The University of Connecticut Humanities institute held a faculty talk at Homer Babbidge Library on Feb. 19. Bhoomi Thakore was the faculty member scheduled to talk this afternoon. As an assistant professor in the sociology department, her research focuses on media sociology, inequality and the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Her talk was about YouTube, and the fun and play one can find as a content creator on the site. She states that she is researching “the sociology of YouTube” and of the users, consumers and content creators that populate the site.
In her presentation, Thakore outlined that she would be talking about how content creators get inspired or motivated to create content, by asking small content creators whether that motivation is extrinsic or intrinsic. She also discusses the roles of play versus fun, claiming “it should be play and fun but play versus fun rolls off the tongue better.”
After outlining the structure of her presentation, she first talked about the background of YouTube. YouTube is the second most popular website, trailing only it’s parent site Google. She reported that 83% of adults and 93% of young adults use YouTube, either for entertainment, learning or keeping up on current events.
I am certain that many of you reading this are moderate to avid users of YouTube, me included. She discussed that while YouTube can promote active consumption and community-building around content creators, it also can promote extremist views. Monetization on YouTube also makes the site top-heavy, disadvantaging smaller creators.
Then, Thakore talked about play and flow. She states that play is important for a child’s development, as it benefits their motor and social skills. Thakore also says that play is intrinsically motivated through what she calls flow. She argues that even adults could go back to playing like kids by establishing this flow.
Next up was the sociology of fun, which is what play serves as an end to. Thakore describes fun as a social phenomenon, where people have fun with others and build social connections through shared experiences. Thakore also shared how back in the 17th century, fun was used to describe those of low wit. In the 19th century, the word described working-class people from those in high society.
After describing what she was looking for in her research, she spoke about her methodology. From June 2024 onwards, she interviewed 28 content creators through Discord and Reddit posts, who ranged from 18-69 years old, come from all five continents and have nine to 7,000 subscribers.
Initially, she had trouble recruiting people to interview, because they thought Thakore was a bot or wanted to dox them. When she did find content creators to interview, she analyzed their interviews using NVivo software. She focused on asking questions about how these content creators get motivated, whether it was for play, fun, fame or profit.
On the topic of flow and intrinsic motivation, Thakore shared the responses of two creators. There was Franco, who had his channel for three months at the time of interview and mostly covers his family life and philosophical content. He also films self-growth content. For Franco, he describes YouTube as “just an outlet,” calling it an extension of himself, as he mainly uses his channel to document his activities.
There was also Chris, who had his channel for a year and does gaming commentary, mostly on Nintendo products. When asked why he started this channel, Chris talked about how he struggles with self-confidence, and how he views YouTube as an avenue to use and improve his creative skills, which he is unable to do at his day job.
With extrinsic motivation and fun, Thakore shared responses from Jesse and Miranda. First was Jesse, Thakore’s first respondent and someone who does “Let’s Play” videos. Thakore asked Jesse how comments motivate him. Jesse says he felt motivated by positive comments, as it inspired him to continue making videos and made him feel like he has potential to become bigger.
Miranda, a content creator from the northwest who makes videos about nature and fishing, also says the same thing. Talking about how whenever she feels overwhelmed by the process of creating a video, posting it and seeing positive reactions from comments and a high view count gives her the motivation to march forward. For Miranda, the time commitment feels worth it once she sees this positive reinforcement.
In terms of making videos for profit, Thakore shared a response from Garreth, a content creator who lives in Europe and makes do-it-yourself videos, mostly about cars. Garreth also has the significance of being one of the few content creators Thakore interviewed who was monetized.
When asked about how being monetized affects his creativity, Garreth said it makes him go through spurts of content creation, as he remembers that his channel is monetized, proliferates some videos on YouTube and gradually stops.
Finally, when creating to get famous, Thakore shared a response from Brandon, a school principal who makes reaction videos. He makes videos as an escape from his day job and has been doing it long enough that he got monetized as well. According to Thakore, after Brandon got monetized, he has wavered in motivation to film videos these days, as he is on a schedule thanks to his newfound fame.
Brandon still thinks making videos is fun, but less so after gaining a small community and the expectations that come from it. Thakore states that these expectations could affect his creativity, as he tries to maintain profitability and reach a larger fanbase. This eventually leads to burnout and fatigue, a story not too uncommon among content creators.
To conclude, Thakore called YouTube an opportunity for someone to be creative and to create shared and fun experiences. Content creators can also create a symbiotic relationship between their content and fans and Thakore argues that fun and play found on YouTube are balanced out by the monetization system.