by David Kent | staff writer
Since the creation of Youtube in 2005, the online platform has attracted over a billion users and has brought fame to countless individuals.
“I use Youtube most often,” sophomore Madison Muncie said. “I like the access to everything and I like to support content creators that don’t necessarily have a chance on TV or on Netflix.”
Youtube allows individuals to express their talents and abilities and show them to millions of people. There are many content creators on Youtube, though only a handful of users have gained celebrity-esque status.
Felix Kjellberg, better known as his internet persona “Pewdiepie” is the self-proclaimed (and fan-proclaimed) ‘King of Youtube,’ and rightfully so. He first started his channel in 2006 and 13 years later has amassed a following of 101 million subscribers, close behind indian media platform of T-series which has a totaled 113 million subscribers. Kjellberg’s video content consists of let’s plays, most notably his new Minecraft series, along with Internet reviews. Though his content isn’t the most unique on the platform, Kjellberg’s unique online persona has attracted millions of followers and has made him the most popular individual on the platform. Despite how much controversy has come Kjellberg’s way, he only seems to gain more popularity and more subscribers. I personally love Pewdiepie and his content, he is one of the funniest people on Youtube (excluding my favorite, Call Me Kevin of course) and his wedding to his wife, Marzia Kjellberg, was one of the best and most beautiful moments captured and posted on his youtube channel.
Shane Yaw Dawson has become one of the many inspirational icons on Youtube and one of my personal favorites. Dawson’s childhood years were marked with abuse and phases which would be better left in his past, however, he has moved beyond these trials and has become a stronger individual because of it. Despite not being as popular as Pewdiepie, with 2.2 million compared to Kjellberg’s astronomical number of followers, he is a well known as an inspirational icon that shows that people can move beyond their past and craft a better future for themselves. Something that allows Dawson to appear more popular than his subscriber count would show, is his wildly famous documentaries, most notably the documentary about Jake Paul and his conspiracy theory videos.
Phillip Defranco is different from your typical, run-of-the-mill youtube stars. Instead of such things as ‘Let’s Play’ as has become the norm with youtubers, Defranco runs his own news channel and his self-created new network led to his fame and success. The news network, called The Phillip Defranco Show, has been nominated for a total of 13 awards and has won five awards since its creation in June 21, 2007. He has been dubbed by some the Walter Cronkite of his generation. What I personally love about Defranco’s news network is how open he is; Defranco states the facts first from a multitude of different news sources before saying his own opinion. This has allowed Defranco to make his work as unbiased as it can be, while still announcing his own opinion on what’s happening in society.
Jenna Mourney, or simply known by her pseudonym Jenna Marbles, is a comedian and actress who makes light of beauty trends in her videos. Mourney is most known for the online persona she takes on along with speaking out against gender discrimination that she has faced in the past. Though I have never consistently watched Mourney, save for on an occasional basis, she has always remained a great source of comedy and one of my favorite female Youtubers. Mourney has lead the way for women in the field of Youtube celebrities.
Whether you like him or hate him, Ninja, or Richard Blevins, is one of the most popular streamers in the world. He is most well known for streaming the (terrible) battle-royale game of Fortnite and more recently the (amazing) game Apex Legends. Belvins is not known for much else save for getting mad whenever he loses and even going as far as reporting people who kill him in video games because of ‘stream-sniping.’ I’ve never had an interest in watching him, and the few times that I have watched Belvins’ content, it found it boring and overly childish.
Dude Perfect is a youtube-originated sports entertainment group which has amassed global fame and popularity. ‘Dude Perfect’ is run by co-founders Tyler Toney, Coby Cotton, Cory Cotton, Cody Jones, and Garret Hilbert out of Frisco, Texas. The video entertainment group performs a multitude of trick-shots and they boast many records in the Guinness World Records. From what I have seen, the sports group has performed a multitude of amazing and spectacular trick shots that look to have taken hours to perfect over days and possibly weeks of practice. This group goes to show just what can be accomplished when a group of friends come together with their collective talents to do something astonishing.
