I’m not a huge fan of video bloggers in general. I mean, I watch my share of youtube videos as does everyone else, and I can get dragged into the youtube blackhole late at night where I’m binging one video after another. Most video bloggers, at least in the United States which end up on trending, are usually over produced and come off as cheesy and created specifically for clickbait. Because of that I tend to stay away from trending videos when it comes to video blogging.
Lately I’ve been enjoying watching a lot of english speaking foreign video bloggers who are beginning to get a bit popular, but which you can tell are very authentic and still a bit amateur. We (I?) get so caught up in social media and what our home country specific propaganda is barking and targetting that we can lose track of the fact that people are just people. Each country along with their respective media outlets try to poison us against “the other” that it is easy forget that “the other” are just normal people trying to live their lives.
The video above is from a youtube channel called Different Russia. A channel that is focused around showing you how ordinary everyday Russian folks live. It literally brings me joy when I see videos, specifically these unboxing videos, where random people from different countries send gift boxes. My first foray into that kind of thing was with the secret santa campaigns on reddit. It kind of blew my mind at the time that there were people out there willing to take their time to send a stranger a christmas gift. More importantly though is the idea that international citizens can communicate directly, show compassion and empathy, without being swayed one way or another by their local and federal political systems and media.
Above is a video from an up and coming video blogger from Russia who goes by Dan Sheekoz. The idea is similar. They’re unboxing random packages that are sent to them from different countries. It really touches me how excited and grateful they are for receiving what could be interpreted as seemingly small things. It’s not the items or the gifts that they’re excited about (at least this is my interpretation). It’s the fact that this couple living in some random Russian city can just share their every day lives and people are interested. So interested in fact that people are willing to go out of their way and send them something they think they might find interesting or useful. If you watch a bit of their video catalogue you come to find that their singular dream is to travel and create video blogs internationally. Their videos are very wholesome and they have great personalities, which is probably one of the reasons their videos are getting quite popular.
To sum up my feelings I’ll say this – you don’t have to be dictated to by your local and national media outlets. Remember that with respect to the media, you are a product, just as you are the product with respect ot social media. Controversy and trolling are great for clickbait, but that shit isn’t real life. The majority of the crap/trolling comes from the loudest minority who rarely get pushback because the result of what they say is exactly what the media and social media platforms want to fuel clicks and views. So the trolling is reinforced and it becomes a cycle. Videos like this cut through that and force us to recongize that no matter how vitriolic our fake hate is anonymously online, that there are real people out there with great hearts.
Take some time out of your day to really watch some of these videos. Foreign video blogging is becoming more and more popular in countries where it hasn’t been prior. The sharing of peoples daily lives internationally I think is a small part of the solution to cutting through the fictional representation of “the other” and I definitely welcome it.