The Bookkeeper
In an age where content creators, Youtubers, Twitch streamers and the like, people young and old are eager to get their name out there with their own brand of original content. Putting countless hours into their passion, very few stop to think, what happens if the platform their using decides that your content isn’t appropriate.
Say for example Minecraft, a game loved by young and old or better yet, Call Of Duty had become a game YouTube wished to ban for whatever reason. What would a content creator do after spending years honing his or her craft making video after video only to wake up one morning to see all their content demonetized?
Take Pum’kin Guy for example. Created by Ill Will Press other wise known as the creator of Foamy the Squirrel. A squirrel that I’ve followed for a very long time. Listening to his amusing yet interesting rants about the crazy world humans live in, while I worked on future plans for this library. Aside from my own little content creator Candy, Ill Will Press will forever be my favorite.
While some might have seen Foamy the Squirrel as a silly animation, I saw it to be something more. What I saw was wisdom, what I’ve learned is to take a step back and watch the world with a bird’s eye view. So not to be swept up in the world’s problems. I’ve personally never been one to stress about things, nor rely on luck to get things done. Forcing my goals into place one way or another, with patience and understanding. But I can’t help but feel the “mad” ravings of a “mythical” squirrel played some part in my development.
I remember during the days of the “ad-pocalypse” Foamy the Squirrel videos were being demonetized after being on YouTube for years without a lick of trouble. It was heartbreaking to see this happen. In my opinion it was downright disrespectful. This was happening to content creators all over the world, something I knew without a doubt would happen when I was nothing more than a thought and my task was but an idea.
Before the “ad-pocalypse” I knew it would be a horrible idea to put all my hopes and dreams into platforms like other content creators. Besides, I had, have… something bigger in mind. And focusing the majority of my time and energy into YouTube, Facebook or Twitch can be seen as nothing more than gambling with my future.
These platforms should be used as replicable tools. Something to be thrown away if they no longer serve a purpose. But instead people have bet their futures, hoping the day never comes when their platform pulls the plug on their content because a small but very vocal group of people seek to cancel what they don’t like and refuse to allow others to like it.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel platforms should have the right to do as they please. Meaning if they want to stop allowing people to create and profit from them, than by all means they should be allowed. However, no where in the books does it say those who are creative need to use said platform.
As I’ve said for years, platforms aren’t required to care about a content creators lively hood. If Twitch wants to become a soft core naughty website, then by all means. But I can promise you that my little content creator, Candy will no longer be streaming to such a place. The problem is that it’s easy for content creators to just get started on YouTube or Twitch. Why make your own platform when you can just skip to the good stuff. Well this mind set is what’s getting people in trouble in the long run. It’s fine if you wish to be the next big Youtuber but understand, you’re building your dreams on land that doesn’t belong to you.