The Art of Me

Hmm, it’s tricky to know where to start with this, but let’s just say, I’m a recent convert to watching Vlogs.

I love a good Vlog, with ‘good’ being the operative word. There are some vloggers out there who I’d watch over TV any day – they’re engaging, funny, credible and most importantly, cover topics that I’m interested in with in-depth knowledge and passion.

But oh my! Not all vlogs are equal. I think where I’m finding it really hard to engage is with the ‘me’ vloggers – in other words, it’s literally all about them. Their goldfish, their breakfast, their new shoes, their packet of crisps – anything as long as it’s all about them. In the same way that I couldn’t really see the point in TOWIE or MIC, I do find myself wondering why I should give a damn what they ate for breakfast. I can’t help feeling that the me bubble is going burst and burst really hard in same way that ratings for TOWIE, Big Brother and MIC have dropped as people grow less interested in what random strangers fed their cat that morning.

But, without turning this post into an essay, I also wonder about the audience drill down. It seems that for some the followers are very, very young, so also very easily influenced and it has to be a concern that if young girls are flocking to see vloggers as role models, there has to be a duty from vloggers to think hard about how they influence. As a mum, I don’t know if some vloggers are where I’d send my daughter for a look at an appropriate role model in life. And, it is an issue in a world where girls are already under pressure to look and be anything but themselves. It’s important for everyone to know the world doesn’t exist around a small ‘me’ bubble. I can’t say I see any evidence of ‘mindful’ vlogging in some quarters.

I saw – on a different channel to Vlogging – a short video of a couple of vloggers jumping about on their bed. They just looked like any carefree young women having innocent fun. But, it nearly broke my heart because it was so unrepresentative of the majority of bloggers/vloggers and I thought if that’s what people think we do all day, I might as well give up.

The Me Bubble will burst – and then what? How do you go from someone who can earn thousands from jumping on your bed to someone who nobody is interested in anymore? And how do you stop that happening? ‘Me’ isn’t enough for the long-term; being admired for being pretty or having nice clothes and bags isn’t enough. One day those Instagrams will stop being worth £100 each (yep, really) and one day there will be a small band of vloggers wishing they’d gathered a skill that would take them into the future – just like all young women should.

I don’t think I need to specify the vloggers that I hold in the greatest respect – and this certainly isn’t a catch-all and not even necessarily UK based references – but it bothers me that we’re gearing up for another ‘me’ generation and god knows, this one is bad enough.