Love it or loathe it, YouTube is now part of the mainstream media landscape, and a force to be reckoned with in contemporary popular culture.
(Burgess, J., & Green, J., 2018).
Marshall McLuhan's (1964) statement “the medium is the message,” finds important relevance in the context of YouTube – a platform emblematic of today’s media culture. Thriving on low-definition (Nerdwriter1, 2015), high-participation content, this digital medium challenges traditional paradigms such as the television by requiring active sensory engagement from its audience, where viewers are no longer passive consumers but become producers and collaborators in the creation and circulation of content (Edutopia, 2013), creating a multi-sensory experience that fundamentally reshapes the message itself.
Nerdwriter1 (2015)
While YouTube presents seemingly unparalleled opportunities for creativity and connection, it also raises critical concerns about information overload, advertising ethics, and the impact of these factors on youth (Montgomery & Chester, 2009). It is within this web of influence, opportunity and overwhelm that creators must consciously navigate the medium, informed by regenerative principles and a post-growth economics approach that moves beyond capitalist metrics.
The Medium's Influence on Perception and Culture
The unique message of YouTube, as envisioned by McLuhan, lies within this participatory culture, where passive viewers are transformed into active content co-creators. By necessitating audience interaction, YouTube influences not only the form and substance of media but also the very perception of culture and community within the digital age (Jenkins, 2006). Audience participation, or ‘co-creatorship’, becomes the “message” that YouTube, as a medium, communicates and embeds into today’s digital culture ecosphere.
The pervasive influence of this medium can be understood through the specific mechanisms it employs to entice users to engage. YouTube's design and functionality beckons us to actively respond to content multi-directionally through comments sections, like and dislike buttons, and the ability to share videos across multiple platforms. If these functions alone aren’t enough to entice audience participation, YouTube relies on its algorithm to reward creators whose communities (subscribers and general viewers) engage, resulting in the frequent reminder to viewers by creators to subscribe, comment, and hit that like button.
Such engagement becomes critical in shaping user perception. The algorithms suggest content based on previous interactions, creating a tailored, personalized media experience that reinforces selected viewpoints and cultural trends, which can lead to the creation of echo chambers that can amplify specific cultural norms (Pariser, 2011).
The feedback loop on YouTube is immediate and visible, with content creators often adapting their output (and entire lifestyle) in response to viewer feedback (Sailing La Vagabonde, 2021), further iterating the platform's content and approach (Burgess & Green, 2018). As such, YouTube fosters a co-creative culture where the audience has a say in the creation process.
YouTube also enables the rise of micro-celebrities and influencers, individuals who gain popularity primarily or exclusively through the internet and social media, changing the landscape of fame and notoriety. These figures become cultural arbiters, influencing fashion, language, and behavior among their followers (Marwick, 2015). Their impact is a direct result of the medium's structure and deliberate design, which breaks down traditional barriers to fame and allows for direct, intimate forms of communication with audiences which some may label as ‘authentic.’ ‘Celebrity’ in this sense is “a range of techniques and strategies that can be performed by anyone with a mobile device, tablet, or laptop (Marwick, 2015).
In this environment, users are not only consuming content that reflects existing cultural norms but are also contributing to their evolution. The medium of YouTube, therefore, becomes an active site of cultural production, where user interactions, algorithmic influences, and the nature of digital celebrity work together to shape both individual perceptions and broader cultural trends. This dynamic accentuates the importance of critically engaging with digital media platforms like YouTube, understanding their structures, and recognizing their significant role in cultural shaping and knowledge dissemination, because it is “the medium that has the greatest impact on human affairs,” (Strate, 2008). As Tyson Yunkaporta (Yunkaporta, 2019) writes, “The song itself is not as important as the communal knowledge process that produces it.”
While YouTube democratizes content creation, the reality of its algorithm and revenue structures embedded in the capitalist system presents a new challenge. The expectation of constant content production to sustain viewer engagement and revenue streams exemplifies McLuhan’s insight - YouTube as a medium dictates the rhythms and routines of creators, compelling them to adapt to its demands or face obsolescence (McLuhan, 1964). The platform's model, based on viewer metrics and ad revenue, creates an environment where creators are incentivized to maintain a persistent presence, affecting both their creative output and economic viability.
Opportunities Amidst Challenges
As the ‘global village’ that McLuhan envisioned materializes through platforms like YouTube, we must consider ‘whose global village?’ by reflecting on access disparities and cultural hegemonies perpetuated by the medium. The very architecture of YouTube that claims to facilitate global connection indeed raises concerns about equitable access and representation within this digital ecosystem (Srinivasan, 2017).
YouTube’s democratic ethos lowers the barriers to media production and distribution, allowying anyone with a camera and internet access to create and share content to a global audience. This democratization fosters a diverse array of voices and perspectives that have otherwise been marginalized or silenced in mainstream media, supporting a new creative class of ‘YouTubers’ who can support themselves through innovative content creation (Burgess & Green, 2018).
However, access to these resources is not uniform globally. The digital divide - a gap in terms of internet services access between different regions and socioeconomic groups - significantly limits the potential benefits. Srinivasan (2017) argues that technology development often overlooks non-Western contexts, raising crucial questions about whose interests are truly served in the networked age.
Another challenge presented by the medium is the increasing difficulty for creators to earn a living from video production alone due to the small share of ad revenue distributed by the platform. Creators are penalized by the algorithm if they take breaks from posting videos, pushing many to rely more heavily on paid advertising partnerships with brands and viewer-supported revenue models like Patreon, highlighting the precarious nature of relying solely on YouTube for income and emphasizes the need for more equitable revenue-sharing models to support the diverse creator economy on the platform. The pressure to continually produce content can affect creators’ mental health, with burnout and stress being common (Sailing La Vagabonde, 2023). Furthermore, viewers may be fatigued with incessant marketing ((3) YouTube Sailing Channels | Facebook, 2023), opting to unsubscribe to creator’s channels should as a result.
Sailing La Vagabonde, 2023
Additionally, the environmental impact of YouTube is substantial. YouTube perpetuates a culture of constant content creation and consumption that drives the production of electronic waste and increases the carbon footprint associated with digital storage and streaming. The storage of vast volume of video content in data centers results in enormous amounts of energy consumption, significantly contributing to carbon emissions (Mondal et al., 2023). Furthermore, creator practices and the lifestyles or products they promote also have a detrimental impact on the environment. The lifestyle portrayed by some travel vloggers (Nonstop Dan, 2024), for example, promotes consumerism and frequent flying, which have considerable environmental impacts.
The platform also poses unique challenges for parental management of screen time. Unlike traditional TV, which was limited by schedules and finite programming, YouTube offers continuous, on-demand content that is specifically tailored to capture and retain young viewers’ attention. This ‘always-on’ nature places unprecedented pressure on parents to monitor and curtail usage to prevent excessive screen exposure, which can impact children’s developmental health and family dynamics (Sonia Livingstone, 2022). For viewers, perpetual engagement with platforms like YouTube can lead to issues like screen addiction, disrupted sleep patterns, and an unhealthy comparison with idealized lives portrayed in videos.
As digital platforms like YouTube continue to evolve, addressing these challenges through sustainable practices, better regulatory frameworks, and a commitment to bridging the global digital divide becomes imperative.
Content Creation, Ethical Responsibility and Regenerative Thinking
In light of McLuhan's philosophy, the profound influence of YouTube as a medium makes urgent the need for a regenerative approach to media creation. Drawing from Heidegger's discourse in “The Question Concerning Technology,” content creators on YouTube must be conscious of their role as shapers of digital landscapes with ethical foresight, actively participating in a harmonious integration of technology with human values (Epoch Philosophy, 2020).
Epoch Philosophy, 2020
Regenerative thinking begins with the realization that humans are embedded in, part of and fundamentally dependent on nature (Konietzko et al., 2023), with over 90 per cent of DNA within our bodies belonging to the microbial biome (Bielskyte, 2023). From this interconnected consciousness, we can get serious about our responsibility as creators to commit to ethical practices in alignment with regenerative thinking, where planetary health and societal wellbeing are center to all human activity. With over 60 million creators on YouTube (Shewale, 2024) at the time of writing, a mass shift towards ethical, regenerative content creation could result in increased pressure on YouTube as a corporate organisation to take necessary shifts in minimizing its degenerative ‘footprints’ and increasing positive ‘handprints’ (Konietzko et al., 2023).
Konietzko et al., 2023
This also aligns with post-growth discourse, where success on YouTube can be redefined to prioritize metrics of well-being and sustainability over traditional capitalist indicators such as views or subscriber counts. Such a paradigm encourages content that stimulates critical thinking, cultural enrichment, and community resilience, contributing to the collective well-being rather than individualistic consumption (Hickel, 2020).
Conclusion
The message that emerges from YouTube's medium is complex, multifaceted, and profoundly influential. Content creators wield significant power to direct this message towards either regenerative growth or degenerative consumption. By embracing McLuhan's adage “the medium is the message,” and adopting ethical guidelines informed by regenerative thinking and post-growth philosophy, creators can produce content that contributes more constructively to the audience's development and the collective, regenerative evolution of society.
References
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