YouTube allows users to construct identities through uploading videos and interacting with audiences. However, users often portray manufactured identities tailored to what audiences want to see rather than their true selves. YouTubers alter aspects of their personality to please viewers and gain approval, which can be inauthentic and destabilize their identity. While YouTube gives freedom for identity exploration, the permanence of online content and separation between virtual and real identities can be problematic.

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How YouTube Shapes Personal Identity
“Broadcast Yourself.” This is the tag line for the rapidly growing media company,
YouTube Inc. (Keen 7). YouTube was founded in 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steven Chen, and
Jawed Karim, and has since been purchased by Google (Burgess, Green vii, 1). The site is a
medium for videos to be uploaded, shared, and interacted with by primarily ordinary people,
along with some major companies. There is a great deal of discussion surrounding this media
site and how users are interacting with and engaging in this rise of YouTube culture. The
number of videos on the site is constantly increasing exponentially, and there is a wide variety of
content available. Visitors to the site can find anything from music videos, to dance tutorials, to
cat videos, to deep confessions. There are many aspects of YouTube that shape the identities of
those who come in contact with the site. For example, uploading a video is a form of public self-
expression, commenting on videos is a form of voicing our opinions, and sharing videos with
friends says something about our tastes, sense of humor, and other aspects of our personality.
YouTube offers a platform to actively engage in identity management through the construction
of multiple identities (Alder et al 79). I believe that YouTube is not about broadcasting your real
self, but rather projecting an image of yourself to the world for approval. This manufactured
identity can be seen through looking at who our audience is, what that audience wants to see, our
projected image, and what we claim our identity to be as a result.
Who the audience is shapes how we tend to portray ourselves to them, and the YouTube
audience is no different. The audience of each YouTube video operates as an individual public.
They are publics that “come into being only in relation to texts and their circulation” (Warner
50). When a video is posted to YouTube, every person that watches the video is a member of

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that particular public, and they circulate it to create an even larger public. The difficulty of the
Internet age is that this public is impossible to fully define. There is no way to know who
exactly is watching each video, but regardless, they become a member of the public due to their
active engagement with the video (Warner 56). This engagement shows the participatory culture
of YouTube in which “fans and other consumers are invited to actively participate in the creation
and circulation of new content” (Burgess, Green 10). The idea that the YouTube public can
actively engage with the content changes the way they need to be viewed by the producer of the
video. A producer’s goal in publishing their work is to receive positive feedback on videos and
have their audience share them with others to increase the number of people watching the video.
The public is directly linked to the success of each video, and while it is vitally important to
please your public, it is also impossible to know exactly who they are and what they enjoy
watching. Producers are continually trying to alter the content they are sharing to please a larger
amount of viewers, and as a result, will alter their personality to please the public.
While each public is slightly different, researchers have been able to track some of the
general trends of what audiences are hoping to see out of the YouTube videos they watch.
YouTube users show more interest in more authentic videos, creating a large demand for video
diarists and other un-staged content (Strangelove 64). Audiences want to feel a connection with
the content they are watching; they want to relate to the people in the videos and know that the
same things could happen to them. A common trend in studies is the association of “mainstream
media with being very produced, too perfect, manufactured reality” (Strangelove 65). Movies
and TV shows with unrealistically beautiful characters and perfect endings are difficult to
connect with because the audience does not feel like the depicted scenario is something that
could happen in real life. The plot is too structured and perfect to have any resemblance of

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reality. Some producers try to bridge this gap by telling the audience that this plot is “based on a
true story.” But even if the plot is proven to be real, they are still surrounding fantastical, once-
in-a-lifetime moments, which are depicted by picture-perfect people who look perfect right when
they wake up, never have hair blowing in their face, or spinach in their teeth. So even if the plot
resembles reality, the Hollywood recreation of the event is still bothersome to modern day
viewers. Another example of mainstream media attempting to bridge this authenticity gap can
be seen in commercials for weight loss pills. These advertisements typically have a few “real
people” talking to the camera about how they lost their weight using this specific pill. Our
modern culture still picks up signs of inauthenticity in these moments and immediately
disregards the message as a result. This is the reason why the culture of YouTube is on the rise;
without the professional production and acting, these amateur videos create a sense of reality
(Strangelove 65).
The high standards for authenticity of the public create the opposite effect as video
producers attempt to manufacture a reality that portrays the reality views are demanding.
Strangelove states that, “as consumers and audience members we long for both fantasy and
authenticity” (68). This becomes problematic for those creating the content because videos must
be produced in a way that seems honest, but not too honest. There is a fine line between what
audiences will accept and enjoy, and what is too real or too novice-like. YouTubers therefore
have to work to make their videos likeable to a wide range of viewers by seeming real, but also
still perfect. A few ways in which this happens including applying heavy make-up, editing out
unwanted footage, using non-generic equipment, and adjusting lighting to make the video look
above average (Strangelove 67). Viewers accept this product as reality because they do not have
the information of any other alternative. Because the audience does not know the video maker

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personally, they have no standard of reality to judge the video against. This allows YouTubers to
create an alternate identity to present to their viewers, one who does not have to be anything like
their actual personality. YouTubers are able to show the audience only the positive parts of
themselves, or someone else entirely, and as long as the audience believes this is who you truly
are then it does not matter that there are some things remaining hidden from the Internet. There
is a “difference between videographers’ on-screen persona and their ‘real’ self” (Strangelove 65).
Video producers have a strong need for reflected appraisal and the need for positive feedback on
the content they share (Alder et al 69). YouTubers create their online identity through the
comments and direct thoughts of their audience. While the video producer believes they are
showing who they are, they are actually only showing what the audience will praise them for.
With the difference between one’s projected identity and their true identity, it is difficult
to know when someone is being himself or herself in YouTube content. Karen Wright said that
our tell-all culture carries “the whiff of wishful identity” (Strangelove 68). Almost every person
portrayed on YouTube is showing the viewers only what he or she wants them to see, and not
who they fully are. YouTube gives users a platform to broadcast who we want to be, and not
always who we actually are. The honest aspect that draws so many people to YouTube is only
slightly true, masked with multiple online personas. A Calvin Klein advertisement voiced
concerned over this identity crisis saying “Is there a real me? Or am I just what you see?”
(Grossberg et al 220). This advertisement raises the question of whether we can define ourselves
outside of our online personas anymore, or if they too have become just another part of how we
define ourselves. Some YouTube users admit to being meaner on YouTube and acting in ways
that are uncharacteristic of themselves because they are masked by a computer (Strangelove 66).
Not having to communicate face-to-face allows many people to gain a great deal of confidence

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and act in ways that they would not normally act. One reason for this is the necessity of being
heard through the millions of videos and other users. The idea of YouTube as “digital
Darwinism, the survival of the loudest and most opinionated,” shows how people act differently
in order to gain attention and viewers (Keen 15). In the YouTube culture, one has no hope of
increasing his or her viewership unless he or she can offer something entertaining to the
audience. We are an entertainment-driven culture, and YouTube is no exception. As a result,
many YouTubers alter their personality to fit the mold of what is required to succeed. This adds
in characteristics such as being confident, arrogant, bold, energetic, opinionated, and outgoing,
which may or may not be a part of the YouTuber’s off-camera identity. This separation of
identities can be harmful for that person and harmful to the viewers who look up to his or her
online persona without realizing this person does not really exist outside of the Internet.
Expressing oneself through YouTube videos can be helpful in discovering aspects of one’s
identity that could not come forward in everyday life due to outside factors such as bullying, peer
pressure, and expectations from parents, coworkers, and society. Strangelove states that the
“amateur video practices afford greater freedom for identity construction and also destabilize
identity” (187). While the act of creating a video and receiving feedback from your audience can
be helpful in finding yourself, it can also destabilize who you are by adding in aspects of your
identity that are not authentic and misrepresent who you really are. In a way, it has become
almost impossible to hold a true identity due to the contamination by our supplemental identities
(Grossberg et al 252). It has become impossible to know who we truly are outside of our
favorite media corporations.
The YouTube generation is fixated on gaining the approval of society, and to do so they
are forced to fit into the mold society has created through online video sharing. The mere act of

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creating an online persona is not a bad thing, but it becomes bad when that persona does not
accurately depict who you are. If the audiences truly wanted transparency in the content they
consume then they should expect to see some of the uglier aspects of life. One of the major
issues with the digital age is that once a video has been uploaded to YouTube, it will be in the
public domain for forever. This becomes problematic when a video producer decides he or she
has outgrown their youthful online persona, but that persona will continue to follow them
throughout their lives. There is no escaping the identities we portray online, so it is necessary to
either make them one hundred percent honest, or to avoid creating an online-self all together.
Works Cited
Adler, Ronald B., Lawrence B. Rosenfeld, and Russell F. Proctor. "Chapter 3: Communication
and the Self." Interplay: The Process of Interpersonal Communication. 12th ed. New
York: Oxford UP, 2013. 66-101. Print.

7. Nagy 7
Burgess, Jean, and Joshua Green. YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture. N.p.: John
Wiley & Sons, 2013. Google Books. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=0NsWtPHNl88C&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&d
q=YouTube&ots=-
h8HdtQGIH&sig=TqDLvEwsoVimtlF4yN6iJYy13K8#v=onepage&q=YouTube&f=false
>.
Grossberg et al, “Producing Identities” in MediaMaking: Mass Media in Popular Culture (Sage,
2006), p. 219-232.
Keen, Andrew. How Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the Rest of Today's User-generated Media
Are Destroying Our Economy, Our Culture, and Our Values. N.p.: Doubleday, 2008.
Google Books. Web. 5 Mar. 2015.
<https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VPqfyfgi834C&oi=fnd&pg=PT6&dq=
YouTube+identity&ots=jyv9sIIObr&sig=buq4cyeIY_hEYPi50VgybTsM3Fg#v=onepage
&q=YouTube identity&f=false>.
Strangelove, Michael. Watching YouTube: Extraordinary Videos by Ordinary People. Toronto:
U of Toronto, 2010. Print.
Warner, Michael. “Publics and Counterpublics” in Public Culture, 01/2002, Volume 14, Issue 1,
p. 49-90.
UNC Honor Pledge: I certify that no unauthorized assistance has been received or given in the
completion of this work.
Signature: Caroline Nagy .

8. Nagy 8
Cara Nagy
COMM 140 Research
The Cult of the Amateur: How Blogs, MySpace, YouTube, and the Rest of Today…
 “Web 2.0 revolution is corrupting young people around the world” ix
 “the YouTube generation are more interested in self-expression than in learning
about the outside world” ix-x

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 “user-generated content are deafening today’s youth to the voices of informed
experts and professional journalists” x
 “today’s kids are so busy self-broadcasting on social networks that they no longer
consume the creative work of professional musicians, novelists, or filmmakers.” x
 not the cause of malicious acts, but “the vehicle for his expression” xi
 T.H. Huxley “the nineteenth-century evolutionary biologist and author of the
‘infinite monkey theorem.’ Huxley’s theory says that if you provide infinite monkeys
with infinite typewriters, some monkey somewhere will eventually create a
masterpiece.” 2 (pg 9- “the monkeys take over” “the monkeys are running the
show”)
 “an endless media forest of mediocrity” 3
 so many different opinions published by amateurs leads to “collectively corrupting
and confusing popular opinion about everything from politics, to commerce, to arts
and culture.” 3
 tag line for YouTube is “broadcast yourself” 7
 “traditional mainstream media replaced by a personalized one” 7
 “the internet has become a mirror of ourselves” 7
 “we use it to actually BE the news, the information, they culture” 7
 due to our desire for personal attention
 “has led to an infestation of anonymous sexual predators and pedophiles” 7
 the rise of YouTube has created financial trouble for Hollywood 8
 “everyone was simultaneously broadcasting themselves, but nobody was listening”
15
 “the Internet was the law of digital Darwinism, the survival of the loudest and most
opinionated” 15
 “delivering superficial observations of the world around us rather than deep
analysis, shrill opinion rather than considered judgment.” 16
 “the information business is being transformed by the Internet into the sheer noise
of a hundred million bloggers all simultaneously talking about themselves.” 16
 consequence of Web 2.0 is “less culture, less reliable news, and a chaos of useless
information” 16
 “Truth […] is being ‘flattened’ as we create an on-demand, personalized version that
reflects our own individual myopia.” 17
 “In this era of exploding media technologies there is no truth except the truth you
create for yourself.” – Richard Edelman 17
 “a political spin, enabled and perpetuated by the anonymity of Web 2.0,
masquerading as independent art” 18
 “A lie can make its way around the world before the truth has the chance to put its
boots on.” – James Callaghan 19
 the Internet is “unchecked” 19
 plagiarizing and stealing ideas- 24-25
 everyone has an equal voice- “the words of the wise man count for no more than the
mutterings of a fool” 30

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 “the one resource that is challenged all the more by this long tail of amateur content
is our time—the most precious resource of all.” 32
 “video blogs, transforming anyone with a webcam and a microphone into instant
stars on amateur video networks like YouTube and Bebo.” 60
YouTube: Online Video and Participatory Culture
 “is co-created by YouTube Inc., now owned by Google, the users who upload content
to the website, and the audiences who engage around that content.” Vii
 space designed for individuals and “should therefore serve their own particular
interests, often without an appreciation of the roles played by others.” Vii-viii
 founded by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, launched 2005 -1
 YouTube as “a platform for public self-expression” 4
 “David Weinberger calls ‘meta businesses’ – the ‘new category of business that
enhances the value of information developed elsewhere and thus benefits the
original creators of the information’.” 4
 “YouTube has always oriented its services toward content sharing, including the
sharing of mundane and amateur content, rather than the provision of high-quality
video.” 5
 “various forms of cultural, social, and economic values are collectively produced by
users en masse, via their consumption, evaluation, and entrepreneurial activities.” 5
 Participaroty culture- “the apparent link between more accessible digital
technologies, user-created content, and some kind of shift in the power relations
between media industries and their consumers” 10
 Jenkins participatory culture- “is one in which ‘fans and other consumers are invited
to actively participate in the creation and circulation of new content.’” 10
 “the culture of ‘the people’”- 11
 popular culture is where “hegemony arises, and where it is secured.” – Stuart Hall
11
 “clearly represents the disruption to existing media business models and is
emerging as a new site of media power.” 15
Watching YouTube: extraordinary videos by ordinary people
 “Bree was the poster child for YouTube’s community of amateur video diarists.” 64
 audiences demand “high levels of authenticity from fellow YouTubers.” 64
 “video diarists forgo sophisticated forms of storytelling and production so as to be
more real” 65
 we associate mainstream media with being very produced, too perfect,
manufactured reality 65 (compare a YouTuber’s review to an commercial that has
“real people” telling you how great a product works, we believe the YouTuber faster
because we believe/associate their authenticity)
 Bob Jacobson “there is nothing more interesting to real people than authentic
stories told about other real people.” 65
 “The difference between videographers’ on-screen persona and their ‘real’ self.” 65

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 “a performance artist dealing with the difference between the audience’s reception
of his character and his offline personality.” 65-66
 some YouTubers admit to being more mean online because “it’s easier to say shit
behind a computer.” 66 (Jimmy)
 one girl “finds more understanding people on YouTube than she does in real life” 67
 some only show the positive parts of themselves online
 “the long time it takes to get dressed up, put on make-up, and edit out material that
she thinks is stupid.” 67
 they can edit out the bad things- not fully real
 they feel that “they should be full authentic and transparent for their audience, but
that for one reason or another they fail to meet this ideal.” 68
 “carry the whiff of wishful identity” 68 (Karen Wright)
 “as consumers and audience members we long for both fantasy and authenticity” 68
 “the American nation, is widely thought to be in the throes of an identity crisis.” 68
 “mass outpouring of confessional discourse” 68
 “the diary is the location of unstable, contested, multiple, and often incoherent
selves, but it is also a place where we encounter the real of others.” 69
 “a representation of social reality” 69
 310,000 vlogs
 “a certain attention economy within the internet.” 71
 “people find confessing online empowering” – easy to divulge information about
yourself to strangers 71
 “Across all mediums and genres there has been a general drift towards a more direct
representation of intimate everyday life” 73
 critics dismiss as “unhealthy self-absorption” 73
 vlogs on YouTube have a “high degree of reflexivity” due to the interaction of
audience feedback 73
 “’Participants present themselves according to what is expected’” –Barbra Ellen
Gibson 73
 the internet as “an uncontrolled space of expression” 77
 self-construction and self-expression 79
 “YouTubers feel that online amateur video brings them closer to each other’s
experiences and presents reality different from television.” 79
 YouTubers feel changed from opening up online, usually due to the nice comments
they receive and the people they meet 81
 YouTube communities “interact and extend into the realm of everyday existence”
135
 “’those who tell stories also rule society’” – Plato 181
 amateur videos are “communicative, dialogic events that can provide the basis for
community formation” 185
 “amateur video practices afford greater freedom for identity construction and also
destabilize identity” 187
 draw the past forward to the present
 never able to fully escape their past

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 “amateur video practices can lead to the destruction of self and identity.” 187
 “a new age of mass participation in the creation and distribution of the image.” 193
Unruly Media
 “the clips’ brevity and the ways they’re often encountered through exchange with
others.” 127
Conversations on comment section, blogs about the videos, sharing them on other social
media says something about yourself, and creates day to day conversation about popular
videos
Not presenting your real self, but rather projecting an image of yourself to the world.