Last Week

Tomska is a youtuber with over 4.3 million subscribers, with a side channel called dark Squidge (645,000 subscribers). On this second channel, Tom posts a weekly vlog series called last week, where he records various parts of his week and puts it all into one video for the start of each week. As Tom gained his fame through making comedic short films and sketches, and has built up a small team over the years to help run his channel and content; it is incredibly interesting to see the inside view of the creation of youtube videos and the maintenance of channels.

However, The vlogs don't purely focus on this; they also focus on Tom depression, obsesity, relationships, self doubt, worry, his life story, all forming into a well rounded video each week. So, not only is it a deep insight into the inner workings of a youtube channel; it also provides the creator with a greater connection to his fans which he otherwise wouldn't be able to achieve due to his other content (Sketch comedy) not having that lenience. Below are two examples of videos showing the range of emotions and experiences carried through last week.

Even though Tom tends to put a comedic twist on everything in these videos, there is still evidence on the fine line that they have to walk in order to stay in this line of work. Even with short, quirky remarks like "have we been fired yet?" when addressing their trip to Hungary show some of the possibilities faced by content producers. 

This second video also carries a very important message that, if you are suffering with depression or other mental illness, it is important to build strong support networks of friends to make your life easier to deal with. And that's exactly what Tom has done as displayed by the video below. So, while also providing an insight into a creators life and their different styles, he his also creating an escape for people, and giving them meaningful advice and proving that it works. 

LonelyGirl15 and Fake Videos

When Youtube was in its infancy, it was primarily a platform that was treated much like a social media. People would make videos dicussing their days and views, sending video messages to each other, and the occasional short film. then in 2006, a new regular content producer started to appear with the tag "Lonelygirl15". At first she seemed like the typical teenage girl content producer with strict parents.

As this channel progressed and started creating more content, her fans started to notice weird things taking place in her life such as things on the wall, bruises, stories about her parents etc. This worried a lot of the fanbase, creating an explosion in subscribers, comments, discussion on forums creating theories such as her parents being satanic priests or cult leaders. Eventually, it was revealed that Lonelygirl15 was actually a character, created by Greg Goodfried (a Lawyer), Miles Beckett (plastic surgeon intern) and Mesh Flinders (a Screen Writer). 

This is the first example of people manipulating the platform in a completely new way, by creating a character with a story arc but presenting it to the consumers in the most common video format on youtube, vlogs. This very much signaled the start of further manipulation of the platfrom of youtube and the development of the marketisation of youtube. 

below is an interview with the creators of Lonelygirl15:

Unsurprisingly, this reveal was met with some backlash. Even though the creators carried no malicious intent with the creation of Lonelygirl15, viewer's still didn't like the fact that they were being lie to.

This does bring up an interesting point though. Looking at a few lists of so called "fake videos" and the drama that seems to collect around them, it brings up the point that very few of us truly know how real much of the content we watch is when it comes to prank videos or vlog channels. Below is a video showing some other fake video "scandals" in the past including Lonelygirl15. If anything, the video shows just how volatile the platform of youtube is and the lengths some people will go to just to get themselves extra viewership. I hope you enjoy.