A lot can change in nearly 20 years, especially on the internet. The way content creators and influencers interact with their audiences now differs, in many cases, from the way these interactions occurred in 2007. YouTube, for example, was a much more intimate place. It didn't feel like you were broadcasting your life to hundreds of thousands of people (or more) because you weren't. That's not the case now, of course, and today's video really puts that into perspective.
Welcome (or welcome back) to Vlogbrothers Rewatch -- an ongoing series of articles in which I document my journey through the entire Vlogbrothers YouTube repertoire. Using this playlist, I'm rewatching everything in chronological order, one video per day, from the very beginning. Offering my commentary and reactions along the way while also reflecting on the state of the internet both past and present through the lens of Nerdfighteria.
I've long noted and felt mildly unsatisfied with the fact that the Hank and John Green we see in Vlogbrothers videos today aren't the versions of them we saw in Brotherhood 2.0, for example. There are plenty of reasons for this out of everyone's control, especially the fact that people change over 18 years -- age and experience shift the way you live, think, and communicate.
Fame is a completely understandable reason for diminished authenticity. It's a defense mechanism. The bigger your following, the closer you generally hold your personal life -- especially day to day -- to your chest. The growth of this channel and Nerdfighteria and the online space have allowed the Green brothers to literally change the world, and I don't resent them for that.
But I do, admittedly, have a little bit of nostalgia for the days of early, smaller YouTube when fewer people were watching and things felt more real. Things online will never be that way again, and honestly that's for the best. But that doesn't mean I can't look back on those days with a sense of fondness.