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• 1 2019-02-20T02:37:43-05:00 Story of a YouTuber at Harvard 1 An introduction to this project and YouTube at Harvard plain 2019-04-30T03:26:10-04:00

  
  How I Became a YouTuber

  Since 2017, I have been posting videos once or twice a month centered around college and my life at Harvard. I started watching YouTube videos in middle school and considered creating my own content for a long time. In high school, I began recording videos of family vacations and uploading them to a private channel. I enjoyed capturing the memories, editing the clips, and storing them in a place I could find forever. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of college though that I began to upload semi-regularly on a public YouTube channel. I had discovered that a friend recently launched a channel and was gaining a decent amount of views and subscribers. I thought if he could do it, then so could I – and my channel was officially born.
  
  YouTube initially served as my creative outlet. It was exciting to experiment with different editing formats, video ideas, and ways of engaging my audience. Now though, I see YouTube as a means to connect with and help students from around the world. It has been so rewarding to receive kind comments and messages from high schoolers thanking me for sharing my college application process. It is even more exciting to meet subscribers in person. Since my channel launched, three Harvard students have approached me on campus expressing how much they enjoy my content. Knowing that I’m able to make a difference in just one person’s life is the reason I continue making videos. One unexpected benefit from my YouTube channel has been its ability to break down the “Harvard” stereotype. Because of the school’s competitive admissions process, the name “Harvard” often comes with connotations about the institution and its students. In reality though, the undergraduates here are just like those at any other College; we have the same motivations, struggles, and thoughts. Thus, it is especially powerful when viewers express how genuine they feel my channel is and how watching my videos has made them less intimidated about applying to Harvard. I also monetize my channel, which means that I can generate some revenue from the advertisements placed on my videos. Though it is not much, it is very satisfying to be rewarded for my hard work.
  
  My most popular video to date:
  
  
  My channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWwSvl4gU5UzIVS7VQeAUoA/about

  The Motivation Behind My Research

  As much as I enjoy making videos, it is difficult to maintain a YouTube channel. Successful channels keep to a regular upload schedule, like new videos every Friday or even multiple times a week. However, between classes, schoolwork, and extracurricular activities, it can be difficult to find the time to film and edit. There are also several other Harvard students with YouTube channels, yet we rarely communicate with each other. The Freshmen Dean’s Office actually reached out to me and two other YouTubers to create freshmen dorm tours for the incoming Class of 2021; that was the first time I worked with other content creators, but we didn’t stay in touch afterwards. I don’t think the videos were used or posted anywhere, but the process made me realize how beneficial it would be to have a line of communication with other student-YouTubers. We could share resources, learn tips and tricks from each other, and even collaborate on videos. Because of the social media footprint and global reach that we all have, we could collectively have a stronger influence in changing the “Harvard” name and share a more realistic view into the daily lives of students here.

  Action Research: Establishing a YouTube network

  My proposed action plan involves studying how student-YouTubers contribute to the Harvard community and learning how to best utilize such a group of content creators. I would begin by mapping out the YouTube network at Harvard through interviews with student-YouTubers. The goal would be to better understand their motivations behind starting their channels, their creative processes, and ways to establish a YouTube community on campus. I would also reach out to viewers and subscribers, especially those at Harvard, to understand why they watched our videos and to learn more about the extent to which these YouTube channels affected their view of our school. The final step is to understand how YouTube can enact positive change around Harvard. My hope is to establish a collaborative network of content creators and together, to create a series of videos, or even a YouTube playlist of existing content, that showcases life at Harvard in a genuine way. Working with the Freshman Dean’s Office was a unique opportunity to do this, but the administration’s oversight on the project sometimes led to the censoring of material and insincere videos. Therefore, I am not sure about how to involve the College administration if at all, but I am hoping that my interviews will offer further guidance and direction on this front.