Hello blog readers! I have spent the last few days scrambling to get my blogs done late at night while I have friends around/stuff going on, so I figured I would try something new today. I figured I would try my hand at writing my blog for the day at 10:23 in the morning. So here goes.
I have this problem where, when people write me or ask me things online, I have this innate need to answer everything. My inbox is full of emails from people I'm still desperately trying to reply to, my ask box on Tumblr is overflowing - there's a reason I never got a VYou. I just couldn't open myself up to any more mediums of being asked questions I would feel compelled to answer.
This is why I started doing "Questions Vlogs" on my second channel. I have been taking questions on the channel page of that YouTube account and making individual videos answering each question. There are a few reasons I like this format. First, the asker of the question gets a little shoutout and a link to them in the description of the video. Second, if anyone else ever asks me the question again, I can just link them to the video, haha. Third, is that it gives my second channel a purpose that sets it apart from the types of things I do on my main channel. (Feel free to go ask me questions there if you feel so compelled!)
Anyway, the whole point of this wasn't to pimp out my videos, it was so explain that I have a text file open on my computer with things that people have asked me in the past that I felt would be good things to address in my blog. Which I think is actually kind of weird. But I can't help it.
In yesterday's blog post, I was asked in the comments section how I make friends with other YouTubers so easily, and this is something I've been asked a lot and wanted to talk about here more in depth. The short answer is that most of the people I'm friends with now on YouTube (that have a lot of subscribers and might feel out of reach to fans) are people who were also just starting on YouTube when I started.
I got to know John and Hank Green when they were in the 20-30,000 subscriber area, I found Hayley when she only had 26 fans; even the UK YouTubers I know like Alex and Charlie were sort of just starting out when I joined YouTube and met them, and so on and so forth. For many of the people in my sort of Internet social circle, we rose up on YouTube together. When you build a foundation like that, those friendships last, and a community is formed rather than a handful of "famous YouTubers". From there, more and more people are just added to that community as you get to know each other from various collaborations and meet-ups and gatherings.
Not to mention, starting fiveawesomegirls, and then bonding with the fiveawesomeguys, and all the five person collab channels that followed suite - even if you weren't on the same collab channel, we all had a shared experience there. 5AG and 5awesomegays and VlogCandy and Vlogvetica etc., we all were accomplishing similar things, so the friendships just expanded.
Which brings me to the fact that being a YouTuber is a pretty weird way of life. It's easy to make friends with other people who live their lives online, who film everything they do, who spend hours and hours in front of a computer. We just understand each other, in a way that most of the world can't. It's nice. It's a sort of instant click, generally.
Anyway, I'm not sure if the person asking me this wanted advice on how to meet famous YouTubers or was just curious how I did it, but my answer/advice of the day is to not seek people out AS "famous people you want to be friends with". Just do what you love and look for people with common interests/motivations, and the rest will follow. I have plenty of friends on YouTube who barely have any subscribers, and some with hundreds of thousands. The number means nothing; the important thing is how much I like that person. :)
And this has been 'Kristina preaches on YouTube, BEDA Day 5'.
Flights taken: 6
Gym badges on Pokémon: 5
Oshawott level: 31
Proterozoic Rocks
1 day ago
18 comments:
I think that, for youtubers, making friends with other youtubers is the same as it is with me and other theatre people. It's something you click so easily with and love, so it just brings people together. Same with people and shows. Like, I've made good friends over the internet based on Buffy alone, so I think it's less of a question of making youtube friends and more of a statement of making friends who you easily get along with because of similar interests and aspirations and ideas.
the thing about youtube, and making friends with fellow nerdfighters is that everyone kind of gets along instantly, like you said, because we all have common interests, in that we are all internet people!
PS. i love you, kristina! :)
I seem to be only partly involved in everthing, so it is harder for me to make connections. For instance, I love youtube, but I don't really put videos on my channel, I've only just started blogging and I never used to comment on people's videos or blogs.
I'm too young to have gone to a lot of Harry Potter gatherings and don't have the money to go to others. I live in the midwest so all that I have in common with most people in my town is corn.
Sometimes it stinks to be floating inbetween, and I know that I won't make many friends with people who I follow, but I just want you, Kristina, and other people I admire, to know what an impact you have on people who feel lonely or out of place. THANK YOU to people like you and the Green Brothers who Give me a place :)
As a small YouTuber, I've definitely found that it is super easy to form friendships with other small YouTubers, especially after meeting a bunch of them at Playlist.
However, something that bothers me about the small YouTuber community is that it seems like a lot of the people I've become friends with put the brief contact they might have with the big YouTubers ahead of the true friendships they form with the small ones. Granted, this might not actually be the case. It may just appear that way because they like to brag about every sing @reply or comment they get from a big YouTuber but have no reason to brag when they get one from an actual friend. I'm not going to lie, I smile and want to tell all my friends about it when I get attention like that, as well. And it makes sense since our group of friends probably wouldn't exist without you guys (thanks for that, btw). I guess it's just a bit of a strange phenomenon that exists among our generation of YouTubers that I'm not sure your generation really experienced since you guys were around since the beginning. I guess you had the vlogbrothers to get excited about, but back then I don't think there were as many people competing for their attention.
Not that it's a competition. I mean, it kind of is. When a YouTube I'm a huge fan of @replies one of my friends or retweets their video link, I'm not going to deny that I feel a twinge of jealousy. Granted, I am a part of a community that will link a lot of their friends in a video of their's that gets a lot of exposure. I guess that shows that it isn't a competition. What's good for one of us can be good for all of us. And that's how I want it to be. I want our community to be a group of friends who support each other and bolster each other up enabling us all to become successful, like your group did and continues to do. I just feel like we sometimes get caught up in the fleeting notice we get from the big YouTubers when it would probably be more emotionally fulfilling in the long run to concentrate on the relationships we actually have the power to foster.
That's not to say that I don't want to friends with you guys. I do, especially after the time I spent hanging out with you, Luke, Alex, Robyn, Hayley, and Tyler at Playlist. Although that time was probably some of the best of my life, it was also oddly depressing. I couldn't help thinking that, yea, I'm having a lot of fun with these guys now, but they probably won't remember my name within a week. And even if they do, it's not like they'll have time to talk to me much after that since they already have their set group of friends and thousands of fans clamoring for their attention. The main way to get over that depression was to concentrate on the people I had attended the conference with. You guys had brought us all to one central location, but I eventually realized that I had been more excited to meet them in person than you guys all along.
Of course, it's still you that I'm spending hours crocheting a hat for. I haven't done that for any of my actual friends, yet. Then again, I started working on this before I knew most of my small YouTuber friends. Anyway, I hope to finish the hat by Saturday so that I can give it to you at the Miami Yule Ball.
As an itsy-bitsy YouTuber, I started out because I wanted to make friendships like the ones I'd seen on fiveawesomegirls and other channels. I thought it would be a lot harder than it was, but YouTube is a really great community (especially when you have less than 50 subscribers and don't have to worry about haters or anything like that). YouTube helped me find HP and Nerdfighter friends that just don't exist at my school.
It's blogs like this that make me wish I had discovered the YouTube community ages ago. I probably would have turned out differently and for the better if I had. I didn't start watching the community until the Summer of 09 (lol) and it made me feel so behind and I've been struggling to catch up since. It's really hard getting noticed on YouTube nowadays but I mostly just enjoy watching videos like yours. At least I feel safe as a nerd on YouTube. Granted, I don't know anyone personally that is into YouTube as much as I am, but I can't wait until I do :-)
My Emboar fears your Oshawott.
I'm so glad you wrote a post like this. It really was never about how many subscribers anyone has, even though that does help build certain community projects and raise awareness of certain campaigns. It's about comunity and friendship. Thanks for reminding us of that. PS. I linked to your blog in my VEDA video today because you're one of the few people I know who's also still doing BEDA.
I'm not sure if you'll be at Aeternitas or Wrock Wreggies, but when next we meet, there will be a Pokemon battle. Prepare thyself. ;) <3 Jenn
Hi Kristina!
This is Shannon, from Canada, I work for Corey...that's me. :P
I just wanted to sort of apologize and say I wish we got to talk more at Playlist and I hope you don't think I was being a huge jerk and not talking to you for a reason. I'm actually a very big fan of yours (probably more than any of the boys haha) and I'm very shy, so I felt a bit intimidated. I know Corey is building relationships with you guys and I just want to make sure you know that I am just quiet and if we get the opportunity to meet/chat again, I will try to not seem so distant.
Hope you're having an awesome day :)
- Shannon
Reading this just showed me that the conclusion I came to was correct. It's easy to make friends with people you have things in common with and with people who are in a similar place to yourself. I alway wanted to make videos on Youtube and have a close relationship with other youtubers much like you did with fiveawesome girls. I felt like that sort of thing was out of my reach because I got into making videos so late in the game. Once I made the realization that there were people at the same place in the youtube community as myself, things got better. I met people in the YourPants forum that Hank set up and now have a collab channel with six other girls that I have a lot in common with. I was inspired by you and your friends to make my own. Instead of dwelling on never getting to meet or be close friends with "famous Youtubers", I started dwelling on making relationships happen with people who were awesome. I've found that there are people out there that are awesome and who understand me and accept me, that's really what's important. I don't look at other more popular Youtubers anymore and think that 'I wish I was around youtube when they were, then we could have been friends'. I look at other youtubers that have been around for a long time and think that I'll be fortunate to have lasting relationships like they do. So I think that if you make an effort, people, the good ones, will meet you half way. I treasure the friendships I have made recently and thank the vlogbrothers and the youtubers before me for laying the groudwork.
:)
groundwork*
:(
Hey, Kristina. I really liked this blog and I was wondering if there is any other way to ask you questions because I don't have a YouTube account (not allowed...I'm 13 but my parents won't let me XD) and every time I have tried to email you it hasn't gotten through. I like your blog and I really hope that one day I could be a successful UK YouTuber. Also, if you read this. My name is Meego7 and my questions is: What are the top 10 things you would say are key to YouTube success? Thanks! :3
Meego
Unless someone else asked the same question, I think that was my question, thank you for writing a blog post to answer :)
The reason I think a lot of your youtube friends are awesome isn't because they're "famous" on youtube, it's because they're musicians, and actors and filmmakers,... Interesting and cool people in real life, and not only on the internet. Intelligent friends who have something to add to a conversation, or a project or whatever.
The creative awesomeness of youtube is awesome :P
Just stopped by to say this-I love the way you write!! Seriously. Your too good at everything-gahhh! I really don't know how you have the energy to do all that you do but it is really cool that you do.:D
That sounds a lot like how I've made friends with a lot of people via DailyBooth. I've been using the site for about two years now, so I've had plenty of time to make friends with people who have common interests and were starting out around the same time as me. We've got a really strong community in and around that group now. We have our own gatherings and everything. :P
My friends and I started a collab channel this winter, not to make friends with other youtubers but to become better friends. We don't have many people watching us (i think we have one subscriber other than ourselves), but it gives us something to look forward to every day when we get to hear about our friends weeks outside of school things. Though, I will admit it was awesome when Mike Lombardo commented on our channel.
Now for the shameless plug: we're TheLadyMarauders, we have fun so if you check it out I hope you like it
I consider myself to be a "ninja stalker" of video blogs and blogs, and I haven't made a YouTube channel because I don't know if I'd find a spot in the community. This is probably a very irrational fear, but it's there nonetheless.
But you have made an impact on me, the way you reach out to people who feel like they're outsiders, and so I wanted to thank you for that.
In the last few years I've started to follow more and more youtubers, a community I knew little about not that long ago. As I've watched all of you guys more and more, it almost feels like close friends who I get to see everyday (sorry if that sounds creepy). After I graduated high school in '08 the majority of my close friends went away to college while I stayed and went to community college for a few years. During that time I was so lonely and I'd use youtube to fill up my time. I really admire all that youtubers make and wish there was some way I could really connect with everyone in person. I'd be way to embarrassed to make videos of my own, so I like to stick with blogging. But I guess I just wanted to say how much your videos have inspired me and given me something to look forward to for the past few years.
I always feel like it's odd meeting youtubers in person because while I admire the things you guys do it feels more down to earth because of how you put yourself out there. It's kind of odd because you sort of feel a familiarity that shouldn't really be there. It's more of a respect than in awe. For example - and I mean this in the most unstalkery way as possible - I went to PlayList Live and I saw you walking around and it was just kind of like "Oh cool Kristina's here" type of thing rather than "OMG it's SOMEBODY FAMOUS!" even though you have thousands of fans and of course you wouldn't know who I am. =] The same goes for any other youtuber. But that same weekend James Marsters was in Orlando I had a chance to talk to him. While I didn't freak out on him while we were talking, I was definitely star struck.
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