Shane Dawson is an icon in the YouTube community. He has been uploading videos for over 10 years now, and the YouTube platform has only been available for 13 years. Whenever you think of YouTube, you better think of Shane Dawson. Recently, Shane has been trying to find himself on the platform. He didn't like his old skits anymore and didn't like the random videos he would upload. Because of this, he started working on "The Mind Of Jake Paul". Jake Paul is a famous YouTuber and is the brother of Logan Paul. You may know Logan for his horrible decision making (filming a dead body). Jake Paul has been in the news for years because of his crazy stunts. His neighbors hate him, a lot of YouTubers hate him, and basically, anyone over the age of 16 hates him. He is one of the easiest people to hate on the internet, so Shane decided to do a series about what goes through the mind of Jake Paul.
The internet is in love with the series. Whether you're on the side that loves to hate it, or loves to love it, EVERYONE loves it. The series has been getting backlash for being too inconsiderate. To be honest, Shane has overdramatized it a bit, but most people are being overdramatic. The series is doing a great job, so far (this was written right after episode 4), of diving into the mind of Jake Paul. On the surface, you may think that this series has everything to do with just Jake Paul, but from what I'm understanding, is that there is so much more.
For starters, YouTubers are more fucked up than we thought.
Manipulation, controlling, and lying are all synonyms for most popular YouTubers. We are slowly starting to see that the whole Jake Paul brand is fake, but this shows a much deeper cut for YouTubers. If you want to be popular on the platform, you have to be manipulative and controlling. Shane is popular because he has been on the platform for years. What many people don't realize is that you have to be manipulative to be popular. Shane, Jake, and other creators are all popular because they know what their viewers want. Shane will dive into a controversial series to get views. Manipulative, maybe, but smart. Jake will "taser" an innocent girl and gain the views because it's "crazy". What we now know, is that it's all staged, so it's fake. People loved Jake because of his craziness, but it's all fake, or manipulative. But obviously, it worked because here we are talking about him. This series confirmed that you should never trust what is in front of you. You can love your individual YouTubers, but take them with a grain of salt. Most everything you are seeing is staged for your liking. The content may be real, but the reasoning is fake and devious. The more we realize this, the stronger we are as viewers.
Another thing that this series has shown is in the backlash. Millions of people are talking about the series. Whether you hate it or love it, people are talking about it. The message here is that people will ALWAYS talk. There will be people who hate what you say or do, so you better be confident. Shane has not been dealing with this well. He has been letting people get into his head, and that is dangerous when you are that big of an influencer. I can tell he has been getting better at it, with ignoring some of the haters, but you should never question yourself because of other's hate. If Shane struggles with it, you probably do too. We need to be more confident as people, and this series has shown me that.
Quite possibly the most important drawback from this series is about how fucked up this new generation of children are going to be. When I was growing up I would watch "SpongeBob" and other kids shows. Occasionally, I would hop on to YouTube to watch a funny video, but it never had a grasp on my life. Today, however, kids have people like Jake Paul giving them their content. 10 year old's are watching Jake spit on girls, Logan filming a dead body, and other creators acting like animals for views. Younger kids can easily hop onto YouTube and watch these videos, and this influences their behavior whether they're aware of it or not. I am grateful enough to realize I was born during a great time. These kids have Jake Paul to look up too, and that is just sad. The internet can brainwash people, and kids are the easiest to manipulate. If kids end up replicating these types of actions in any way, they are fucked. It's animalistic and manipulative, and these kids are caught up in the middle.
Shane Dawson has done YouTube a great service. He is uncovering much more than Jake's stupidity. He is uncovering what it means to be a YouTuber as well as a viewer. Though Shane may not realize it, he really is killing it out there. He is doing a great job, of exploring the world of YouTube, and it should be something he looks into doing for the future. If you haven't heard of or watched the "Mind Of Jake Paul" series, I highly recommend you give it a look.
