Youtube Reaction videos. I don't understand why people are so interested in seeing other people, that they don't know, reacting to their favourite films, music albums or whatever. It can be fun and interesting to see the reaction of a close friend or family member to those things, but the fuck do I care what some dead-eyed dumb frivolous c*nt thinks about it? And the levels of narcissism involved to actually make those videos, jeez. Here's half an hour of ME reacting to YOUR favourite thing, please subscribe. Fuck off!
Depends. I follow a number of reaction channels avidly, but they've grown organically and moved beyond reactions into other areas - like art, gaming etc. I even help out on a channel now, helping someone produce content. Started following her three years ago when she had less than 600 subs. Now she has over 11k. We record gaming sessions together, have done live streaming, and I help moderate her discord channel. It's been great fun. We even encouraged her to set up a Patreon last year.
The channels that peeve me off are the reaction channels that seem to pop into existence, ready made; with an instagram, fbpage, patreon - hell, some even have only fans - all there from the start on a channel that's less than a year old and has, maybe, a dozen videos on it.
Now yeah, the pandemic hit people hard, and many looked for an outlet, so fair enough. And if someone has decided they want to do this thing as some kind of business, then I suppose you have to engage in multiple platforms. But I feel it's more... manufactured. Like some company has set them up, franchise like - given them the kit, told them what to do, and takes a cut of any money they make. It's extremely artificial. Like a football club suddenly popping into existence with no history, fan loyalty, but can spend whatever it likes and seems to have loads of people suddenly interested in them.
But I love the channels that have been around for ages and just grown. People who have day jobs, lives, and share what's going on. I live alone, and especially during the pandemic, social isolation could be a big problem.
Watching reactions is fun for me, because I feel I'm watching a show
with someone. There's a social element to it for me.