Why do v/bloggers get so much hate

Okay, not all of them. But some of them get some hate.

I admit I have a few vloggers on my sub list that I like to cringewatch because they either sing the funniest songs out of tune or say the dumbest things about products. But that's about it.

I know most bloggers / vloggers get the occasional hate comment, but I was surprised to land upon an actual "hate-site" one day while using google to find a few articles on one of the blogs I read regularly. The "haters" were vicious, and I couldn't imagine what the original "vlogger" could have done to be the receiving end of such comments.

After that incident, I started to scroll through the comment section below YT videos I would watch. Sometimes was a mine-field of nasty. How did things get so high-school, mean-girl? I think the fault lies on both sides.

Where the vloggers/bloggers lost the plot for me:

I remember when beauty blogging started in India, it was just us regular girls, sharing our regular opinions. The vibe was more on the lines of "Hey, I like chatting & sharing my experience about makeup, this is what I think about this product, what do you think?" I think that vibe was true across the world as well as vloggers started to create content.


Now it's more like "I am a lifestyle fashion beauty expert. I am here to teach you celebrity makeup tutorials, how to wear this shoe five ways, how to cut onions without tears, how to travel to Agra, and how to manage relationships, all the while doing a DIY apply stickers to your plastic grocery bag. I had no credentials/training to speak of, but still, this is seven ways how *you* apply concealer wrong" 

How is this different from any of the mainstream media or magazines. I am surprised none of the v/bloggers went the Cosmo way and added a section on "Sex Advice". Or maybe they did. I wouldn't know. It didn't help that a lot of these v/bloggers were dull, to begin with, and some of them had a boring style of communicating. Then they got onboard guest writers/sponsored videos or posts and the channel/site slowly started to lose whatever originalitylity it had.

Now given our hectic lifestyles, and if I have just thirty minutes to spend on YT/Blogs, wouldn't I rather go watch Lisa Eldridge (who is an actual expert on makeup) and then if I need I need fashion advice, go watch an actual stylist's / fashion designer's video, rather than some self-anointed expert with no credentials, and who doesn't understand the basics of either makeup or fashion. Some of the most boring v/bloggers are those who don't try to educate themselves and develop a real POV.

Now don't get me wrong, authentic people with honest opinions will always have viewers & readers. It's that odd mixture of fake-nice/quirky/put on personality combined with a lack of passion (for the subject on hand, not the sponsorships) that is the downfall for most vloggers.

And this is where some commenters lose the plot for me: 

I sometimes feel like a lot of hate-commentators are actually projecting some major personal baggage. The vlogger somehow reminds them of somehow they hate in real-life, and that dislike gets projected onto the vlogger.

Sometimes they are disillusioned fans, with actual valid criticism, but it is articulated in a very harsh manner because the site is populated with screeching fan-girls who will not react well to any criticism - even if it is required.

Sometimes the hate is because the commenter knows the vlogger will read it and react to it, unlike if they tweeted their hate comments towards a celebrity on Twitter.

There is a feeling of entitlement or judgment in the hater, that the content must be geared to his/her interests only and a single post/behavior out of line (that they find offensive or unrelatable) is good cause to be nasty. Sure. Coz the vlogger exists only to entertain you since you are their single viewer/reader. And you understand his/her intentions exactly and you are there to be the vanguard of our cultural heritage and appropriate behaviors.

Stop watching or reading if you don't like that site anymore.

The way out?

There are plenty of sites/vloggers I stopped following because I stopped relating to the content. And that's all that you can do as a viewer. Leaving nasty comments doesn't serve any purpose. Imagine if some stranger said something like your comment to your best friend. This stranger doesn't understand your friend's life or struggle but thought it was okay to tear down their self-esteem. How would it make you feel? Don't do it.

And if you are a v/blogger dealing with this, deal with the comments. Behind the badly worded comment, is there genuine intent that can help you be better? If yes, use it. If not, then you know what to do. You are not obligated to please everyone. You started this for yourself (hopefully, and not to cheat people of their hard earned cash). Stay true to yourself.