by Cassie Bradley
In today’s society, most people have a social media. Roughly 78 percent of Americans have a social media account, which is a 5 percent growth compared to last year.
A lot of people use it to connect with family and friends that live far away, geek out over their favorite band or T.V. show, and to show off their pets. Some use it for fun, but other people use social media to make their dreams come true by posting covers of songs, promoting their blogs, and making videos.
Some people who got their start from social media and the Internet and now use it to make their living are some YouTubers, Bloggers, and Viners like Signeroo, Cameron Dallas, and Zoe Sugg or Zoella.
YouTube is a relatively new platform. It was created in 2005 by three former Paypal employees, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. In the last decade, YouTube has become a common part of people’s everyday lives.
There are two popular YouTube conventions each year: Vidcon and Playlist Live. YouTube even has its own award ceremony, the Streamys. The Streamy Awards are somewhat new. They began in 2010 and are voted by viewers. They are intended to honor the best in online entertainment and the creators behind it.
YouTube is more than entertainment. Teachers use YouTube as a teaching tool for students, and there are a lot of YouTubers for whom it has became an actual career.
One of the many people who makes videos on YouTube for a living is Tyler Oakley. Tyler Oakley started making videos in 2007. He started out making comedy videos to send to his friends while he was in college, and now Oakley has won many awards including Streamy Activist Icon of the Year. He also works with the Trevor Project, which is an American non-profit organization focused on suicide prevention among the LGBTQ+ community. He even has his own show, “The Tyler Oakley Show,” on Ellentube. He currently has 8,125,647 million subscribers.
Mamrie Hart is also a very successful YouTuber. Hart grew up in Boonville, North Carolina and went to college at UNC Chapel Hill. She won a Streamy for Actress in a Comedy and in 2014 she co-hosted the Streamy Awards with fellow YouTuber and close friend, Grace Helbig. She wrote a book called “You Deserve A Drink,” named after her popular YouTube show. Her YouTube career has led her to star in two movies, “Camp Takota,” and a new movie, “Dirty 30.” Hart has 1,191,843 subscribers.
Tiffany Mink, a Thingama vlogger, said that the internet made her a self-made woman.
“I was the Pit Reporter for Vans Warped Tour starting back in 2009,” Mink said. “YouTube was just a scratch in the surface of what it is today. I was daily vlogging the tour before ‘vlog’ was even a term to be thrown around. It wasn’t until recently that I was asked to be apart of Thingamavlogs.”
The YouTube channel Thingamavlogs currently has 42,942 subscribers.
A popular app known today is Musical.ly. People make videos of themselves lip-syncing, and it has become a sensation. For some, this app helped them launch their careers. Baby Ariel is an example. She was 15 and living in South Florida when she started making lip-syncing videos and sending them to her friends. More and more people saw these videos, and she quickly became famous and now also has a YouTube channel making comedy videos and vlogs. She is currently on Wintour, a touring and social media festival put on by Digitour.
YouTubers and Viners are not the only ones who became well known because of the Internet and social media. Justin Bieber, Carly Rae Jepsen, and 5 Seconds Of Summer are just a few musicians who were elevated to success with these platforms.
A band from England known as Little Reckless said that social media has helped them a lot with growing their fan base from America and Australia.
“I believe social media has helped us get out there more as without it we would have half the fanbase be Donnie [Doncaster, the band’s hometown],” band members joked.
5 Seconds of Summer performs in Nashville for their Sounds LIve Feels Live tour.
The band 5 Seconds Of Summer is an Australian pop-punk band who also got their start on YouTube. They started making covers on YouTube, and one day a member of the the most popular boy band at the moment, One Direction, saw one of their videos. 1D’s Louis Tomlinson liked them so much, that he asked them to finish out the tour that One Direction was on, and asked 5SOS to headline their next tour, Where We Are. Since then, 5SOS started their own record label, Hi Or Hey Records. After that they went on two tours. American Pop-Punk Band, Hey Violet opened for 5SOS on both of these tours. This year on their Sounds Live Feels Live tour they invited musical acts Hey Violet, Japanese Rock Band, ONE OK ROCK, and American singer-songwriter Roy English to join them on stage. They have successfully written two albums, are currently working on their third, have won many awards, and have gotten to work with some of their idols like the Madden brothers.
American alternative band, All I See Is Blue, said, “We want to make a positive effect on the world and help others become better people,” said band members. “Our goals are to get signed to a record label and maybe eventually go on tour.”
They think that social media has helped share their music faster than by doing concerts.