I know this is going to sound like some clickbait bullshit title, but I’m genuinely curious, asking in good faith. My two oldest sons are enamored with him, and he seems like a genuine guy, so I’m asking - is he a nice guy? If you google the question, you get a bunch of reddit hate, which I don’t always trust, because…it’s reddit. I have not watched much content (not my thing, I’m old) but I’m just curious what the fediverse has to say.
I don’t know what kind of person he really is, but I do know that there are tons of scammers that pretend to be him and are ripping off young folks. So your boys should be super careful around him and alleged giveaways.
Tek Syndicate has a philosophical breakdown of Mr. Beast’s content that’s really interesting, but as far as being an example to your kids goes, it’s a tough one. I think his charitable acts are fundamentally good, but the fact that he does them all on camera is fundamentally icky. He’s a complicated figure. He’s not using hate speech or indoctrinating kids into cults or anything, so he’s clear of at least the bare minimum of alarming behavior. lol
Gonna preface by saying I’m not a Mr Beast fan and I’ve only watched about 2 of his videos…
But that said, the fact he films them and puts them online to millions of viewers is how he’s able to do all of this. He likely couldn’t keep doing this without the YT, sponsor, and merch income. While I agree that it’s icky, it is definitely necessary to continue doing it.
The camera portion is literally how he makes the money in the first place. The only way we’ll really know for certain how he is beyond that is to see what he does with his money after “retirement”.
I don’t expect much, but it’s pointless to guess about his actual character now.
He films them so he can earn money so he can do more good things
It would be good to know. But then Austin does it matter? There are plenty of terrible celebrities, as long as they are putting out decent role modelling for the kids, they get to keep their private life
I would ask a different question - is Mr. Beast a good role model for the kids or not? Whether he’s a “good person” or not is largely irrelevant, the fact is he is doing good.
Personally I’m a big fan of his philathropy, but I don’t think he makes for a good role model. He’s found a way to influence and doing good for the world, but I don’t think it’s easily replicable nor should kids try to emulate him - because to be Mr. Beast, you need to be in the influencer / clout-chasing game, which can have roads that lead to success but at the end of the day, it’s an endless game of trying to get eyeballs and capture attention.
I would encourage the kids to forge their own path and not necessarily emulate Beast, but try to make the types of impact he makes in the world.
My personal take is that content creators and celebrities in general should never be judged as “people” in the sense that you might deem a teacher or a neighborhood kid as a “good” or “bad” influence. Rather, you should treat them as “media personalities”. Content creators are characters. They’re personas meant to drive engagement and clicks. Some achieve this by engaging in risky behavior or drama. Some just do wacky challenges. The motivation is the same in that the persona presented on the screen is a combo of the creator and the engagement from their community meant to drive up click rates and brand-building.
Mr Beast has kind of a “wacky semi-wholesome” image. Odd challenges and charities that hand out cash to random people for views. That’s a cynical take, but at the end of the day he’s a content creator, that’s it. If handing out free surgeries to correct childhood blindness didn’t drive engagement, he wouldn’t do it. If anything, the fact that his community is interested in seeing that project reflects more on them as people than on him.
So in my opinion the better questions for assessing his influence on your children are things like “why does his content appeal to you?” “What about his character do you find likable?” “What aspects would you want to emulate in your own life if you could?”
Again, just my personal view.
he seems mostly well-intentioned, and probably won’t be a terribly bad influence on your kids, moreso than any other algorithm slurry youtube videos, so on that scale he’s probably fine for your kids to watch
if we were trying to assess his overall morality it would get into “is clickbait millionaire philanthropy an ethical way to spend your wealth” territory, which is a huge can of worms that’s difficult to find a solid answer for
General takeaway is: letting your kids be enamored by mr beast is teaching them to get clout. Teaches them that to do nice things, they must be recording themselves doing it. Its different if youre an adult that can think for themself
“If i cant record myself helping this person out then ill wait till i can find a camera.” Theres a good chance thats the type of thing your kids are gonna unconsciously think about.
It’s an interesting dilemma. I don’t disagree with anything you’ve said but, at the same time, Mr Beast is helping people, even if he’s also personally benefitting. And the only reason he’s in a position to help as many people as much as he does is because of his “clout” - without his platform and the sponsors he attracts, he wouldn’t be able to have nearly as much of an impact as he does. And I’d rather influencers like Mr Beast exist than the Andrew Tate of the world, or the nasty “prank” influencers.
But, at the same time, you’re right that it teaches people they’ll be rewarded more if they wait until they’re on camera before doing any acts of charity. If he can inspire people to do charitable things just for the the sake of helping make the world better then that’s great, but if people are only doing charitable things for “clout” then it’s definitely not ideal.
There’s definitely not a black and white answer or solution. I think Mr Beast has a positive impact on the world overall, but there are definitely both good and bad things people could take away from watching his videos if they don’t consider things correctly. It’s something that touches on a number of philosophical subjects: capitalism, materialism, individualism versus collectivism, the influence of social media, external validation versus internal satisfaction, to name but a few.
The best thing OP can do is to teach their sons the nuances of it all.
I wish there were some way to know the net impact of this. Once helping the poor becomes entertainment, do people actually get up and go do it themselves anymore? Very often these days people don’t actually do things but rather watch others do them online. You can say sure that one person did get money and help, but what is the larger impact of this phenomenon? Are more people inspired to go give? Or do more people “get that itch scratched” and walk away from the video feeling all warm inside just from watching it? And what is the impact to the poor person of their publicity? This stuff is hard to know but I point it out to say there is more to it than “well one person did get help so it must be good.”
One thing it reminds me of is prosthetics viral videos. People love videos where a kid with one arm sees their new robotic prosthetic for the first time. We get all misty watching their excitement. But many people actually go on to have a crappy experience with their prosthetic. There’s one woman I heard on the radio who said she tried many of them and they were heavy, painful, and hard to make work right. She just prefers to use her stump now. And she wishes people would watch a video celebrating that, instead of everyone telling her she should get a cool robot arm. People are icked out by her stump and they all ask her why she doesn’t get a cool robot arm like in the video they saw.
Feelgood porn is problematic.
I agree with you, although I prefer this to “it’s just a prank bro” kinda stuff that kids see and want to do for “fun” and clout.
I feel like it might show them that doing nice things is a way to get attention. Maybe that’ll encourage them to do nice things. Is probably more favourable than influencers that teach doing mean things is ok because it’s on camera or it’s funny or just a joke, and that being mean is a way to get attention. Though its important for children to know that attention isnt everything.
I completely disagree. Mr beast genuinely does good. To say that you have to be completely selfless, and can’t want anything in return from helping people is a good way to keep people from helping. Philosophy tube has a great video about just this. She’ll be able to elaborate far better than I can.
I somehow agree with both of you. It’s okay to do good things to feel good, but it’s also not good to glamorize chasing clout.
Holy crap, two people with different opinions having a civilized discussion?!?!?!!
it’s nice to see more of these on Lemmy.
It really is like the old days of Reddit. We’ll really find out what Lemmy becomes if/when it hits its Eternal September.
I’d rather have a generation of clout chasers giving their money away for fame, than a generation of hoarding billionaires. I know it’s not a dichotomy, but it still serves to illustrate the point.
I’m pretty sure I accidentally double posted and tried to delete one of the comments. But now it looks like everyone replied to the deleted comment? Weird… Anyway, yeah that’s why I said I kind of agree with both. The problem with a “generation of clout chasers” are that most of them aren’t doing it by giving their money away. Clout is the reason things like the Kia Boyz challenge to steal Kias and Hyundais exist. That’s why I think it’s a teachable moment to point out that Mr Beast is good because of the good things he does and not because he’s doing it for the fame. Like just about everything in life there is pros and cons.
I somehow agree with both of you. It’s okay to do good things to feel good, but it’s also not good to glamorize chasing clout.
Yeah but his general point about kids thinking nothing is worthwhile unless it is recorded goes far beyond philanthropy. Many times they’re thinking so much about how something will be filmed that they are never actually present for that something. Or they do only things that will film well because that’s how they register value. You can say that Mr Beast does well AND it’s not good for kids to watch those videos, and both can be true.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I stated at some point that this isn’t a dichotomy, and there are legitimate concerns with the system he’s playing into, but I think that those concerns exist without Mr beast. He may be feeding into a bad system, but at least the how of it is helping a significant number of people. Often, that’s the best an individual can do.
Mr Beast is fine. His content is fine for kids to watch, that is his demo. He demonstrates that doing good things with the money you have is the best thing to do. Mr Beast gets a lot of flack for his videos but as far as online entertainers go, he’s a good one. Are his videos entertaining to me? No. Are they entertaining to millions of others? Yes. Is he a negative influence on children? No. The only real PUBLIC criticism for Mr Beast is he supports LGBTQ people and his video “exploit” medical problems of people.
Edit since it seems people think me mentioning he supports LGBTQ. Criticism for his support for Chris exists in the world. OP didn’t mention their politics, I mentioned the two things Mr Beast has received criticism for in the public space.
What’s wrong with supporting LGBT people?
Yeah holy shit that was such a sudden turn this has to be a joke
There isn’t anything wrong with it, but OP didn’t mention their politics. It is a fair warning for someone asking about an influencer they don’t know much about.
The fact that you mention LGBT folks as if they’re a problem or whatever is problematic.
I did edit to clarify, the criticisms I was mentioning were intended as public criticisms. Which both were true. I can understand how you might have assumed I meant my own personal criticism.
Conservatives complaining about them, that’s who
From his own personal content I haven’t seen a single thing that would indicate otherwise though I’m not entirely up to date with what he’s made. I think the majority of people who no longer directly work with Mr. Beast had nothing negative to say about him when they parted ways.
I think that’s been my reservation about Mr Beast. I don’t have an issue with him recording his good deeds or whatnot. I’ve just been concerned that when you put someone up there … They’ll come out with some controversy down the road.
So I’ve never been a fan of Mr Beast, mainly because his videos aren’t my thing. I’m not a hater neither.
If all is on the up and up, and like you said, so far no one’s said anything negative … then more power to him. He’s also quite young, so he should have a good amount of leeway too.
Colin and Samir did and excellent behind the scenes hour long interview on Jimmy’s life. He seems to be a genuine guy who just wants to do nothing but entertain. Check it out on YouTube.
The behind the scenes of his restaurant opening seems to show how he acts under stress, too, although I’m sure it was cut down a lot
We can go into big depths on how he’s actually a corporate slave making his business on sponsorships instead of promoting big systemic changes, but that misses the case you make on how it affects kids.
On the kid side, he can be a somewhat good role model, a generous philanthropist sharing what he has to make people’s lives better. I’d say the effect his may have on kids is mostly positive.
Even if he is not the same person off camera, he’s still helping a lot of people in his videos. Sure it might be to “make money” but he turns around and uses a large portion of that money to do more good things on camera in other videos. He does far more for others than the vast majority of people in this world.
I think deep down he is, although he has the moral compass of a 4 year old.
Edit - oh I thought you said Mr Bean
We will never know.
I don’t think that it boils down to him being a good or bad person. Is Jimmy the person who hit upon the idea of giving g money away to his mom a good person? Probably as much as anyone generally is. Is Mr. Beast the self promotion based, overexagerated youtube personality a good person? Is he even meant to be?
I think the best analogy is that the shows he produces are a lot like reality television. In that way they are based off the appeal of watchung people display “real” and “authentic” emotional reaction that you just can’t get out of actors. But behind the scenes, those are produced and somewhat manipulated to provoke these reactions, and that is the dishonest aspect of it. And while what he is doing is honestly not as bad as most reality television, I do think it is powered by that same kind of dishonesty.
I don’t think it is bad for children to watch this stuff, but I think you do have to explain how many subscribers he has and how many people watch his videos, and that the people he involves in his videos is such an astronomically small percentage of people. Kids seem really susceptible to “sweepstakes” stuff - I know I was as a kid. But my parents did a good job of explaining to me how I probable it was for me to win that stuff without judging me for wanting to.
I still think the best way to engage with children’s interest is to try to understand it, and then helping them understand more about the world.
