It is no question to anyone that 2016 is a year to remember for a very long time, from the most shocking events of the 2016 American Election to the break-up of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. To end off such an eventful year, YouTube brought on another interesting controversy with it’s annual “YouTube Rewind 2016”, discussed on numerous websites and news pages. With the most dislikes ever seen on a YouTube Rewind for 4 years, many people question where all the negativity is coming from.
To those of you who have not watched the YouTube Rewind yet… here it is! Source
For some who may not be aware, every year since 2012, the American video-making company Youtube produces a “Youtube Rewind”, designed to review all the large events, trends, and content that happen within a calendar year. This trend started back in 2012, with PSY’s Gangnam style hitting over 1 billion views, a YouTube first. Ever since then, YouTube has been putting out yearly videos that are often welcomed heartily by fans. However this year, there are many reasons as to why the YouTube Rewind wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms, and here are a few…
- Lack of Big YouTubers, And an Abundance of Small Ones
Undeniably the most controversial element of this year’s YouTube Rewind was the huge amount of smaller international YouTubers that there included over the big ones. Massive YouTube Superstars such as Zoella, nigahiga, Tyler Oakley, Smosh, The Sidemen (not including KSI, who was included) and ThatcherJoe, who combined total of subscribers is well over 20 million, were left out of this years YouTube Rewind for unknown reasons. This lack of YouTube superstars who are often credited with being some of the largest forces in the YouTube community has created a massive uproar among viewers, leading to the most dislikes a YouTube Rewind has ever received, over 400,000 within 2 weeks.
- No relevance to actual Youtube Content
Every year, YouTube Rewind follows a theme that was important to the years events, and this year it was revolved around internet “challenges”. We have seen big challenges like this before, such as ALS Ice Bucket challenge back in 2014-2015, which caught the attention of big names such as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates. However, this year specific trends and challenges seemed to rampant among watchers all across the world, such as the “Dab”, “Water Bottle Flip challenge”, “Running Man Challenge” and more. Viral videos were also included, such as the all-famous “Damn Daniel”, which went so viral that the creators were actually invited onto the Ellen show to talk about their internet phenomenon. But even with all this exciting content, numerous viewers began to notice how none of the challenges actually come from YouTube content, but instead Vine, Instagram and Snapchat. With that in mind, YouTube is being criticized for it’s lack of original content, and having to use content from other social media in order to entertain it’s own fans.
- Drama. YouTube Drama.
This is no longer the drama TV shows that people used to watch on the old televisions (yes, televisions are actually starting to become out of date), but yes, YouTube Drama is now a thing. Any person who browses YouTube on a regular basis knows that a lot of negative content was uploaded from a plethora of channels, often harsh criticisms and roasts on specific challenges and people over controversial remarks. Many people have become annoyed with this sort of content every single week, and hope to rebel against that sort of notion. A dislike on the YouTube Rewind was a clear and honest message to many YouTubers: “We did not like the content this year.”
As to whether or not these factors were really the reason for so much dissatisfaction, I personally cannot say. YouTube, regardless of the all the controversy that has stemmed from this year, is still one of the most popular websites in the world today. The best we can do is to move on from the past and hope for better things in the future. Goodbye 2016, and welcome 2017.
