My last hiking video mentioned that I thought it was a bad idea to start reducing staffing levels at our National Parks. I fully believe this; a society built solely on productivity is a society rapidly headed toward complete burnout. We need our National Parks, we need to preserve our National Parks, and we need informed, educated people to do keep our National Parks thriving. Having Mother Nature available to us is a beautiful thing, and preserving as much of Mother Nature as possible is even a better thing.
We are visitors on the blue and green marble, and we would be much better off if we respected and honored that marble instead of trying to rape it for all its minerals and other marketable materials.
Apparently my sentiments were not well received as I lost a larger number than usual of subscribers to my YouTube channel since posting the video.
I know I shouldn’t care about the numbers, because I’m not looking to turn my videos into a revenue stream, but I still care about the numbers a little bit. Even if it’s just to coax the YouTube algorithm to start suggesting my videos to other users.
I like to spread inspiring content through my channel, even though YouTube prefers to spread negative stuff to ramp up the dopamine. Scrolling is the goal of YouTube, because it leads to revenue. And revenue is the American way.
I was alerted about the subscribers leaving when I suddenly had a number of emails from folks suggesting ways I could improve my viewership, complete with red lines and circles pointing to low subscriber counts and numbers of views. For a small(?) fee I could work with a consultant (or four) and bump those numbers up, uP, UP!
I’m just a guy that likes to make videos. I appreciate the channels of other folks that seem to be authentic and just want to make videos. I’m looking for the passion of the presenter, not influence. I was watching a video the other day and I’ve always been on the fence as to whether the presenter was authentic or not; in their bloopers at the end they yell “line” and three people come out of the shadows to help them get through the scene.
And here I thought they were a one person show like me.
My videos are planned, shot, produced, edited, semi-scripted, and put together by me and me alone. Once in a while I’ll ask Earl to hold the camera if I’m doing something spur-of-the-moment in a storage unit or something, but otherwise I do all of my video art completely solo. And I’m rather proud of this. I hope the viewer sees the authenticity I’m feeling.
If you haven’t seen my latest video and have an interest, here it is. I didn’t realize how “moody” my landscape shots were until I edited the video together a couple of weeks after the hike.
Moody is good. If you’re interested in my content, please feel free to subscribe to the channel so the algorithm can be convinced to let other people stumble upon my channel. I’m not one for algorithmic games.
Maybe I’m old.
