1. What is the definition of ‘vlogging’? Vlogging is “the act of keeping a video blog”. 2. Who are three current and popular vloggers? What do they each vlog about?
Grace Helbig: She maintains a daily vlog where she talks about different topics each day. Her vlogs are typically funny and awkward.
Louis Cole: He vlogs about his travel adventures and the cool and diverse things he does and experience over these travel adventures.
Estée Lalonde: She does lifestyle vlogs and post about her daily life. She shows the behind-the-scenes of her traveling to beauty conferences and her personal brand.
3. What are the qualities of a vlog?
Consistent and daily
Interesting content
Active audience
Humour
Purpose
Storytelling
Creativity
High video quality
High sound quality
Good lighting
4. Reflect upon the topics and personalities of these vloggers. Identify the topics/personalities. Do you think that they will have the same opinion on that topic in 10 years?
Grace Helbig
She mainly focuses on comedy and lifestyle for her topics.
She is very funny and creative. She tends to be very goofy and awkward and she occasionally throws in jokes, which makes her the funny vlogger she is.
I think that her opinion on the topics she focuses on could change in 10 years. She does a lot of funny recreations that are meant to turn out bad and I think as she grows older, she might focus on more serious matters. However, she does seem to love what she’s doing so she stick with it and have the same opinion of it in 10 years.
Louis Cole
He mainly focuses on travel, adventure, and food for his topics.
He is very adventure and is a risk seeker. He seems to not be afraid of anything and is willing to do everything.
Yes I do think that he’ll have the same opinion on his topic of travel and adventure in 10 years. I don’t think becoming 10 years older would stop him from doing his adventures because it is clearly his passion, not just his opinion.
Estée Lalonde
She mainly focuses on fashion/makeup, lifestyle, and friends.
She seems to be a big family and friends and dog person. She is social and random, which is why I think a lot of her fans like her so much.
I do think that her opinions will stay the same in 10 years from now. I think that she will still love fashion and makeup and I think that she will still love vlogging about her friends and family, especially her dog.
5. Reflect on the permanency of online life. These vlogs will be around potentially forever, even after the vloggers have removed them from the online presence. How will these vlogs affect the future careers or future choices of these vloggers? These videos that these vloggers are posting can really affect their future in a negative and positive way. While trying to get a job, the employer might look up your youtube videos and vlogs and they can perceive a lot of information about you just in those 10 minute videos. They could see videos that you wouldn’t want them to see about some opinions you had when you were young that you don’t have anymore or about some things that you have posted that shows your lack of the professional characteristics that your employer wants. However, on the flip side, your employer might find something that they really enjoy and would want in an employee, which you otherwise could not have shown without that video. Therefore, I definitely think that there are pros and cons about vlogging and the risk that your videos will be on the internet potentially forever.
6. If you were to start vlogging, what topics would you vlog about? If I were to start a vlog, I would vlog about lifestyle, travel, and rants. I would love to just vlog doing random lifestyle things and talk about random stuff. In the future, I would love to travel to different places and show all my adventures in a vlog. Lastly, I have a lot of opinions of different things. I feel that it would be very healthy for me and interesting to watch if I recorded little rants I have about these things.
7. Think about the topics/issues identified in qu 6, will you have the same opinion in the future? Yes I think that I would have the same opinions in the future. For the travel and rants, I hope that I will be doing more traveling and my opinion on this topic would grow. I feel that I would have even more things to rant about in the future so my opinion of this topic would be the same, if not more opinionated.
8. What are the long-term:
Repercussions The privacy of the vlogger might be violated later on in life because their video will forever be on the internet.
Consequences You could get a lot of hate and criticism from your viewers and it could affect future careers.
Benefits to these vloggers? They become celebrities, earn a lot of money, and they can impact people’s lives in a good way.
9. If you were a parent would you let your 10 year old vlog? Why or why not? I personally would not let my 10 year old vlog because I would not want my child to put themselves out to the world, to have to go through hate comments, and their opinions haven't formed yet. I would not want my child to put all their personal information on the internet and to show the whole world themselves at such a young age. One major reason I wouldn’t want my child to vlog is because I know a lot of famous vloggers have to go through all the hate from malicious people in the world. I would not want to put my child through that harm and hatred. Lastly, I think that they would be too young to vlog. I think that their opinions on things would be different when they are 10 versus when they are 20, and those 10 year old opinions would be on the internet forever and I would not want my child to be looking back in life, regretting those things that they said. To conclude, I would not let my child vlog if I were a parent for multiple reasons.
10. Please talk about one other issue/comments/thoughts that you feel is important about vlogging that I did not address in these questions. One issue that I feel is important about vlogging is that vlogging can cause a lot of stress and mental health issues. With the pressure to maintain a daily vlog, mainly just to get more views and subscribers which results in more money, it can get overwhelming and stressful. A lot of famous vloggers have spoken out about becoming untrue to themselves and started “living for the vlog”. Especially with negative comments, it can be too much for some vlogging cause them to break down under the stress. All this stress could lead to mental illness and can actually harm these vloggers. This is an important issue about vlogging that I think needs to be recognized more.
11. Provide a link to a vlog that you mentioned above that ‘Ms. Cameron needs to watch’ (please ensure that it is classroom appropriate and it is 1-5 mins in length).