The American Psychological Association (APA) has uncovered tangible connections between short-form social media feeds and negative mental health outcomes. In a sweeping study, the professional organization linked the consumption of those short-form videos (dubbed “SFVs” in the report) to an array of cognitive and behavioral issues.

The APA structured its study as a meta-analysis that incorporated findings from 71 different studies. Through that setup, the researchers were able to synthesize data from more than 98,000 participants.

For the parents who are screaming from the rooftops about the danger screens pose to both teens and adults, the APA’s findings are validating. Across the 71 studies, there were consistent negative correlations between excessive short-form video consumption and a variety of ills. “According to this framework, repeated exposure to highly stimulating, fast-paced content may contribute to habituation, in which users become desensitized to slower, more effortful cognitive tasks such as reading, problem solving, or deep learning,” reads the report.

The researchers separated the studied effects into two categories. The cognitive domain covered outcomes related to attention, memory, and reasoning, while the mental health domain included topics like anxiety, stress, sleep quality, and overall wellbeing.

On the whole, the most significant effects occurred within the cognitive domain. Frequent short-form video viewership was most significantly linked to issues with inhibitory control, with attention issues ranking second on that axis. As for the mental health domain, the most significant negative effects concerned anxiety and stress.

In some cases, there was no perceptible negative correlation between short-form video consumption and undesirable outcomes. For example, despite a lot of hullabaloo regarding social media’s effect on teenage body image and self-esteem, those topics produced negligible correlations in the APA study. Researchers hypothesized that the “diverse content and creators featured on these platforms” may have alleviated potential effects.

So while the study may provide evidence for those who believe that figurative brainrot begets literal cognitive issues, it also offers counterarguments to that position. Social media feeds can definitely be linked to mental health issues, but that link doesn’t tell the whole story. To get a bigger picture, we’ll need to see some more studies — just like the one that recently examined mental health outcomes among creators.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Brainrot is officially a scientific phenomenon

Traditionally, November and December are the peak months for charitable contributions. The holiday season brings out people’s benevolent spirits, and many families make sure to give annually.

As a volatile economy affects those families’ bottom lines, however, the nature of giving is changing. Nonprofit organizations can no longer rely on the fundraising methods of the past. Instead, they need to get in bed with creators.

So claims the 2025 Giving Season Report, which was published by the fundraising platform Tiltify. By surveying 1,000 donors on their giving habits — and incorporating feedback from 1,000 creators — Tiltify hypothesized that this year’s holiday season will include more donations to creator-led campaigns than ever before.

Through its survey, Tiltify uncovered what it calls “a widening gap between revenue concentration and community participation.” In total, Americans are giving more money to charities than ever before, but for the first time, fewer than half of all U.S. households are making a charitable contribution each year. Translation: The rich are increasingly philanthropic while the rest of us are loath to part with our hard-earned dollars.

Creators, Tiltify claims, can bridge that gap. They have a few advantages over traditional contemporaries: They aren’t beholden to outdated fundraising methods like mail-in campaigns and galas, they know how to harness the power of engagement, and they have a direct pipeline to hard-to-reach Millennial and Gen Z givers.

Tiltify has firsthand experience with creator-led charitable campaigns. It has worked with stars like Jacksepticeye and Mark Rober, and it was an integral part of one of the biggest charity drives of 2025: MrBeast and Rober’s $40 million effort to bring clean drinking water to needy communities.

Now, Tiltify is tying campaigns like those to a tangible shift in donor behavior. The majority of the surveyed individuals plan to maintain their current level of charitable spending, but the percentage of respondents who plan to decrease their spending (32%) is much higher than the percentage of respondents who will give more (12%). Meanwhile, a “large share” of creators are raising more through their campaigns than they did last year.

“As donor participation declines, creators are showing that generosity can still be vibrant, social, and sustained,” said Tiltify Co-Founder and CEO Michael Wasserman in a statement. “The creator economy is rewriting the playbook for philanthropy by turning giving into a shared, visible, and participatory experience. This data shows it’s working: when giving is interactive and authentic, you unlock a new generation of donors.”

Can creators keep this trend going? Some of them, like Jacksepticeye, are pulling back their holiday season plans to account for fans’ financial hardships. At the same time, the MrBeasts of the world are turning the act of giving into a spectacle. That strategy effectively attracts donors while inspiring new fundraising models. Here’s hoping the shift continues through the 2025 holiday season and beyond.

Filed under: Articles, Charity, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on ‘Tis the season for giving, and charitable contributions increasingly flow through creator channels

[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇

Vlad Samokatchik is in the midst of an astonishing rise. With videos that play into the YouTube community’s love of challenges and stunts, the Russian creator broke into our charts earlier this month. Now he’s ahead of MrBeast in the Global Sub Top 50 ranking after adding 1.02 million new subs during the week that was.

All of the creators who broke into the ranking this week got at least 260,000 new subs during our most recent seven-day measurement period. A lot of those entrants achieved eye-popping numbers using strategies that can only be described as positively divine.

Everyone needs a little guidance — whether from God or podcasts

We’ve written at length about the popularity of religious content on YouTube Shorts. Videos featuring deities like Jesus — often created with help from generative AI software — have established a regular presence in our Global Sub Top 50 chart.

That trend continued apace during the third full week of November. Two channels in the top ten are affiliated with specific religious leaders. Bispo Bruno Leonardo continues to proselytize to the masses to great effect, and he finished fourth in the Global Sub Top 50 after adding 600,000 subs in one week. The man right behind him in ninth place is Bapuji Dsahrathbai Patel, who has proven that you don’t have to be a Christian to feed the YouTube community’s desire for religiously-inclined content.

Data via Gospel Stats

One might think that the success of these religious figures on YouTube Shorts shows that millions of YouTube viewers are looking for some spiritual advice. In truth, it’s not even that deep: Viewers are just looking for some guidance, whether it comes from a bishop, a guru, or a podcaster.

The thing is, though both Bruno and Bapuji are in the top ten of our subscriber ranking, they’re both trailing a man by the name of John Fairclough. The U.S.-based creator isn’t a clergyman or a religious leader of any kind. Rather, he’s a motivational speaker who has translated snippets of his addresses into YouTube Shorts gold.

With his audiovisual show Embrace For Impact, Fairclough dispenses advice for high achievers who need to learn how to slow down and prioritize their wellbeing. The show is a great resource for anyone who wants to sit down with Fairclough and his guests, but let’s be real: For the business leaders he’s trying to reach, time is a precious resource, so the short-form distillations of his ethos are the real sources of his inflated viewership and subscriber counts.

Videos like this one have pushed Fairclough up to third place in the Global Sub Top 50, trailing only Samokatchik and MrBeast. By getting 794,000 new subscribers in a single week, Fairclough showed that you don’t have to give sermons in sold-out stadia (as Bispo Bruno Leonardo does) to reach the masses on YouTube. All you need to do is give out actionable advice, whether it’s oriented around religious practice or business acumen.

In case you can’t tell what I’m getting at, let me spell it out: Bispo Bruno Leonardo and Bapuji Dashrathbai Patel should start a podcast together. If they did, they’d probably become even bigger than MrBeast — and that’s the gospel truth.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• United States: 15
• India: 11
• Brazil and Japan: 3
• Mexico and Pakistan: 2
• Australia, Egypt, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Portugal, Russia, South Korea, and Taiwan: 1

This week, 42 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉  Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.

Filed under: Articles, Homepage Feature, News, Statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Top 50 Most Subscribed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/23/2025

What happens when the biggest YouTuber in the world partners with one of America’s most prominent philanthropic organizations?

MrBeast is about to find out.

He and his 501(c)(3) Beast Philanthropy have snagged a rare partnership with the Rockefeller Foundation, which was founded by oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller in 1913. Their shared goal? To lean on each other’s strengths: MrBeast can engage hundreds of millions of viewers (especially young viewers) around the world, and the Foundation has 112 years of experience deploying billions of dollars to make tangible differences in areas like food insecurity, public health, climate change, and workers’ rights.

“I’ve spent my entire life making YouTube videos. They’ve spent their entire lives helping people,” MrBeast (aka Jimmy Donaldson) told The Associated Press. “Obviously, they have a team who’s way more experienced than me in helping people, but being able to pull on their knowledge and wisdom is amazing.”

Meanwhile, Rockefeller Foundation President Dr. Rajiv Shah added that historically, philanthropic organizations have struggled to capture “the hearts and minds of millions of young people.”

But MrBeast is doing that on YouTube. He’s raised millions from viewers (and corporations) with major campaigns like #TeamTrees and #TeamSeas, and gets hundreds of millions of views on videos where he does things like pay for healthcare procedures and build wells and solar infrastructure.

Shah acknowledged those videos (as well as personally meeting Donaldson and his mother) pushed Rockefeller Foundation to work with Beast Philanthropy–a teamup that breaks the foundation’s longtime practice of not doing partnerships with outside organizations or companies. He also pointed to the interaction between Donaldson and his fans.

“What Jimmy’s already done is show that you can change [involvement in charity] dramatically,” Shah said. “If we can get people believing that they can make a difference through this collaboration, we will have achieved something really unique and really special.”

He praised Donaldson’s “personal commitment to philanthropy,” and said he expects that, plus the YouTuber’s notorious obsession with analytics, to pair well with the Rockefeller Foundation’s “results-oriented and science-based” approach to charity.

“We bring innovation, a sense of purpose and a deep commitment to measuring results to those efforts,” Shah said. “And, over time, it’s literally helped hundreds of millions of people escape poverty, hunger and disease. I just think Jimmy, and the enterprise he’s built and the perspective that he brings, is totally consistent with that.”

The Rockefeller Foundation currently distributes funds through hundreds of grants across numerous humanitarian needs. Where Beast Philanthropy will fit into this pipeline isn’t yet clear, but Shah noted to the AP that both the Rockefeller Foundation and Beast Philanthropy have worked on combating child hunger.

They did announce they plan to further Feastables’ fair-trade commitment to fighting child labor in the cacao industry. MrBeast’s chocolate company launched with the intention of using zero child labor and paying farmers a living wage, and with the Rockefeller Foundation, it plans to conduct a case study in Ghana in early 2026.

The orgs say they hope the study will help them “learn from one another’s work in development, community-led change, and global storytelling.”

From Shah’s comments, it’s clear the Rockefeller Foundation is expecting to get a lot out of this partnership, and is looking to Donaldson as its link to younger, more online generations who are outside the demographic (and outside the price range) for dinners, galas, and silent auctions.

Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature, MrBeast by James Hale
Comments Off on The Rockefeller Foundation partners with Beast Philanthropy, hoping to capture “the hearts and minds of millions of young people”

[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by GospelStats. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]

Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart. 👇

This November, KIMPRO has much to be thankful for. The Korean channel is one week away from completing a clean sweep during the 11th month. It has led all our Top 50 charts in November thus far, and it extended that streak by picking up 1.35 billion views during the seven-day period that ended on the 22nd.

KIMPRO is the biggest YouTube channel of the moment, but will its Top 50 streak continue into 2026? Some athletics-themed hubs could shake up the rankings by taking advantage of one of the most significant sporting spectacles we’ve ever witnessed. Here’s what I mean:

World Cup fever is already in full swing. Just look at the Ronaldo mentions.

Next summer, the FIFA World Cup is coming to the United States, Canada, and Mexico. It figures to be a significant tournament for multiple reasons: The men’s field is expanding to 48 teams for the first time, it’s the first World Cup in North America since 1994, and it will likely serve as the swan song for two of the game’s greatest icons: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

For creators and brands, harnessing all of that footballing enthusiasm will be key, and some major players are already putting the ball in play. Sponsors like Nike, Adidas, and Coca-Cola are setting up their campaigns while host cities like Seattle publish playbooks to help local businesses thrive next summer.

On YouTube, one way of celebrating soccer is more popular than any other. Videos about Ronaldo (and, to a lesser extent, Messi) can get millions of views by merely invoking the names of the legendary rivals.

That’s why, during a big week for soccer, Ronaldo-inspired content surged in our rankings. With World Cup qualifying entering its final stage, Ronaldo scoring overhead kick goals for Saudi club Al-Nassr, and Messi leading Inter Miami in the MLS semifinals, viewers are flocking to YouTube Shorts to catch highlights and tributes.

One channel that has benefited from that increased attention is RO vs. SI. As its name implies the channel pays tribute to the 40-year-old Ronaldo and the 38-year-old Messi by ensuring that their respective national team jerseys show up in most videos. The results have been tremendous; RO vs. SI collected 391.2 million weekly views to reach 39th place in our Global Top 50.

Here’s the thing: You don’t have to be a soccer-themed channel to buy into the upcoming World Cup fever. For an example of what I mean, let’s look at the channel in this week’s Global Top 50 that’s repping the homeland of the beautiful game. Speed McQueen‘s primary content categories are skits and sketch comedy, not sports, but the U.K.-based creator knows his audience. That’s why, in a video featuring basic cultural stereotypes, he inserted the one soccer reference as the clip’s thumbnail.

Whether due to his embrace of soccer or not, Speed McQueen is rising fast. The British creator just reached his high-water mark over the past six months by picking up 351 million weekly views. That sum was good enough for a 47th-place finish in the Global Top 50.

Data via Gospel Stats

If you think that strategy is a form of naked pandering, just you wait. Next year, there’s going to be even more videos that shoehorn soccer into the proceedings, whether it fits or not. And like a Ronaldo overhead kick, that tactic will probably be a smashing success.

Channel Distribution

Here’s a breakdown of the Top 50 Most Viewed channels this week in terms of their countries of origin:

• India: 18
• United States: 12
• Australia, Pakistan, and South Korea: 2
• Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Russia, Slovakia, Taiwan, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and Vietnam: 1

This week, 41 channels in the Top 50 are primarily active on YouTube Shorts.

As always, keep up to speed with the latest Tubefilter Charts and all our news by subscribing to our newsletter. You’re going to love it. 👉  Newsletter.Tubefilter.com.

Filed under: Articles, Homepage Feature, News, Statistics, statistics, YouTube, Youtube Chart by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide • Week Of 11/23/2025

Each week, we handpick a selection of stories to give you a snapshot of trends, updates, business moves, and more from around the creator industry.

This week, one creator group is looking back on its storied past, another creator is featured in an unusual present-day pop song, and an internet fad is ready to become the Hollywood hit of the future.

Creator commotion

Smosh arrived on YouTube 20 years ago this week. The iconic channel led by Ian Hecox and Anthony Padilla has had more longevity than any other YouTube hub. To celebrate their bounteous partnership, Hecox and Padilla took part in a Smosh game show and a gala called the Smoscars. Here’s to 20 more years!

SteveWillDoIt is coming down the YouTube chimney on Christmas Eve. Three years after his channel was banned for gambling-related transgressions, SteveWillDoIt is planning a dramatic return to the platform. The Nelk member says he has been “depressed” while his YouTube channel has been inactive, so hopefully giving away one million dollars can clear up that malaise.

Jack Doherty was arrested in Miami. With eight-digit follower counts on platforms like TikTok and YouTube, Doherty is one of the biggest pranksters in the creator world. His recent arrest for possession is the latest big of legal trouble for an internet-famous practical joker.

Pop culture minute

Of course there’s going to be a Labubu movie. Is anyone surprised that the buzzy toy referenced in millions of short-form videos is getting its own film franchise? The Labubu movie is either going to be the biggest thing since A Minecraft Movie or a completely unwatchable slog for parents. Or — dare I say it — both?

Chess.com is increasing its ELO with Super PogChamps. Previous editions of the creator chess tourney were more notable for silly plays than high-level competition. This time, however, Chess.com is rolling out the big guns. Streamer Tyler1 will be a name to watch, as he’s been steadily increasing his ranking. Can he take down an actual factual tournament chess player in the form of Andrea Botez?

MrBeast built a “massive” city for the second season of Beast Games. The creator’s spectacular, controversial Amazon original series will begin its second season on January 7. 200 contestants will be involved, with a mix of brawn and brains featured. Who will come out on top?

Platform headlines

ByteDance achieves $480 billion valuation. A bidding war for a sizable chunk of ByteDance equity drove up the tech company’s price tag, making it one of the world’s most valuable startups. Keep that massive valuation in mind the next time the U.S. government tries to play hardball with TikTok’s deep-pocketed owner.

Nvidia isn’t a gaming company anymore. Remember when the tech giant was best known for selling GPUs and other pieces of gaming hardware? Pepperidge Farm remembers, even if Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang is now saying that his company’s immense AI chip sales have led it away from the gaming world.

This is your brain on Instagram. A study involving 98,299 participants examined the ways that short-form videos affect the brain. Those clips can cause social isolation, sleep problems, anxiety, and loneliness, but at least the dog memes are funny.

The biz

YouTube added €1 billion to the French economy in 2024. The platform’s 2025 YouTube Festival was a celebratory affair, and the release of a France-specific economic impact report was one of the highlights. No wonder the Western European nation’s traditional entertainment companies are so eager to work with creators.

Pop the Balloon or Find Love has become a dating app. After breaking out on YouTube, the romance series has expanded into a multiplatform franchise. I hope the app doesn’t come with popping noises; if it does, everyone swiping at the bar is about to get real loud, real fast.

Agency dealings

Wasserman has big plans for Choyce Brown after signing social media influencer. The daughter of actor Tabitha Brown is one of several celebrity offspring to ink a deal with Wasserman. The agency will give its new charge lots of choyces (sorry) by opening doors for her across fields like acting, events, and branded content.

CAA’s new hire will work at the intersection of journalism and the creator economy. Former CBS News producer Becky Van Dercook will help creators become reporters, and vice versa. Does that mean we’re about to get even more creator-published newsletters to join the ones that are already out there?

The internet is a strange place

A weird song about iJustine went viral on TikTok. The hyperpop artist KIRAAI has an untoward invitation for one of the internet’s biggest tech reviewers, and memers in the short-form world are loving it. I don’t think iJustine is going to fulfill the prophecy of the song that bears her name, though. Maybe KIRAAI should ask Tana Mongeau instead.

TikTok’s talking parrot obsession is making waves in the black market. I understand that parrots are highly intelligent creatures, which makes them great pets for short-form content creators. But if you’re going to buy a parrot, please do so ethically. Can you say ethically, Polly? Brawwk, ethically.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Have you heard? 20 years of Smosh, the Labubu movie, and iJustine hyperpop

If you and your kids are tired of the familiar Christmas specials of yore, pocket.watch is providing something fresh for this year’s holiday season. The creator media company, which is known for its work with some of the biggest family channels on YouTube, has announced a new programming slate for one of its flagship brands. Toys and Colors will be busy this time of year, with a 22-minute holiday special leading the way.

The Toys and Colors special, titled Elf Academy, is a star-studded affair. After teaming up with Sesame Street earlier this year, the Toys and Colors gang is now hanging out with creators like Lana’s Life and members of the San Diego Padres MLB team. In addition to its celebrity cameos, Elf Academy also features a musical number titled ‘Holey Moly Holiday’.

Elf Academy initially launched on November 21 on Ryan and Friends Plus, a streaming hub pocket.watch launched to support another one of its creator partners. Ryan and Friends Plus will also host Toys and Colors Club, an inclusive addition to pocket.watch’s holiday slate. (If you prefer to watch on more familiar platforms, Elf Academy is coming to Hulu on November 27.)

With more than 81 million subscribers on its primary channel, Toys and Colors has become one of the biggest children’s media brands operating on YouTube. It leveled up to a higher viewership tier during the 2023 holiday season, when it became the most-watched YouTube channel of any type. As it sustained those gains throughout much of 2024, pocket.watch increased its investment in the early education franchise.

“Toys and Colors continues to redefine what a modern family franchise can be,” said pocket.watch Chief Content Officer Albie Hecht in a statement. “This holiday slate showcases the brand at full power, premium originals, bighearted storytelling, major talent partnerships, and unforgettable moments for kids and parents to enjoy together.”

For pocket.watch, the holiday season is a pivotal moment. Recent research from Precise TV has shown that three-quarters of children ask their parents to buy something after seeing it in a YouTube ad. Though much of that purchase intent flows through YouTube Shorts, kids have stronger recall on long-form videos — which happen to be Toys and Colors’ specialty.

Through programs like Elf Academy, pocket.watch has the chance to drum up some of that purchase intent. ‘Holey Moley Holiday,’ for example, is one of the tracks on Holiday Hits Snow Day Soundtrack, a seasonal compilation available on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music.

Even for viewers who won’t make any purchases inspired by Elf Academy, the special represents one of the most ambitious projects in the Toys and Colors universe to date. Millions of kids around the world love the bright, cheery YouTube hub, and they’ll get a chance to celebrate it this Christmas.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, pocket.watch by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Creator media company pocket.watch is bringing Toys and Colors home for the holidays

For nearly a decade, Jacksepticeye‘s charity livestream Thankmas has been a creator industry institution. The 24-hour event happens annually, always around the time of winter holidays, and to date has raised almost $30 million for various charities, including Red Nose Day, New Story, Crisis Text Line, and World Central Kitchen.

It’s a prime example of creator (and fan!) generosity, and what can happen when creators use their entrepreneurial skills and platforms for good.

It’s also taking a break this year.

Jacksepticeye (aka Seán McLoughlin) said in a recent stream that he’s not holding a Thankmas 2025 for two reasons: (1) He’s burnt out, and (2) He recognizes that his fans–along with pretty much everyone else–are struggling financially right now.

“There will be no Thankmas this year,” he said. “Settle. Hold for gasp. I know. A lot of you have been waiting around for it, and I was supposed to talk about it earlier, but I got really sick and then stuff got pushed and everything.”

re: being burnt out, McLoughlin explained, “This year was pretty tough physically to get through, and at the end of the year I’m just not in the headspace for it, so I feel like it’s not a good idea to do it, if I’m just doing it for the sake of it. You should be doing charity stuff because you have a vested interest in the charity you’re doing or you just want to rally your community. You shouldn’t be doing charity just for the sake of it.”

He paused for a moment and reconsidered, saying doing charity at all is a “net positive” and that things are more nuanced than just ‘don’t do it if you’re not feeling the vibes.’ But that’s not something he wants to litigate now–and, considering a study from Creators 4 Mental Health just reported 62% of creators are feeling burnout driven by things like unhealthy fan relationships and the rise of generative AI, he’s certainly not alone in needing some downtime.

His main reason for skipping Thankmas, however, is the second one.

“As the year was going on, in terms of, like, we were releasing comic books and we were releasing coffee and things like that, and I don’t do merch or anything anymore either, because as the year was going on I started to notice that people just didn’t have money,” McLoughlin said. “Not just for my stuff, but I’ve seen it all over the internet and all of the world, that people in general have just had a hard year financially.”

He went on to say that he doesn’t “want to get to the end of the year after promoting comic books and coffee and everything and then ask people to give money to a cause when you probably need your money more right now. I think a lot of people are struggling in terms of finances, and I don’t want to ask any more of my community than I need to.”

So, for 2025, “we can just have a breather. We can just sit back, enjoy Christmas for what it is.”

McLoughlin said things are still on for Thankmas 2026, but the stream will likely be in a different format from previous years.

“I was already like, I don’t want to do it live anymore, I don’t want to do it live, in person, in front of an audience, because honestly it costs a lot to run, and a lot of that money should be going into the charity,” he said. “Adding a live audience in front of us didn’t really add to the thing in a meaningful way. At the end of the day, I’m trying to get the most amount of money to a charity instead of it being spent on a stage and a venue and an audience. All of that stuff seemed very superfluous.”

McLoughlin said he hoped the live audience and ‘going bigger’ style of show would draw in more companies and get them to hand over those big corporate dollars for a good cause. But he’s not sure Thankmas has grown to the scale he wanted it to, so he’s figuring out how to slim down the ops costs for next year.

You may remember that, back in 2018, McLoughlin was one of the first YouTubers to talk about the mental strain of the job and how it was affecting him enough that he needed to take a break. We’re glad he’s still talking openly about these issues, and hope he–and other creators–can have some restful time with family over the next couple months.

Filed under: Creator, Homepage Feature by James Hale
Comments Off on No Thankmas 2025: Jacksepticeye says he’s noticed fans’ financial struggles, plus wants to restructure for 2026 event

Each year, the Pew Research Center publishes reports that detail social media platform adoption trends among U.S. consumers. The 2025 edition of that dataset is out now, and it identifies Reddit as one of the year’s biggest social media success stories. The so-called “front page of the internet” is now used by 26% of U.S. adults, and it eclipsed Snapchat to finish sixth in Pew’s ranking of the most-used social platforms.

The most pertinent question in Pew’s annual survey is a simple one: Do you ever use any of the following social media platforms? This year, 5,022 respondents answered that question, and their current habits are mostly the same as they were last year. YouTube‘s market saturation declined slightly to 84%, but the Google-owned hub is still the most commonly used social platform among U.S. adults.

Second-place finisher Facebook (used by 71% of U.S. adults) and #3 entry Instagram (50%) gave Meta two consistent placements in the Pew ranking. TikTok (37%) had the biggest year-over-year increase on the list, but Reddit was the only platform that improved its place compared to last year. Its growing adoption comes as several other platforms attempt to copy its signature threaded comments. Those threads are useful for AI training purposes, so we can expect Reddit to remain relevant as long as the AI bubble doesn’t burst.

But if Pew’s findings are to be believed, the future of social media might be dominated by platforms that can best connect with older Americans. YouTube and Facebook topped the saturation ranking because they reach users over the age of 65. YouTube is used by 64% of respondents in that age group, while Facebook has made inroads with 57% of that cohort. No other listed platform reaches more than 20% of U.S. senior citizens.

Older Americans aren’t just a key demographic for platforms looking to achieve peak saturation. The 65+ cohort also has plenty of disposable income, making it an important group in the context of digital ads. You could argue, for example, that increasing adoption of podcasts among consumers over the age of 55 has catalyzed the podcast boom that endures to this day.

So if you want your brand’s content to work as hard as possible online, then make sure it can connect with America’s senior citizens. Here’s a hint: The old fogeys among us like to watch on TV screens, so if you want to reach them, that’s the place to do it.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, Pew Research Center, statistics by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on Reddit surges as generation gaps persist in annual survey of U.S. social media preferences

In a time where people in all sorts of professions are looking for reassurance that generative AI won’t take their jobs, OpusClip is holding a competition that pits human video editors against its AI tool Agent Opus to see whether the people who polish millions of hours of digital video each day could be replaced by machines…or if the two should work together.

“Are AI video agents just a hype, or a new standard for creators?” the competition asks viewers. “We are hosting a LIVE showdown so you can judge the real outputs of AI video agents vs. human editors. No cherry-picked demos.”

The 60-minute competition will take place Dec. 2, and will pit two teams of two people against one another. Each team will consist of one professional human editor using manual software, and one non-pro editor using Agent Opus, a tool OpusClip launched in August that it says can complete tasks normally performed by human video editors, scriptwriters, researchers, voice actors, motion designers, storyboard artists, and hook designers.

According to OpusClip, Agent Opus “turns the entire web into your personal visual library, finding real-time social posts, news headlines, video clips, and other real world assets to match your story.”

With that in mind, the competition will give each pair of editors a prompt–for example, asking them to turn a news or entertainment headline into a fleshed-out video ready for posting on TikTok, YouTube, etc.

The goal is “highlighting where AI shines, where it falls short, and why human creativity still matters most,” Ivan Slavitt, Creator Partnerships Manager at OpusClip, explains.

Competitors include pros Daniel Batal and Sebastian Jefferies, and non-pros Ruben Hassid and Daan Kieft.

All editors will have 60 minutes to complete their work; at the end of that period, their completed videos will be screened on the competition livestream, hosted on OpusClip’s YouTube channel and X account. The overall winner–human or AI–will be selected by a panel of expert judges including former YouTube/Instagram employee turned creator interviewer Jon Youshaei, editor/YouTuber Hayden Hillier-Smith, and Kelsey Brannan, creator of editor education platform Premiere Gal.

There will also be a People’s Choice vote with a winner selected by the viewers (one of whom will win $5,000 for participating, OpusClip says).

In addition to pitting human editors against Agent Opus, the competition will pit Agent Opus against other gen AI editing tools like Invideo, HeyGen, and Captions AI. Those tools will be given the same prompt as the human editors, and output will be judged against Agent Opus’ with the goal of showing that “Agent Opus is not hype, but a new standard for creators,” OpusClip says.

“Regardless of the results, human creators win,” it adds. “Human creators are going to be accelerated by Agent Opus.”

The competition kicks off at 9 a.m. PST Dec. 2. Check it out on OpusClip’s socials, and if you’re interested in using Agent Opus, you can join the waitlist here.

Filed under: Homepage Feature, OpusClip by Tubefilter Staff
Comments Off on OpusClip is asking: Will AI replace creators?

Early-stage capital firm Slow Ventures has invested $1.1 million in physiotherapist/creator Tayla Cannon and her app Rebuildr.

The investment is part of a $60 million fund Slow Ventures announced earlier this year, with the goal of “directly backing creators with ambitions to build companies tailor-made for their passionate communities.”

Slow Ventures specifically said it was looking for creators in “high value verticals”–and health & wellness is certainly one of them.

Cannon, whose chronic back pain inspired her to start working in physiotherapy, gathered nearly 140,000 followers on Instagram with posts about her “proactive” and “holistic” approach to building (and rebuilding) bodies–an approach she told TechCrunch is different from the “localized, reactive, and volume-based nature” of modern physical therapy.

At the same time, she branded herself as a “virtual physiotherapist” who takes long-term appointments from people suffering with chronic pain or recovering from injuries.

After building that digital side of her business, she decided to share her methods on Rebuildr, a HIPAA-compliant mentorship app where she’ll instruct other physical therapy professionals on how to run an online practice in their field.

“I wasn’t trying to build a business; I was just putting my brain on the internet and helping people rethink what care could look like,” she told TechCrunch.

But Slow Ventures saw a business; Cannon said she was introduced to the firm through a friend, and met with Slow Ventures’ investor Megan Lightcap.

“The conversation sparked something,” she said, noting that the $1.1 million seed round investment has allowed her to “imagine a version of Rebuilder that’s even bigger” than she originally planned.

She explained Rebuildr will help newly digital physiotherapists cover some of the gaps in knowledge she herself experienced, like a lack of understanding in nitty-gritty business running, consumer acumen, and content strategy, “None of which are taught in healthcare.”

Ultimately, with Rebuildr, “I want to make high-quality rehab accessible anywhere in the world, not limited by geography, insurance, or 30-minute appointments,” she said.

The app is slated to launch early next year. As for where else Slow Ventures is putting its money, it also invested in BookTube star John Fish and woodworker Jonathan Katz-Moses, and recently led a funding round for Diary of a CEO creator/host Steven Barlett that valued the podcaster at $425 million.

Filed under: Homepage Feature by James Hale
Comments Off on Slow Ventures invests $1.1 million in physiotherapist Instagrammer Tayla Cannon’s mentorship app

On March 7, 2006, NBC pulled the sitcom Joey from the airwaves due to low ratings. That decision came in the middle of the Friends spinoff’s second season, leaving eight finished episodes unaired — until now.

On the official Friends YouTube channel, Joey Tribbiani’s many admirers can now say “how you doin'” to Joey‘s final eight installments. The decision to make the unaired eps available for free online is a fascinating expansion of a distribution strategy that is becoming more common for TV rights holders as they hunt for new windows to pair with old IP.

The episodes of Joey that did air on NBC arrived on YouTube earlier this year. That move was representative of a broader trend among rights holders, many of whom are looking to account for contemporary entertainment trends like declining TV viewership, the rise of streaming, and the ubiquity of content piracy.

Thanks to YouTube’s potential as a long-tail distribution window, it has hosted free-to-watch versions of several shows and movies that first premiered through linear TV channels, movie theaters or subscription-based streaming services. In addition to Joey, two other examples of that phenomenon involved the first season of the Disney+ hit Andor and more than 30 movies from the Warner Bros. catalog.

Releasing previously unaired episodes — as well as standalone clips from those episodes — puts a new twist on that distribution tactic. The move shows that distributors recognize YouTube’s potential as a hub for Hollywood content. Consumers certainly feel that way, and they’re spending more time on YouTube every year, much to the chagrin of cable providers and theater chains.

Friends fans who were left in the lurch in 2006 can now witness the conclusion of Joey Tribbiani’s story, and many of them are grateful for that opportunity. “I hope Matt Le Blanc and the rest of the cast read the comments on this channel someday and realise that, contrary to public opinion, there was a community that absolutely adored this TV Show,” reads a highly-liked comment on one of the Joey YouTube uploads.

If YouTube can be used to foster appreciation for bygone shows, maybe it can revive them, too. There are no known plans for a third season of Joey, but if Matt LeBlanc ever reprises his signature character, there’s a good chance those episodes would eventually make it to YouTube.

Filed under: Articles, Featured, Homepage Feature, News, YouTube by Sam Gutelle
Comments Off on TV distributors turned YouTube into a home for reruns. Now it’s hosting unaired episodes, too.