Ethics of being a youtuber

So I'm going to preface this blog with "I am not a youtuber so don't take this article as fact. However, I do have some opinions on youtubers from a non youtuber perspective."

I saw this video from H3H3productions on youtube which is basically a channel where this guy Ethan Klein (no I'm not related) does reaction videos about other youtubers and videos.

An example of one of my favorites and what this article is based off of is:
Feed The Homeless Challenge

In the video Mr. Klein talks about a youtube challenge that famous youtubers have been doing.  The idea is to give back to the community and give $$$ or food to the homeless.  Sounds like they are being nice and communal.  However, many do not do this from the good of their hearts.  They're doing small acts of kindness that don't cost them a lot of money and then soaking in all the views from their channel to receive even more money.  To me this is very backwards and selfish, which is the exact opposite message people see when they watch these videos.

These videos have a lot in common.  Most of them are black and white and have sad music playing throughout them like a Sarah McLachlan commercial.  The youtubers are trying to get the viewers to feel bad about homeless people while simultaneously showing how awesome they are by helping feed them.  It's heartless self promotion and I hope that people realize this.

Now I'm not saying the act of feeding the homeless or giving to charity is heartless.  However, if you are giving a dollar away only to make thousands off of a video I don't think you are a saint.  In fact you are probably a piece of shit asshole.

I think in this day and age that youtubers, especially ones with millions of views per video, have a duty to be transparent with their viewers about their videos.  If they want to inspire others do well in their community they need to do more of an effort.  For example, they should donate all the proceeds they receive from the video to a charity and show proof of it.  Maybe this is a little too much but in the whole point is giving back than this is how they should do it.

It's crazy to think about how little kids and pre-teens watch all these videos all day and they really take a lot to heart.  Youtubers need to be transparent and open with what they are doing so people can understand their true motives.  It is too easy to lie on the internet and spread miss-information.

It's not even just these challenges that can be an issue of integrity.  There are a lot of youtubers who steal others videos and give to no credit to them.  Many do this on their facebook pages as well to get more views. To me this is insulting and a giant loss of integrity for those that do this.

My biggest problem is there is nothing as a regular person I can do about it.  Of course I could go and make youtube videos about it like Ethan Klein does but I'm not even sure how much that helps.  I agree with pretty much everything he says but I'm not going out of my way to stop these youtubers from doing what they are doing.

If you have any suggestions please comment below.