We are living in the Black Mirror…

I feel old saying this but I REMEMBER WHEN the internet was simple. Log on (nostalgic internet loading screech) play some games on newgrounds, watch stupid videos on stupidvideos.com, new smosh video on youtube. Nowadays the internet is a nuclear bomb of information both useful and in my opinion mostly useless and harmful wasteland covered in ads that would make your grandmother rise from the dead to just die once more of shock.

What’s on our minds right now is Mr. Beast Games….

Mr. Jimmy has taken the social commentary show of Squid games and created that very show, minus real murder just the emotional kind, into a real show on one of the most comparable websites to use poor people for higher up profit AMAZON.

What Black Mirror episode are we in?

The one where the influencers gain too much power over us? The one where social media is a points based game? The one where we can watch our lives from every moment like a log of our life and the world can see?

Would you be shocked to hear it’s all of the above? I feel bad for the kids being raised right now with all of that shoved in their faces by the electronic nanny we call iPads.

Ok the internet isn’t all doom and gloom. It can be a tool to connect and improve life and art.

One of my favorite ways I see the world heal, is in the music industry. In the last few decades we have seen the toxicity of the industry stealing from artist like Prince having to separate and go by “the artist formerly known as prince” and Taylor Swift re-recording her music to own her own work.

I’ve noticed several artists to come up huge since 2022 and they blew up from Instagram!

I honestly feel instagram is the best platform to share what you do, almost as a behind the scenes and portfolio all wrapped into one! And for me in 2025 it will be a huge part of my creative outlet. Also because I want to benefit from the monetization, because brands LOVE instagram creators. My ideal world is Instagram is more ad work and YouTube be more creative long form and short form outlets.

Despite the internet's vastness and chaos, there's a beautiful truth: Like the real world, you can find your tribe and create something truly meaningful and authentic! The power to connect and create is still in our hands.

YouTube Video of the Week

Do you remember YouTube Rewind??

Most of us remember the disaster of 2018’s YouTube Rewind.

Yeaahhh….not their best move.

But this video I watch from a random creator caught my attention. Could it be any worse than YouTube’s attempt? Or could it actually surprise me?

Surprise me it did! Throughout the video of course it had the music and highlights of the internet world. I think it capture a handful of memes and special moments that were important. To be honest I’m not across all mediums so there were a lot of things I didn’t know but was nice to be shown what I might have missed!

My favorite part was the ending. Hitting my Zillennial heart strings with a song back from 2005 when YouTube started. (Shed many tears.) It did something I have been missing from a lot of content on YouTube, the heart and feeling of being a part of this wonderful community. Not just making everything so businessy. I want to create more things like this in 2025 and I think I’m not the only one.

Dear self-doubt

What if it all works out?

What if’s can be the death of momentum, inspiration, and motivation. Something I believe we all face especially for us that are trying to turn it into something we can keep up sustainably.

We started this as a hobby, while we worked out 9-5.

9am-5pm - work

5pm-9am - hobby

Why do we get such heavy burnout within just the first year of us going after our dreams? Well when out hobby becomes our 9-5 we lose out hobby. We did what we loved in that time. So when our hobby becomes our job, we tend to keep working throughout the day because it’s what we love to do right? But what happened to our rest and rebuilding time?

There is a balance to everything, and if we take something away something else will fill it’s place. We just have to make sure we are intentional about what get’s to be the replacement?

For me I have failed to be balanced and remember to live my life. Living life births a lot of creative ideas, so in order to create art we NEED life.

So my goal to start NOW is to play more video games and find hobbies just for me. And get more sleep lol.