Entry 7: What makes the UK Vloggers so special?

Question 6 - Identify a form of digital culture (e.g. leet speak, memes, Youtube unboxing videos, glitch art, cyberbullying) that also has a distinct local or regional characteristic. Trace its history and using notable artefact(s), explain how this digital culture may be of significance to designers. 

HI.

Before moving on to anything, I just want to clarify one thing.

Most of the most-watched/popular vloggers are mainly from the UK and the US.

Here are some of the most popular vloggers from the UK:

Tanya Burr

 Jim Chapman

Marcus Butler

Casper Lee

Joe Sugg a.k.a ThatherJoe

Alfie Deyes a.k.a PointlessBlog

Zoe Sugg a.k.a Zoella

Louise Pentland a.k.a Sprinklerino

Louis Cole a.k.a FunforLouis

Phil Lester a.k.a AmazingPhil

And here are some of the most popular Vloggers from the US:

Shane Dawson

Tyler Oakley

Jenna Marbles

Trisha Paytas

Ryan Higa a.k.a NigaHiga

 Grace Helbig

Hannah Hart

Bf vs Gf

Joey Graceffa

Michelle Phan

Vloggers that walk around, holding up a camera throughout the day, documenting their lives on a daily basis are widely known in the UK. If you were to type in “most influential vloggers” in the google search bar, all of the results are mostly UK-related. 

If you have never watched any of the UK Vloggers’ vlogs, you’re probably clueless about their lifestyle like who they’re friends with, what are their favourite foods are etc. etc. Well then, here’s a fun fact.

In the UK, most of the YouTubers/Vloggers are either related or they’re really close friends. For example, Zoe Sugg and Joe Sugg are siblings, Alfie Deyes is the boyfriend of Zoe, Tanya Burr and Jim Chapman are a married couple, Casper Lee and Joe Sugg are housemates and best friends and the list goes on. They are all close to each other; they are like a big big family. What’s more? They are also joining the communities that they individually have. Everyone in the world are JOINT WOW.

Have you ever wonder, why are the UK vloggers getting so much attention compared to the other vloggers out there, somewhere..?

I came across this site that caught my attention and it’s entitled: Only a third of UK's top 10 most influential YouTuber's traffic originates in the UK. It is stated in the site that UK YouTubers have an international advantage over non-english speakers because people from all over the world prefer YouTubers from this region… also because of their accent (McCarthy, 2015). Well, the British accent is voted as the sexiest accent in the world so.. (Singh, 2015).

It was also concluded that only 34% of the viewers are from the UK, and the rest are from all over the world (McCarthy, 2015).

Another reason in my opinion is because the UK vloggers are literally like a legit family. They are so close and so caring of one another it makes it so enjoyable to watch their vlogs. Sometimes, they’d do collaborations, which means they invite another vlogger/YouTuber and do fun/entertaining stuff together that put a smile on the viewers’ faces. By doing this, they are also merging isolated communities into a whole, making everyone feel like they are an important part of their lives, making every one of the individual souls feel like they belong. Maybe that’s why, it is the invisible connection they have with their viewers. 

Well, that’s it for this blog post. These are not really very important information. It’s just for you to have a better understanding of the YouTubers’ world. That’s if you are clueless about it.

References:

McCarthy, J. (2015) “Only a third of UK's top 10 most influential YouTuber's traffic originates in UK”. Available at: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2015/10/23/only-third-uks-top-10-most-influential-youtubers-traffic-originates-uk (Accessed: 8 January 2016).

Singh, A. (2015) “British accent is more attractive than French, says survey”. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/11399001/British-accent-is-more-attractive-than-French-says-survey.html (Accessed: 13 January 2016).