I think I am a reasonably competent storyteller. I’ve worked hard at honing my storytelling skills over the years. I’ve learned a lot about rhythm and pitch and the difference between oral and written language. I’ve practiced my memorization skills. I’ve listened to a lot of other storytellers in ways that enabled me to learn from their approaches to stories. I’ve belonged to groups of storytellers and sought out the feedback of others. There are many storytellers out there who are more skilled and polished than i, but Understand something about telling stories.

There is, however, a lot about the entertainment industry that I don’t understand. I know that making a movie is one way of telling a story. I understand that there are elements in professional movie-making that stretch the storytelling into whole new arenas with the use of special effects, complex digital editing and other techniques. But I know little about what appeals when it comes to making movies.

My own consumption of video entertainment has been fairly light. I’m not a big watcher of television and we rarely go to the movies. We haven’t been inside of a movie theater since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, but we didn’t go to the movies very much before. In the months since my retirement, I have increased the amount of amateur video that I watch on YouTube. I’m aware that I watch YouTube videos that are barely amateur. Some of the clips I watch are shot with multiple cameras and extensively edited. They also make significant revenue for their creators. Just yesterday I watched a video in which the creator announced that he had quit his regular job and now is making his living by making YouTube videos. I know of several other creators who are doing the same thing.

I do not know how they are doing it, but there are ways to make a significant amount of money from YouTube, primarily from sponsors and ad revenue. I know of a YouTube creator who documents an off-grid, seemingly independent lifestyle and earns over $70,000 a year from the videos produced.

In the last couple of weeks, I have been aware that it is a popular trend for YouTube creators to make one or more video posts in which they speak of how hard they have been working and how difficult it is to produce regular content. They then proceed to make a video of a vacation - often an expensive vacation to a resort area. The creator of an off-road vehicle recovery channel based in Utah headed to Florida. The do-it-yourself family from West Virginia vacationed in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The couple building their own shop and home in the Idaho mountains are headed for Las Vegas.

While I can understand that it is hard work to tell a story on video and the pressures of creating programs to air on a regular basis are intense, I don’t have much sympathy for the complaints of the creators. They chose to make themselves dependent upon revenue that demands regular posting of new content. They quit their jobs to live off of YouTube. They get to pursue their own interests and dreams with more time and energy than a lot of other people. While I can appreciate the pressure of having to create fresh content each week, I don’t think video creators are working any harder than parents who have been juggling childcare and full time work. I don’t think they have more stress than folk who are stringing together multiple part-time jobs just to make rent and groceries. I don’t think their lives are filled with pressures as great as those of front line health care workers in overwhelmed hospitals or teachers juggling classroom and online responsibilities.

Then again, I invested 42 years in a career that demanded that I create fresh content each week. One of my hobbies is creating a new essay every day. I know that regular practice can make a job easier than it used to be.

I also know that these video creators are recording and editing video while they are on vacation. They aren’t really getting away from it all, or I wouldn’t be able to watch the videos of them playing on the beach or attending a large trade show. Their videos don’t inspire much sympathy from me. Furthermore, when I get busy and miss a few episodes, I don’t miss their stories, which seem to be remarkably similar week to week. These aren’t stories about service to others - they are stories about pursuing dreams and ambitions. They aren’t stories about contributing to society. YouTube seems to favor content about those who are getting away from the daily grind and stories that involve projects that can be completed in a short amount of time.

YouTube doesn’t have many videos about people working to shift public policy towards justice for all. It doesn’t have many videos about researchers seeking long term solutions to human caused climate change. It doesn’t have many videos about grandparents sacrificing to give their grandchildren a stable home and an education. There are very few videos on the channel that tackle issues that require multiple generations to produce progress.

The famous quote, attributed to abolitionist Theodore Parker is something like, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” I think the YouTube version of that quote might go something like this: “The arc of the moral universe is long - far too long for a popular YouTube video.”

Like many other stories of our time, this particular venue encourages short term solutions.

What I have realized, moreover, is that my consumption of YouTube is already waning. I’m watching less and less of it these days. I don’t bother to subscribe to any channels. I don’t follow as many stories. I am more quickly bored with individual creators and move on to something else.

I am still looking for stories that can be told over and over again. I am still sustained by stories that our people have been telling for thousands of years and that our people will be telling thousands of years from now. I’m still trying to find my place in that story that is much bigger than the events of a single life.

I know where to find those stories. They are the ones I want to tell.