{"id":42287,"date":"2025-02-15T08:02:34","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T04:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/?p=42287"},"modified":"2025-02-21T21:34:05","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T17:34:05","slug":"profession-youtuber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/profession-youtuber\/","title":{"rendered":"Profession YouTuber"},"content":{"rendered":"

YouTube abounds in the good, the bad and the ugly. The choice is ours to make…<\/em><\/span><\/h4>\n
\n

By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A few years ago (before the Covid pandemic) I was at a birthday party and talking to a student who was in Form 2 or 3. She was quite articulate and fluent in English, and I happened to ask her whether she had given some thought about what she would like to do as a career. \u2018I am going to be a YouTuber\u2019 she replied confidently.<\/span><\/p>\n

At that time, I had been using YouTube less frequently than I do now, and I hadn\u2019t the foggiest idea what being a YouTuber meant. I therefore didn\u2019t pursue the conversation further with this girl. I haven\u2019t met her again since so I don\u2019t know how far she has gone in her plan, in any case perhaps it\u2019s too early \u2013 or perhaps not, who knows! \u2013 since she would not have completed her secondary schooling to HSC level yet.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, despite that girl\u2019s forthright assertion, on the spur of the moment I had thought she meant that as a hobby. But afterwards I asked myself whether she was serious, because how can one make a living from being a YouTuber? Practically all of us are simply users of media platforms without bothering about their nitty-gritty, such as how they are set up and what goes into the production of programmes and their diffusion to the public at large, the regulatory aspects, etc. Much like we run our cars without necessarily knowing about its mechanics, which we leave to the\u2026 mechanics if something goes wrong or for servicing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, however, my utilization of various YouTube platforms has expanded somewhat, triggered by the use of this medium during the Covid epidemic to obtain the latest information about the disease presented during focused panel discussions by experts \u2013 since it would take time to get such updates in the regular medical journals. In any case changes were taking place so rapidly in the understanding and guidance on the Covid situation that there was no other way to keep apace and put into practice accordingly. From Covid I then graduated to other, non-medical content of interest to me.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is in line with my increased use of YouTube that my curiosity and interest to probe somewhat deeper into the phenomenon of YouTube and YouTubers has been aroused owing to a controversy that has erupted about a YouTuber in India, whose platform goes by the name BeerBiceps. Apparently during a live session he had asked a female contestant a question on sex matters that was deemed (according to an article in the MEDIA of Feb 12, 2025 by Salila Saffronista) to be \u2018inappropriate and vulgar\u2019, \u2018lacking any sense of public decency or personal respect\u2019, and moreover the \u2018controversial joke was not even original but was plagiarized from a Truth or Drink video by comedians Sammy Walsh and Alan Fang.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

The widespread public outrage that has been swift on social media has raised questions of ethical standards, of professionalism and originality in digital entertainment. These are being widely debated in several news channels in India, with condemnation of such vulgar, putrid humour that glorifies mediocrity and crass. The article under reference underlines the \u2018extremely poor standards passing off perverse titillation and normalising incest as entertainment under the garb of freedom of expression and free press. Such unbridled media is bound to have long-term repercussions on Indian society leading to complete anarchy destroying basic morality and family values resulting in increasing violence, sexual abuse and exploitation of children, vulnerable women and the elderly.\u2019 As a matter of fact, it should be clear to everyone that such content can impact society adversely and seriously everywhere.<\/span><\/p>\n

No wonder therefore that legal action has been initiated against that person, his public apology deemed insufficient considering the gravity of the offence. I must say I was quite surprised to learn about the video session that has been taken to task because I had previously followed quite a few of that YouTuber\u2019s interviews on serious topics that included spirituality. Once such was a discussion with Sri M, a Guru from Kerala whose interventions on the Vedanta are as simple to understand as they are insightful and reveal the Truth and truths of our existence. How did BeerBiceps go off course, some are asking? Were his earlier ones on serious topics a fa\u00e7ade to hide his true inclinations?<\/span><\/p>\n

Belatedly, I have come to appreciate what \u2018likes\u2019 and \u2018subscribers\u2019 are all about, as well \u2018paywall\u2019 and \u2018ticketed\u2019 access. In spite of which, it appears, leaks can take place, as indeed seems to have been the case here. Contents are being dumbed down to gain more subscribers, meaning more money, the common denominator that drives the \u2018content creators\u2019 of digital entertainment. They aim at popularity, either positive or negative, which means sick jokes that appeal most to the baser instincts, hence pornographic or sexually explicit content attracts larger followings. Popularity doesn\u2019t go with quality, as politicians for example have repeatedly proved!<\/p>\n

That incident and its consequences will follow their own course. On the other hand, it is a fact that there is much on YouTube that can truly enrich one\u2019s life and enlarge one\u2019s vision and give food for thought and reflection. For example, last night I was watching an interview of biologist Rupert Sheldrake, who is renowned for his work on the subject of \u2018morphic resonance\u2019, a hypothesis he has proposed to explain inheritance and development among living organisms. Cosmology and fundamental physics pertaining to the nature of reality are some other topics that greatly interest me, and which are superbly elaborated on YouTube by experts.<\/p>\n

I have already mentioned Sri M, but there are also other gurus who expound as profoundly on spirituality, and its convergence with the scientific quest to arrive at the Truth of existence. Suffice it to search within, for there are guides willing to lead seekers to their inner being. As Sadhguru of Isha Foundation says, \u2018the only way out is in.\u2019<\/p>\n

YouTube abounds in the good, the bad and the ugly. The choice is ours to make…<\/p>\n

\n

Mauritius Times ePaper Friday 14 February 2025<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

YouTube abounds in the good, the bad and the ugly. The choice is ours to make… By Dr R Neerunjun Gopee A few years ago (before the Covid pandemic) I was at a birthday party and talking to a student who was in Form 2 or 3. She was quite articulate and fluent in English, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":42288,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23143],"tags":[51024,51022,51026,23141,103,43843,5870,36,51025,27865,51021,51027,51029,5869,6722,27805,51028,51023],"class_list":["post-42287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-musings","tag-beerbiceps-scandal","tag-career-viability","tag-content-dumbing-down","tag-covid","tag-dr-r-neerunjun-gopee","tag-ethical-concerns","tag-isha-foundation","tag-mauritius-times","tag-media-influence","tag-monetization","tag-profession-youtuber","tag-quality-vs-popularity","tag-rupert-sheldrake","tag-sadhguru","tag-social-media","tag-sri-m","tag-valuable-content","tag-youtube-usage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Youtube.jpg?fit=1200%2C643&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8QzSF-b03","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42287"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42370,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42287\/revisions\/42370"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mauritiustimes.com\/mt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}