08 May THE BLATANT ART OF “Subscribe To Our Channel, Push The Bell Icon & Turn On Post Notification To Not Miss An Update”

Tracing the origin of social media sites takes us back to 1997, with the introduction of Six Degrees, after the invention of blogging sites, sites like MySpace and LinkedIn gain popularity in the early 2000s. YouTube came out in 2005, introducing an entirely new way of communication across great distances. The years from 2006 to 2010 changed the whole scenario of photo and video sharing experience with the launch of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Social media networks offer so many video capabilities and some of them continue to be the go-to digital platform to watch video content even if you are bored, on a flight, or want to prepare for a presentation. YouTube tends to be the one-stop shop for everyone and everything. 

It’s been more than a decade, and we have seen a sea-change not just in the habit we consume videos, but also in our expectations around video content itself. Genres like vlogging, unboxing, and let’s play are great examples of formats that simply couldn’t have thrived in a traditional television context. There are also video-specific conventions attached to other popular formats such as how-to’s, product reviews, news information videos, and explainers.

If you have ever watched a video content online then you must have heard the most common phrase used by creators asking you to “subscribe to the channel, press the bell icon, and turn on notification to not miss any update” Or “follow us for more.” It’s a probability that most of the time you would’ve subscribed or followed a channel after hearing these lines.  

 Be it any genre, be it any video, the owner of the channel always comes right before the start and asks the viewers to subscribe to the channel, the viewer knowing the nature of video content only through the By-line of the video, subscribes to the channel. The point here is if the content is about an inadequate or unpleasant incident, the creator will still come right before the video and ask the viewer to subscribe to the channel even knowing the nature of the video, for instance, if a creator has curated a video about a war incident, where thousands of people are dying every moment, losing their families, their homes, and whatnot but still, the person is coming before and asking you to subscribe!!, is there any presence of sensitivity towards the issue the creator is talking about? 

If we talk about an online news channel, just to increase their views and subscribers, they cover every distressing event by glorifying it, showing it time and again, and shouting while speaking on the scene, just to grab the attention of the viewer entirely ignoring the seriousness of the event, and again asking you to subscribe the channel without any remorse. 

There should be some logical limits to a person’s mind but there are certain channels present on social media sites that literally imitate crime scenes. I mean why are you even doing that? Are you giving lessons to people on How to turn into a Criminal under 10 minutes? or on How to Do a 100% Successful Murder Without Getting Caught? People specially children all around the world knowingly or unknowingly tap on these kinds of videos, and watch them. No one can understand what kind of influence it is putting on their minds.  

Somehow it reflects how the phrases “subscribe to our channel” or “follow us for more” has become an obsession to people and just to get the reach and viewership people behaves carelessly and blatantly towards a situation. Creators are needed to be more aware and logical towards what kind of content they are making and posting online because it does affect people’s lives.