This is embarrassing!

THIS IS EMBARRASSING.

Tonight we’re talking about something that has been bothering us for quite some time, and it’s something we feel needs to be said.

We’re from Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, and over the years we have spent an enormous amount of time creating content online. YouTube and social media have been part of our lives for 12+ years, and one thing we’ve learned is that there can still be a huge misunderstanding about what it actually means to be a content creator or influencer—especially in smaller communities.

In this video, we’re talking specifically about some of the attitudes and experiences we’ve encountered involving Bonavista, Newfoundland, and the way some people seem to view those who create content online.

And we want to make something very clear: we are not saying everyone in Bonavista thinks this way, and we certainly are not saying everyone in Newfoundland thinks this way. There are wonderful, supportive people throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. This video is about particular attitudes and experiences that we have personally encountered.

Social media influencing and content creation are real work.

What viewers eventually see on Facebook, YouTube or another social media platform may be only a few minutes long, but they don’t necessarily see everything that happens behind the scenes. There can be hours spent coming up with ideas, filming, taking photographs, editing videos, writing descriptions, choosing thumbnails, researching topics, answering comments, learning new technology, studying analytics, understanding algorithms, building an audience and trying to keep that audience interested.

Then you do it all over again.

Being a creator also means putting yourself and your work in front of the public. Sometimes people love what you create. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people understand what you’re trying to accomplish, and sometimes they make assumptions without knowing anything about the work happening behind the scenes.

That is part of what we’re discussing tonight.

The internet has changed tremendously. People all over Canada and around the world have built careers, businesses, brands and communities through YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and other online platforms. The creator economy has become an entire industry, yet there are still people who look at someone making videos or posting online and assume they’re simply “playing on Facebook” or wasting their time.

There is a lot more to it than that.

You have to learn how to tell a story. You have to understand your audience. You have to constantly adapt because platforms change. What worked last year may not work today. Algorithms change, technology changes, audiences change and trends change.

There are good days when thousands—or potentially millions—of people may see something you’ve created, and there are days when something you worked extremely hard on barely gets noticed.

You keep going anyway.

For us, this conversation is bigger than one Facebook post, one YouTube video or one comment. It’s about understanding that the way people work has changed.

Someone does not have to leave their house every morning and punch a traditional time clock for their work to have value. People now earn livelihoods through video production, photography, online businesses, digital marketing, livestreaming, social media management, entertainment, education and countless other forms of digital work.

You don’t necessarily have to understand that world personally, but dismissing it simply because it looks different from the kind of work you grew up with doesn’t make it any less real.

That’s where the title of this video comes from: This Is Embarrassing.

It’s embarrassing that in a time when technology allows someone living in a small Newfoundland community to potentially reach people across Canada and around the world, there can still be such resistance to understanding what online creators actually do.

Imagine what could happen if more people in Newfoundland encouraged local creators instead.

Imagine seeing someone trying something different and saying, “Good for you. Give it a shot.”

Imagine younger Newfoundlanders realizing that living in a small community doesn’t automatically mean their opportunities have to be small.

We also know that putting yourself online means accepting criticism. Nobody has to enjoy our videos. Nobody has to follow us. Nobody has to agree with everything we say. Constructive disagreement is part of having a public platform.

But there is a difference between disagreement and deliberately trying to tear people down simply because you don’t understand what they’re doing.

So tonight we’re having the conversation.

Share your experiences respectfully in the comments. ❤️❤️❤️

#Newfoundland #Bonavista #ContentCreator #SocialMediaInfluencer #YouTubeCanada