YouTube 2013

YouTube was starting to own culture in 2013. Not metaphorically—I mean it was genuinely forming what people thought was funny, what they watched late at night. PewDiePie screaming at video games, Jenna Marbles being unbearably charming, Epic Meal Time with their grotesque calorie counts. These weren’t side channels anymore. They were the thing.

Then Google put out their year-end recap, this whole celebration of the best videos. And it was almost entirely American. The creators shaping the platform worldwide, and the official narrative was basically US content only. Meanwhile, there’s all this stuff happening in other parts of the world that never made it to my feed because of regional blocking or just not being pushed hard enough.

But that wasn’t even the worst part. Google was rolling out this Google+ requirement—you needed a Google+ account to do anything on YouTube now. Comment, upload, create channels, watch certain videos. It was a naked attempt to force people into their dying social network by holding YouTube hostage. The platform wasn’t being built for creators or viewers. It was being extracted for corporate goals.

That’s what the recap should have been about. Not a highlight reel of the year’s biggest moments, but an honest look at how YouTube was starting to squeeze the thing that made it worth using in the first place. Instead we got a slick video montage and a reminder that you needed to give Google more of yourself if you wanted to keep going.