Drew's 7th Blog Post

An Analysis of "Ryan's World"

Before starting this assignment, I had no idea the child influencers existed. I knew there were plenty of teen influencers, and YouTube channels that catered to a younger crowd, but I was shocked that there are 10-year-olds with 24 million subscribers on their YouTube channel. I chose to look into “Ryan Toyreviews” channel to see how these child influencers work.

     For someone who loves social media like me, I hate YouTube. I’m not sure why exactly, I have even uploaded my own videos to the site, but I’ve always disliked the evolving format of how content is created and curated on the site. Clickbait titles like “You will NOT BELIEVE what I found in this abandoned house” or “TOP 10 PLASIC BAGS! I try ALL OF THEM” flood my YouTube homepage while I look for a video about how to make my ramen noodles taste better. I notice that it seems like every YouTube page follows every follows the same format: a catchy title, with a clipart thumbnail highlighting the content creator doing something weird.  I was curious if child influencers follow the same formula, and immediately after finding “Ryan’s World” I found that even the kids use this formula of attention grabbing.

     

     My first impression on the Ryan’s World page was that I still could not believe the page had 24.7 Million subscribers. As I scrolled through the video catalog, I found that Ryan post videos regularly (5-6 times a week), and there are different types of videos that he makes. There are animated videos, DIY science experiments, educational videos, video games, videos from mom and dad, a family vlog, as well as the toy reviews that he became famous for. I noticed that most of his videos ranged from 575,000 views to 5 million views, with his most popular video receiving over 1 BILLION views in 5 years.

Ryan is so popular from his videos now, he has his own product lines!

     The first thing I noticed when I started watching the videos, is that his parents (specifically his mom) are involved heavily in the videos. (This makes sense because it would be pretty wild if a 10-year-old was able to record and produce this much content.) The next thing I noticed is that the production quality on these videos is pretty high. Many videos use animation, graphic, transitions, and have high quality sound and video quality. I looked back at his first videos to see how much has changed, and his channel has changed a lot over its 5-year history. The first couple videos (all have over 1 million views) are low quality, and simple, just showing Ryan playing with toys (not even reviewing them I might add). As his channel has grown, the production quality has gone up, as well as the number of videos per week.

     All of the videos are simple videos that appeal to both young kids and their parents. Ryan is very charismatic, his younger sisters are featured in many of the videos, and his mom guides them through their experiments and videos. I can see how this channel can resonate with kids and parents. Most of his recent videos are DIY crafts that can be done from inside the house, so they have adapted to making content for quarantined children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ryan and his mom in a video

     I looked for a comment section with these videos, but I could never find one. I’m assuming that whoever uploads the videos on this channel disables the comment section, which I think is a smart thing to do. While some fans might want to interact with the channel more, the comment section can brew unwanted drama that would be weird to have on a video that was made for 9-year-olds. I understand the decision to disable the comments, but if the channel wanted to interact with fans they could dedicate videos to the fans with fan letters or emails. I have seen other channels do this and it seems like it could be an easy and controlled way to read and respond to fan questions.

     I do think there are some dangers to putting your child online, because the internet is open to anyone. But, I think that these videos are pretty harmless and do not draw any unwanted attention. I do think that this type of popularity can have some effects on the kids in the videos, much like child stars in Hollywood. The internet requires a constant stream of information in order to maintain popularity, and that is a lot of work. Ryan has found his niche online, but he will quickly grow out of it. He will either have to adapt to a new fanbase, or he will simply fade away into the internet zeitgeist.

     This got me thinking as to why Ryan’s World even exist. All of this work being put into creating new content almost daily, and at what cost? Or Gain? Nancy Baym’s work titled “Social Media and the Struggle for Society” highlights how social media has become a business where the founders benefit from creators like Ryan. YouTube gives Ryan a platform to create his videos, but as Baym says, “The gross exacerbation of wealth inequality between site users and founders is one way “Social Media” disempower the people they claim to empower (2015).” Basically, while Ryan receives money and endorsements from his videos, YouTube is the biggest beneficiary of his videos. As Ryan continues to create more videos for his channel to increase popularity, YouTube sees more dollar signs.

     I found this project to be rather interesting. Before this, I had no idea the world of child influencers existed, but this just goes to show that if a grumpy cat (RIP Grumpy Cat!) can have internet popularity, so can a child. I believe that as the world continues to become more internet dependent, child influencers will increase popularity, because parents will turn to their YouTube channels as a source of entertainment and education, over the cartoons I used to watch on TV as a kid. The internet allows for more curated content, so parents can find exactly what they are looking for when showing their child something.

References:

Baym, N.K. (2015). “Social Media and the Struggle for Society.” Social Media + Society, 1(2), DOI:                 10.11777/2056305115580477.