Kameron Williams
Vlogging and Animations
It is safe to say that we are in an era where vlogs and day to day videos dominate the platform of social media entertainment. I don’t think anyone can really say that they didn’t see this coming, because the idea of vlogging is not a new idea. Vlogging became popular around 2006, and since then, it’s had a nonstop upward progression. Vlogging is advantageous to the growth of a content creator. A main percentage of vlogging comes from Youtubers. Considering how simple the concept of vlogging, there are many different types of vloggers that create content that adheres to their audience. Some vlogs may be more comical, while another string of vlogs may focus on more serious topics. One example of this would be the youtuber, Swoozie, who mainly posts vlogs about his own life stories and experiences. One of Swoozie’s main string of vlogs talks about his job experiences while he was a teenager working for Disney World. He’s able to garner and grab his audience’s attention by the way he presents his stories. The unique way that Swoozie does this is by showing his story through some form of animation and voice overs for the characters. Swoozie is able to draw a mass audience with the way he presents his stories, because it can be genuinely entertaining to any age range. Swoozie can grab the attention of a child or an adult with his YouTube videos, and his statistics and views will show that his vlogs are being watched more than any of his other series. Since noticing this, Swoozie had begun a steady release of mainly vlogs to his channel.
Vlogging is a very accessible platform for content creators to explore, but there are other platforms that are also striving within the YouTube algorithm. One of these platforms would be animations and animator channels. There has been a recent growth in graphic artists channels on YouTube, having time lapse videos of them drawing a favorite character from one of their TV shows or maybe their own original characters. The Youtuber, SSJ9K is an excellent example of a YouTube animator who has sustained a loyal following from creating original animations inspired by a show that he has fond memories of watching. SSJ9K creates Dragon Ball Z animation parodies, doing the voice acting, animation, and storyboarding primarily by himself. This youtuber is able to grab a wide audience of people with the main focus of his channel because of the phenomenon that Dragon Ball has nationally become since the 90s. By using nostalgia, he is able grab the attention of people who remember watching DBZ as kids growing up, and it doesn’t even stop there. SSJ9K is also able to reach towards the younger generation as well. They may not have as deep of a nostalgic feel as people who grew up in the 90s, but because of the success of Dragon Ball, more than likely younger viewers will be able to recognize characters from the show.
I’ve put a video link for each Youtuber that I discussed during this post, showing one of their most popular videos. After viewing the videos, one will have a better understanding of how these Youtubers use current and social media to keep a stable following on their platforms.
Aether Realm of Kamm 