This week in Creatorville, we’re saying goodbye to the Outdoor Boys’ Luke Nichols as he decides to quit YouTube. His departure raises the question of whether too much fame and virility — the thing that all creators work towards — can actually be more harmful than helpful.
Another intriguing question this week is just how deep an unfollowing really is, and whether it can have serious psychological implications. And then there’s the matter of podcasts: how much work does it actually take behind the scenes? For more on these stories and other major creator happenings, keep reading.
Outdoor Boys’ Luke Nichols Quits Channel After Becoming Too Famous
Is there such a thing as being “too famous”? For Luke Nichols, the man behind the YouTube channel Outdoor Boys, there is. While he’s been building his channel — which includes videos on camping, fishing, and survival — for years, he’s had a surge of interest in his content for the past eighteen months.
During that timeframe, his channel’s subscriber count has risen from 3 million to 15 million subscribers. But for Nichols, there really can be too much of a good thing. In his ‘Goodbye’ video, he shared how the “sheer volume” of fans that approach him and his family can be “overwhelming.” He added: “The time to stop is before this problem gets so out of hand that my family and I can’t live normal lives.”
To learn more about Nichols’ departure, click here.
MrBeast Is In Hot Water Over His Mayan Pyramids Video
Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson has been left red-faced after a YouTube video exploring the Mayan pyramids went badly wrong. In the video, which was entitled ‘I Explored 2000-Year-Old Ancient Temples,’ Donaldson featured one of his food products and described it as a “Mayan dessert.”
This led to a backlash by Mexican authorities, who claimed that Donaldson and his team never had a permit to promote items while filming. Consequently, the Mexican president demanded an investigation of the Beast team’s’ filming permits. Want to know what happens next?
Well, for the full story, read the piece here.
Mexican TikToker Killed on Livestream
At just 21 years old, influencer Valeria Marquez was shot dead during a live stream. The incident, which occurred on May 13, is being treated as femicide, which means that the authorities suspect that Marquez was murdered on account of her gender. Following Valkyrae, Cinna, and Emiru’s livestream attack, and Amouranth’s home invasion, it feels like an especially precarious and upsetting time for female streamers.
For more on this crucial issue, read the full article here.
How to Launch a Podcast (And Not Cry in Public About It)
This week, Passionfruit’s own Liz Plank launched her new podcast, BOY PROBLEMS. As she explains in the piece, it’s been a long time coming — but Rome wasn’t built in a day. A lot of things are considered in the creation of a podcast, including that podcast’s personality, its aesthetic direction, how to navigate editing, focusing on consistency, and even, sparingly, using a little bit of AI.
Ultimately, as Plank points out, the whole purpose of a podcast is that it’s fun. To read more of her thoughts, click here.
The Silent Cost of Unfollowing
Unfollowing might be a bigger deal than we realize. As we’ve seen, numerous celebrities have made a statement by unfollowing people in the past, including Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, and Drake, among others. Unfollowing is that perfect middle-ground between making your feelings clear without actively starting beef.
However, the act of unfollowing and its consequences can have serious psychological implications. To explore this, Passionfruit spoke to professionals and therapists about unfollowing and what it means. For the full story, click here.
