Understanding YouTubers

Pic: Elrubiusomg by Kawwi-CC-BY-SA-4.0.

I have to say that I did not have a clue who Youtubers were until last weekend (4/10/15  to 4/12/15) that a group was treated as rock stars in a convention in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

When I started to read and listen about them I noticed that I have heard about them through my nephew who follows some of them to get good tips to win video games. Up until now, I never gave too much thought about them.

What I researched is that YouTubers are young folks between 15 and 27 years of age. They record, edit, and upload videos online and they do it because they like it. Great examples of DIY culture, by the way. They discuss a range of topics that can go from tutorials for online games to fashion tips so these YouTubers also receive the names of vloggers (bloggers in video).  Young people like to follow them because they feel they can identify with them, they are considered “real” (the next-door-kid) and teens enjoy the sense of humor that many of their idols infuse onto their videos.

Teens follow YouTubers who have created their own YouTube Channels, and I mean, really follow them because there are about 50 million followers. This sheer number made me realize that we are in the presence of something massive that can be considered agents of change. They may not have started with any goal in mind but what they do is literally attracting attention, at least, they got mine =)

As an educator, I couldn’t stop but think, what will this new culture mean? It means that teens are turning to videos—and not just to Google to search for information. Hence, teens are not so much into print but they are mainly looking for multimedia formats. Content is generated based on what is of interest around them and it shows a great deal of creativity in many cases. For example, Rubius parodied the song “El Torero” by Chayanne using the context of the video game Minecraft so he called it "Minero" (The miner). This video received 20,000,000+ visits. Impressive, right?  

Teens are not only passively following these big names but they are interacting with them by leaving comments on their sites, answering to surveys, and talking about them with their friends. YouTubers listen to their fans and acknowledge their requests in their videos, something that make the fans grateful. There is a lot of empathy in these virtual relationships. 

In terms of teaching and learning, these teens have expectations to find teachers that integrate technology in many formats onto their practices. Can we say that these teens’ demands have been made silently? The question is not so rhetorical when we come to see that high-school drop-out rates are skyrocketing. The clash between expectations, what students want and what teachers do, seem to broaden and shows a tension in the quality of education. 

This example of YouTubers makes the clash evident, but it is also an invitation to examine our practices and ask ourselves, have we integrated technology into our curriculum? Do I have a plan or do I go with the flow? What do I have to do to take my practice to the next level?