Why YouTube isn't YouTube anymore

In the early days of YouTube, the platform felt like a playground with almost no rules. There were types of content you couldn't usually get away with posting about outright. But back then, most things were fair game.

For many in those early years, YouTube was better than network TV. Little was censored. Swearing was allowed (and still technically is -- sort of). Channels could be about anything and everything. There were fairly innocent tricks to getting your videos to appear on the home page that modern algorithms would never allow now.

Everything changed when YouTube became a platform that not only made money off user videos, but offered to pay certain channels some of the money their video views generated.

This was the birth of more traditional rules that mirrored those of network TV. Working with advertisers meant channels had to stay inside the lines -- otherwise they would get "demonetized," or not receive the money they might normally get from ads on their videos.

Being "advertiser-friendly" became a meme of sorts. Not because every channel wanted to censor themselves or their content, but because many YouTube content creators depended on the money their video views brought in. They couldn't afford to lose it.

Being able to make money online is not a bad thing. Content creators deserve to be paid for their sometimes endless time and effort. But it comes with its own price. Similar changes have occured with other social media apps such as TikTok. It's "not what it used to be" because capitalism demands obedience.

That's why, now more than ever, YouTube content creators are doing their best to create a mix of popular content and content they enjoy making. If you can manage to make videos about something you love that people also love to click on, you're one of the lucky ones.