The Future Of Vlogging: NEISTAT QUITS THE VLOG

On November 19, iconic daily vlogger Casey Neistat announced the retirement of his vlog. At first I was in disbelief. I thought it was just another clickbait video, and after 2 minutes in, I’d realise he was joking and we’d all go back to our lives knowing that Casey was out there on his boosted board capturing his day for us to see. But after watching the death of his vlog (video below), questions began to surface that I’d been thinking about for a long time, but the biggest

What is the future of Daily Vlogging?

After attending Buffer Festival, I was inspired by vloggers and YouTubers that I’d seen on my screen most mornings of this year. ‘Inspired, motivated, living life to the fullest, experience, risk and dedication’ were all words you could associate with that weekend. And nothing will ever take away from how amazing that experience was.

But I couldn’t help but wonder… how sustainable is vlogging, in particular, daily vlogging? When do they get to put their cameras down? How do they relax? What’s unique? Has this story been told before? What’s the point? What’s the goal? What if everyone starts daily vlogging, will it ever be interesting?

All of these thoughts had been circulating through my mind for a few weeks. I’ve had lengthy discussions with a lot of my friends about vlogging and where the line is between the fragile relationship of work/life, public/private, content/creativity. And then Casey made his announcement… So this post is about my thoughts of the future of daily vlogging. These are some of my questions and concerns for the people , the vloggers, out idols, who capture their daily lives, edit and post it online for the world to see.

Sustainability

As Casey states, ‘are you really going to be vlogging your life into your 40’s?’ He responds with a definite no. Not discrediting middle-aged vloggers, I think their voices are incredibly value. But how long are people going to keep it up? 5 years? 10 years? 30 years? As we’ve already seen from numerous vloggers, life changes and not always for the best. Relationships end and when you’ve got the entirety of that relationship documented, will they be able to deal with their life changes and be able to move on?

Daily vlogging is a full-time job, so when do they get a holiday? I know it’s a bit of a ridiculous question given that many travel vloggers are ALWAYS on holidays. But a holiday to me is disconnecting with your work life and responsibilities and enjoying time to yourself and with your friends or family.

Privacy

I know that if you willingly put your life online, then a lot of people might think you’re not entitled to privacy. But let’s be honest, whether you live your life through a camera and on social media or not, everyone values, loves and desires privacy. Those little intimate moments you share with someone you love, do they just need to accept that those intimate moments also include millions of subscribers?

Creativity

The more vloggers I seem to watch, who are a part of the ‘vlogger elite,‘ the more I come to realise how similar they are. Many of them travel together, shoot with similar cameras, travel to similar places, use similar shots, music and edits… more or less, many vlogs are exactly the same! Just replace the person holding the camera with your favourite personality and you’ve got a new vlog.

The video below is a recent favourite of mine. He touches on how vlogging, particularly Casey, has inspired people to be creating, but not necessarily creative.

Solutions

So I don’t believe vlogging is dead. AT ALL. Vlogging is an extremely revolutionary medium and YouTube is a powerful platform, that should be respected and understood. YouTubers are influential and can encourage, inspire, educate, motivate and connect with people all across the globe. And I particularly think that travel vloggers have a very important responsibility of educating people of other cultures, countries and ways of life. So here are some possible outcomes and solutions for the future of daily vlogging.

Move from daily to weekly

I think that by moving from daily vlogging to weekly or at least every other day would improve the quality of the content, and the quality of the vloggers life. No more late nights up editing and filming every single day.

Diversifying voices

I know that YouTube is a platform that gives everyone a voice and that it’s definitely partially my fault for not looking hard enough… but I seem to be seeing the same type of personality daily vlogging. White, males from America, the UK or Australia. And whilst they create amazing content, I haven’t yet stumbled across daily vloggers from other parts of the world with a diversity. Women, people of colour, disabilities… I think I would be ten times more engaged if I was seeing the same type of content (travel) produced by these voices. On that note, if you have any recommendations for YouTubers with a unique and diverse voice – let me know!

Meaningful Content

I recently stumbled across JacksGap channel and I’m in absolute awe. They’re using their creative talent to produce quality content, with an important message (you can see the video below). I think this is where the future of vlogging and YouTube is going (well, at least the next phase). Short, quality videos that entwine a ‘vlogging’ style with traditional ‘documentary’ style. Just check out Ben Brown and Steve Booker’s collaboration with the BBC for their mini-series ‘Mission Selfie.’ 

Vlogging is not dead. Casey is going to go on to do bigger and better things. And I think eventually, other YouTubers will come to the same realisation and conclusion.