Another year is coming to an end, and YouTube has pushed out another YouTube Rewind video. To say that the rewind video was a disaster would be a very large understatement.
If we base it on what people want it to be or measure it in the only currency people under 30 understand, likes, it was an abomination. The rewind for 2018 become the most disliked video in YouTube history, finally dethroning the sappiness that was Justin Bieber’s Baby. The video enmassed a whopping 17 million-plus dislikes. A mindblowing number, no matter how you look at it.
What went wrong for YouTube? Well, they did what every person in authority eventually do, they concluded that they knew what the people wanted. And they were very very wrong. This mistake led them to change their approach. For this year’s video, they didn’t ask their fans what they want. They went very modern, and very risky.
The YouTube team picked AI and different data packs as the source that the rewind video for this year should be built on. If that sounds, like lazy, soulless and something someone with total disregard for their fans and users would do, it is. And the fans and users reacted, lividly.
As we speak the dislike to like ratio is approaching a 2 to 1 ration. This new YouTube rewind video could even beat the calamity of last year’s video. The data picked some of the most popular gamers, games, tutorial channels and music that was the most popular last year. Not even Nas X or the lovely Billie Eilish helped.
The think is the users didn’t see it like that. They found the video lazy, even more lazier than last year’s. And that says a lot since many of the users didn’t even have any expectations coming into this year. Here’s what they saw:
Maybe this is an indicator of a larger trend. Perhaps, the content that YouTube and its creators are manufacturing is a one-trick pony, stuff that is fun for a while, but it gets easily boring or annoying. A year in internet time is a long time. There is always something new trying to steal away our attention.
Something that was popular three months ago could seem like it was a thing years ago. That is just how much saturation there is on social media with everything that is popular at the moment.
And perhaps, this YouTube tradition has to die, like many others. Or they could just live with it and make it a new tradition. In other words, the rewind will either vanish, be a thing that gets people cheering, or it can be the worst video ever, year after year.
What do you guys think about this year’s rewind? Let me know in the comments below.
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