So a little while back, YouTube dude @cr1tikal posted a video called Finger Family Mystery. In it, he details a strange. sprawling assortment of videos littered all over YouTube, each with millions of hits, almost zero comments, and always featuring a benign children’s nursery rhyme.
As it turns out, he’s right; a quick search of “Finger Family” nets you nothing but hundreds of these videos. Why do they exist? I decided to probe. Watching one of the videos didn’t enlighten me, but then I had the radical idea of watching the videos on Internet Explorer, where I don’t have AdBlock.
Shock and terror: all of the videos are monetized. Suddenly, the sky opens up and the truth is clear. These videos aren’t being made to be watched. They’re being made to generate money.
Remember how YouTube’s copyright and monetization system works? It’s a combination of the ads and the total minutes watched. The Finger Family videos vary; the smaller ones are only about a minute and a half long, the longer ones are up to 90 minutes, and in the middle they range from 15-30 minutes.
Now, copyright. The nursery rhyme “The Finger Family” is public domain, so anyone’s free to stick in a book of nursery rhymes and sell it. There are copyright characters all over these videos, sure, but none of the original material is being used; it’s all half-baked animations cobbled together using familiar faces. It’s pissing on the face of copyright law. And assuming these videos are being churned out by some Chinese company (where copyright laws are FAR more lenient), this could very well not have any copyright hurdles to start with.
But who’s watching the videos? No human being. Most likely, it’s a bunch of computers set up to watch these videos, click an ad, reload the page, and so on. Who’s making the videos? Again, not a person. The content’s being generated by automated systems that grab premade assets and familiar characters and automatically generate a video.
This is all speculation, of course. I could be entirely wrong. There could be a Finger Family Cult hidden beneath the crust of the Earth, and watching these videos is part of a daily ritual. But as that seems unlikely…
TL;DR: These videos are being automatically generated and watched so that whoever owns the videos can make a ton of money off of ad clicks and views.
“if u like him why dont u just go talk to him!!!! have u been hurt in the past!! are u scared of putting urself out there!!!!!” no b icth im ugly leave me alon e
“If you get an [arousal], why don’t you just go talk to [insert person]? Have you been hurt in the past? Are you scared of putting yourself out there?”
“Nah.”
“I’m antisocial, introverted, and have a poor self image of myself.”
don’t u dare translate my text posts only a select few will understand them it’s called survival of the fittest
No this is how we spread the improper use of grammar, punctuation, and use of a space bar. That isn’t survival of the fittest, it’s just advertising that what you have to say isn’t important enough for you to say it right, so why did I even bother reading it if you don’t even care that much.
listen, i didn’t decide to be ugly just to log onto tumblr dot com and have ur rata tootie ass tell me what 2 do. i once fought MULTIPLE MALE models at chuck e cheese SIMULTANEOUSLY, lost, and cried VERY hard 2 my landlord martha on the phone so don’t u DARE come at me about spelling
I don’t think you have ever done any of that. I’m so tired of this generation feeling like they need to make things up to get attention. Go outside, change the world instead of trying to get followers on a blog site. I hope you learn to be more mature when faced with criticism in the future. :/
nice try kristen,, i may be on tumble but dont u ever think for a seconf that i;m not thinking about thos beans
i love this internet hellhole for one reason only: artists actually have a chance.
for a really long time, what was “good art” was determined by a very select few people. i’ll leave it up to you to determine what sort of people, and whether or not they were right.
but the internet changed that. books don’t need to pass through endless hoops to be published (you need an agent to get published, but you need to be published to have an agent). artists who can’t afford art school can learn through tutorials online, can sell their product on a mass market without a gallery. singers can make money for their covers of popular songs. music doesn’t have to be owned by suspiciously dark corporations before it becomes lucrative. and suddenly: here’s this wave of people who are given the chance to publish themselves to a wide audience. regardless of background. “good art” suddenly isn’t up to a select few people. it’s up to us. and it’s beautiful how much art has changed in response.
and i hear a lot of people say “oh well so much of it is bad” but to be honest with you? i love seeing someone’s bad work. i love seeing them start their journey. i love watching them discover their own style, learn technique, explore their new hobby. i love watching them blossom as an artist. there will absolutely be people who try to stop you when you’re just learning, because the more competition we have, the harder we have to work. but honestly?
one day i hope i’m working my ass off to catch up with you. i can’t wait to see you out there, buddy. good luck to both of us.
