+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

influencers

Pop Culture

MrBeast shares the one problem with influencers that's 'painful to see'

Not everyone can be MrBeast.

via Steven Khan/WikimediaCommons and Ivan Samkov/Pexels

An influencer and MrBeast.

After YouTube phenomenon MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, 25, graduated high school in 2016, his mother made a deal with him. He could live in her house and go to college, or if he didn’t want to pursue higher education, he would have to move out and live on his own. So, he decided to go to college, although his heart wasn't in it.

The content creator, philanthropist, and founder of Feastables chocolate snack brand had just started making videos on YouTube as a teenager and had yet to hit the big time. So, he went to school while continuing his passion for creating YouTube videos.

However, college was not for MrBeast and he quickly dropped out. “I got to college and I couldn’t stand it, man. I used to sit in front of other classrooms and think, yo, I don’t know what the fu*k is going on,” he said, according to Essentially Sports. Instead, he put all his efforts into pursuing his dream of being a YouTube star. By the following year, he had earned over 1 million subscribers on the platform and was well on the way to being a success.

Last year, MrBeast reportedly made $82 million from his hundreds of millions of subscribers.

In an interesting twist to his story, MrBeast recently warned aspiring influencers and content creators to be careful about following his footsteps and giving up everything to pursue their dreams.

"It’s painful to see people quit their job/drop out of school to make content full time before they’re ready," Donaldson wrote on X on March14. "For every person like me that makes it, thousands don’t. Keep that in mind and be smart plz."

MrBeast’s tweet contradicts the inspiring advice successful people often give about following their dreams. Especially for someone so young who gave up a college education to pursue his. MrBeast is not advocating for people to follow the words of the great T.S. Eliot, who once said, “Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” Or Nelson Mandela, who famously said, "There is no passion to be found playing small—in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living."

But MrBeast definitely knows the business he’s in, and it’s a lot different than it was when he first started out in 2016. The number of YouTubers has expanded exponentially over the past 8 years, and there are only so many eyeballs and sponsorships to go around.

Further, influencers now have to compete with artificial intelligence and TikTok is in danger of being shut down by the government.

"The chances of you quitting your job without a safety net and becoming a successful content creator are slim to none and anyone who does that is the exception, not the rule," Katya Varbanova, a brand marketing strategist and the CEO of Viral Marketing Stars, told Business Insider. She also added that a big part of MrBeast’s success was "being in the right place at the right time."

MrBeast made it big by working tirelessly to figure out the type of videos the YouTube algorithm and viewers wanted produced. Then, he scaled up his budgets and production quality to become a leader in the content creator industry. But one of the keys to his success was that he got in the game at the right time.

For those who may be discouraged by MrBeast’s thoughts on becoming an influencer in 2024, it doesn’t mean to stop following your dreams. It means to be like MrBeast and find the next big thing before everyone else, work hard to perfect it and shoot for the stars.

From Your Site Articles
influencers
Family

French parents may be banned from sharing photos of their kids online. Should every country do it?

Has “sharenting” gone too far?

via Pexels

A mom takes a selfie with her two children.

France’s National Assembly has passed a new law that could seriously impact parents’ ability to share photos of their children online. If passed by the Senate and signed by the president, it would give courts the power to ban parents from posting pictures of their children online.

The bill is controversial because it takes away parents’ rights and puts them in the hands of the government. But supporters believe there are more than a few good reasons for the potential ban.

First, it keeps the child’s image out of the hands of unsavory characters. Member of Parliament Bruno Studer, who proposed the bill, told Le Monde, “'A 13-year-old child has an average of 1,300 images of themselves circulating on the internet. These are photos that can be misused for child pornography or that can lead to bullying in the school environment.”

According to Le Monde, 50% of all imagery of children shared on child pornography forums was first posted online by the child’s parents. The bill would also give both parents the right to the child’s image, so if one parent thinks the other is posting inappropriate images, they have the right to stop it.

"The first two articles aim to establish the protection of privacy as one of the responsibilities of parents as holders of parental authority, for which they must obviously involve the child,” Struder continued. "In the most extreme cases, it is provided that the family judge may, if necessary, make a forced partial delegation of parental authority for the specific case of an exercise of image rights."

Opponents of the bill believe that the legislation would strike a blow to parents’ rights. But doesn’t a child have a right to choose how their image is used, especially in a world where the photos could remain visible for the foreseeable future? As the old saying goes, online is forever and photos taken of someone as a child could follow them around well into adulthood.

Further, as the first generation of children who grew up in influencer families are becoming adults, we’re starting to realize the damage the lifestyle can have on young people. Aren’t these kids entitled to some protection from being exploited by their parents?

"We talk a lot about image rights, but not about children's dignity," Thomas Rohmer, Director and founder of l’Observatoire de la Parentalité et de l’Education Numérique, told Le Monde.

The bill has struck up a much-needed debate online and some parents are adamant that it’s their business what they do with photos of their children and no one else’s.

Others joked that bills like this would help end the annoying “sharenting” trend.

Some applaud the idea.

The debate is interesting because it involves three rightfully interested parties—parents, their children, and a state entrusted to protect children's rights. Whether or not the law is passed, the debate should serve as a way for people to confront this serious idea and to give parents a reason to think twice before posting photos of their children online.

From Your Site Articles
parents
Internet

'Retirement House' on TikTok shows you're only as young as you feel

They may be senior citizens, but that doesn't stop them having fun.

Retirement House/TikTok

Retirement House on TikTok is so much fun.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if your grandparents made content on TikTok? As far-fetched as it seems, there are older people who are finding success on the app. Two of the most popular "grandfluencer" accounts are The Old Gays and @ourfillipinograndma. Each account has millions of followers, which proves that old people are just as interesting as younger influencers. And it was because of their popularity that Retirement House was born.

Retirement House is a semiscripted account that stars six actors between the ages of 70 and 85. And while some of it is staged, the actors who play the parts are clearly having a blast. Why shouldn't they? We have so many preconceived notions about what it means to be over the age of 70, and these six are here to show us that what we believe to be true doesn't actually have to be. That's probably why they have more than 3 million followers.

@retirementhouse

We’re baaaack! Welcome to season 2️⃣💜🤪🅿️

♬ original sound - Retirement House

It feels like the account popped up out of nowhere, but that's not entirely true. Retirement House is the brainchild of 27-year-old Adi Azran and 25-year-old Brandon Chase. “Seniors have been left out of the spotlight in the entertainment industry,” Azran told BuzzFeed News.

They originally conceived the show as something more scripted, as you can see in some of their earlier videos. According to the BuzzFeed article, Azran and Chase haven't entirely given up on that idea, but they're currently focusing on building a more solid platform. The videos are very typical TikTok content—the retirees do their own takes on popular TikTok trends.

So, who are these adorable senior citizens? There's Larry, Curtis, Mabel, Eugene, Rose and Bubbe. They "live" (rent by the hour) a mansion in West Hollywood where they seem to cavort around, getting into shenanigans. They pretend they have a clue what's happening in the world of pop culture, which is really cute.

“I don’t know about ‘sick’ and ‘dope.’ My character and I are not hip,” Chuck Lacey, who plays Eugene, told BuzzFeed. “I mentioned the Fonz and no one knew who I was talking about, but I didn’t know who Jack Harlow was.”

In one recent video, they do their own take on the "gentleminions" trend, where they declare "good thing we're not teens" as they strut down the street in their finest. Rose is even eating a banana, the favorite treat of the Minions. They may not have a clue what exactly their videos mean, but it's fun to watch them.

@retirementhouse

we got y’all 😈

♬ Rich Minion - Yeat

Honestly, why would a bunch of septuagenarians know anything about current pop culture? I'm in my 30s and I don't even understand most of these TikTok trends. That doesn't mean I don't find it adorable to watch a bunch of seniors pretend to know what the new Drake album sounds like. You will find it endearing to see Bubbe do the splits or watch Eugene dance. (I won't share it here, but there's a whole video of Mabel and Rose flipping each other off, and it's hilarious.)

“You see so many stories of older people that are not happy, because as you get older, you lose friends, you lose relatives, you don’t have people to share your life with,” Reatha Grey, who plays Rose, told The New York Times. “We’re actually building shared memories together — and it’s on videotape.”

@retirementhouse

making tiktoks for 3.8 million of you and being featured in new york times, abc news, good day LA. love you all! my grandkids know im cool now 😉

♬ Cool Kids (Sped-Up Version) - Echosmith

That's one of the best things about Retirement House. You get to see a bunch of older people having a good time together. Who cares if they don't know who Jack Harlow is? They've lived long enough and been through enough that they get a pass. What we find entertaining is that they're willing to put themselves out there. Society keeps telling us that there's something shameful about aging—we're supposed to be afraid of getting older and life changes. But these six people are living their best lives right now, and it feels like they're thumbing their noses at the establishment in a way that's reserved for people much younger.

"you're the bomb. I'm 52 and you give me hope," one user commented on TikTok.

"I dont know what I did good in life to deserve this side of TT but I’m grateful to be here and I’m never leaving 🥰🥺😅" said another.

Scripted or not, they're having a good time, and that's all that matters.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
tiktok
Most Shared

This celeb's video gave 5 solutions to end gun violence. None of them included gun reform.

It’s going to take a lot more than one YouTube video to end school shootings. But it appears that Logan Paul’s brother Jake was willing to take the first step.

While Logan Paul made headlines for uploading an insensitive video featuring a dead man hanging in Japan's notorious suicide forest, Jake Paul is generating media buzz for a whole different reason: guns.

On March 12, YouTuber Jake Paul uploaded a documentary on the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Titled “It’s Time To End School Shootings,” Paul spoke with a number of students, a survivor of the Parkland shooting, and with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) about gun violence.

At the end of the video, Paul announced his pledge to donate $25,000 to March for Our Lives and introduced five ways to end school shootings. Most of his suggestions seem level-headed enough: Asking for more counselors at schools and pressuring social media companies to monitor and flag extremist behavior. He also called for bulletproof windows on doors.

His other suggestions were more controversial: He proposed the idea of students carrying their own bulletproof shields into the classroom and setting up checkpoints at school entrances.

It should be noted that over the entirety of the video, Paul doesn't once encourage or advocate for gun control reform legislation. (To be fair, despite not mentioning it in the video, his YouTube description does mention “gun control reform.”)

Photo via Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

While Paul seems genuine in his attempt to tackle gun violence, several social media users criticized the YouTube star’s documentary.

Hasan Piker, a host at The Young Turks — a progressive online media network — made one of the most compelling cases against Paul’s video. On Twitter, Piker pointed out Paul basically propped up conservative talking points around gun control. He argued that Paul’s five solutions did not venture anywhere near actually restricting access to guns. Instead, they're solutions often touted by gun rights activists — like the NRA — on Fox News. The only difference is that these talking points and gun rights representatives, who are mostly popular to an older age group, are now being exposed to a younger demographic.

Piker believed this was a perfect opportunity for Paul to use his influential platform to make a change, as well as make up for some of his latest controversies. But the YouTuber missed the mark.

“In its essence, it’s basically a 21-min expanded version of a social media post your gun-loving uncle makes,” Piker tweeted. “Jake Paul obviously did zero [homework] and doesn’t understand the importance of his reach. He had an opportunity and blew it.”

Other people took to Twitter to critique Paul’s video. Some believe it outed him as a gun rights advocate.

It’s not that outlandish to assume Paul is a gun rights advocate.

Paul certainly hasn't made it a secret that he’s into gun culture. In April 2017, Paul uploaded a vlog (that over 19 million people watched) about getting a tattoo of an AR-15 on his thigh. He also pressured his friends to get the same tattoo.

Paul has also posted several photos posing with assault weapons and other guns.

This controversy shouldn’t come off as a surprise. Like his YouTube celebrity brother, Jake Paul is no stranger to scandal. While it’s not a suicide forest scandal or obnoxious behavior in Japan, Paul has made headlines for terrorizing neighborhoods and using the n-word for his videos.

But despite his controversial past — and the fact that his gun control documentary missed the mark — it should be noted that Paul is willing to use his platform to start conversations about sensitive topics.

That’s a good thing. And, perhaps more importantly, Paul seems to be willing to accept and learn from his critics. After receiving backlash for failing to advocate for substantial gun control solutions in his video, he tweeted new suggestions to combat gun violence.

Paul's new idea is another five-point plan that explicitly calls for restrictions on gun access. These include raising the age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21, requiring a six-month training course similar to ones taken for a driver’s license, a mandatory mental health evaluation, banning gun shows, and a 30-day waiting period for buying a firearm.

In a tweet, he explained that he refrained from mentioning gun control reform “to simplify some of the steps” he discussed with Parkland students around school shootings. He then explicitly expressed his support for gun control reform.

“Make no mistake, gun reform is an absolutely must ... but is part of the solution,” Paul wrote.

While Paul has quite a problematic history and a whole lot to learn, it's imperative that influencers use their platforms for good. Why? Because influencers can and do influence voters and lawmakers. It's certainly not easy. Celebrities often receive a lot of backlash for making comments about subject matter like this. But what shows real courage is being able to come forward and attempt to start a conversation.

Let’s hope Paul learned from this experience and will continue to dedicate his platform to making a positive impact on gun control.

You can watch his documentary below:

Trending Stories