Techno-pessimism is, at this point, received wisdom among most thinking people. Twitter has debased our public discourse, Instagram has poisoned teenagers’ mental health and, as for YouTube, isn’t it full of pouting make-up tutorials, obnoxious vloggers and people filming themselves playing video games?
While much of the above is true, YouTube has come a long way in the last ten years, evolving into one of the principal ways that people exchange information and ideas online. This is particularly true for 16-24-year-olds, who spend 73 minutes on YouTube a day.
Their hunger for a touch more seriousness to their YouTube consumption, has given rise to a new form, the “video essay”. These educational and frequently erudite videos can explore everything from politics to music theory, and have won their creators an audience of millions.
“The video essay is the best of all worlds when it comes to expressing yourself,” says Jay Foreman, who publishes educational geography videos which mix in elements of absurdist comedy. “You can be more personal and opinionated than a traditional TV presenter, and you can illustrate your point with video clips or graphics or sketches or even songs in a way that you can’t in a simple written article.”
Video essays are generally scripted and advance an argument through a mixture of research, criticism and jokes. Beyond that, the form is utterly various, videos ranging from ten minutes to two hours in length. Some creators simply speak over the top of images or video clips much like lecturers, while others have developed an idiosyncratic visual style.
