to work directly with companies looking to advertise in their videos, to maximize their profit.
The video sharing platform has become a great way for young startups, and freelancers to make money, as well as a cool side hustle for entrepreneurs, or anyone with some content worth watching. Starting a YouTube channel also presents several career, and sponsorship opportunities for influencers; subsequently, most popular vloggers are living on the financially comfortable side of life with the site’s top names making upwards of $10 million annually.
Consequently, many people look at YouTube as a way to get rich quickly, an option presenting the possibility of an easy and covetable lifestyle that will allow room for all of their future endeavors, and make them social media famous all at once. It’s almost like a career path that requires no training; it’s just too good to be true, and many people want that life now.
That’s the problem. Everyone is eager to achieve this new lifestyle because they feel it’s a shortcut to success and a way for them to achieve the microcelebrity that society is so in love with. These individuals look so happy all of the time, and those watching fall into thinking that YouTubers are setting the bar for happiness, and their own lives are pathetic and lacking.
What’s particularly interesting is the fact that “vlog life” has almost become a standard of living; it’s something people do if they have a life good enough to show off. People share their new house tour, their vacation in Dubai, their first ride in their new car, or even the birth of their child, and so many of those watching fall into thinking that these people lead perfect lives.
We watch these short videos, and think that we understand the lifestyles of the people posting them. It becomes so easy to long for the life we see behind the screen but the truth is, that isn’t real. Those digital lives that seem so ideal are edited; viewers see only what someone is willing to share, and people often don’t like sharing the ugly parts of their life.
The strangers that are put on a pedestal for the glamorous lifestyle they lead are humans, people just like anyone else who face daily struggles that characterize their lives. One’s goals shouldn’t be to achieve a life perfect enough for everyone to view, like, and share, but to achieve a life that feels worthwhile.
