Spartan Scroll

by KEITH OSHIMA

Since the early years of Youtube, video blogging has grown at an unbelievable rate with vloggers spreading advice, opinions and information to others around the world; however, sharing private information on the internet is risky and should not be done.

Vlogging, or video blogging, is a form of social media that revolves around recording one’s life, thoughts, opinions or interests.  Vloggers talk about a variety of subjects ranging from random factoids to opinions on current events.

Many of the most popular vlogs are focused on the vlogger’s lifestyle, according to vidstatsx.com.

These lifestyle vlogs show the vlogger going about his or her day while speaking about subjects that may be considered extremely personal, such as relationship or job status.  As many social media outlets are becoming more interconnected, vloggers link their audience to their other profiles, which can result in revealing even more information that strangers may use to target or threaten the vlogger.

Exposure of personal information or identity theft is not the only danger to which a vlogger is susceptible.  When dealing with sensitive topics like politics, religion or culture, extremism is a real threat.  For example, Gaijin Goomba, a YouTuber who has garnered nearly 250,000 subscribers, speaks frequently on sensitive aspects of culture and religion in video games and frequently receives hate messages regarding his videos. In one of his more controversial videos, he addresses religious aspects of the game Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, specifically focusing on the game’s subliminal Islamic symbols and chants.  However, unlike most other vloggers, Gaijin Goomba chooses to change the pitch of his voice and represents himself as a cartoon character in order to avoid threats from those who target him.

While it may seem that vloggers should stay as distant as possible from their viewers to defend their privacy, this jeopardizes the quality of the content. Maintaining a close relationship to audiences while keeping personal lives separate is the most ideal way for vloggers to maintain high view and subscriber counts while still protecting themselves.

According to vlognation.com, the most successful vloggers attribute their success to always engaging their viewers by interacting on social media, through asking for their opinions and replying directly to feedback within their own videos.

While video blogging continues to explode in popularity, vloggers need to understand the potential dangers of revealing private information online where anyone could access or steal it at any time. Extremists on the internet have the ability target and threaten content creators; therefore, vloggers need to aware of these threats and be cautious when posting online.