Mr Beast: Beyond the Screen
The youtuber that everyone aspires to be, surpassing over 300 million subscribers, known worldwide as a charitable and challenging, his brand expanding every minute with products such as ‘Feastables’ and ‘Lunchables’. However, is there a more ominous side to this seemingly heroic figure? It’s no secret that the internet can be a dangerous and uncertain place, so where exactly does ‘MrBeast’ fit into this and exactly how far can his power take him…
Jimmy Donaldson a.k.a MrBeast was born on May 7th 1998 in Greenville, North Carolina. He had an early interest in YouTube, creating his first channel at 13 years old under the name ‘MrBeast6000’. His big break came in 2017 with a video titled ‘I Gave My Friend $100000’, this went viral, racking up millions of views and launching him into YouTube fame. Another one of his most popular videos is when he buried himself alive for 50 hours- one of the many jaw dropping challenges he puts on himself and others for the purpose of entertainment. He now has 335 MILLION subscribers on his main YouTube channel alone (MrBeast) out of 6; MrBeast, MrBeast 2, Beast Reacts, MrBeast Shorts, Beast Philanthropy and MrBeast Gaming. His success has proven to be unusual and incredibly rare as very few get to that insane level of social media fame. So what does he do with it?
To put it simply, he uses the masses of money he receives to benefit others. This includes his giveaways of cars, houses and even islands!!! He has also donated millions of dollars to charities such as the Arbor Day Foundation and St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. He has travelled across the globe, showing a genuine desire to help people whilst encouraging his viewers to do the same. He has had a significant impact on YouTube and popular culture and is one of the most important and influential people on the app currently. He has also appeared to become a successful businessmen with his merchandise line and meal delivery services, all his endeavours involving a team of his friends and collaborators, known as Team Beast.
Now, whilst his apparent intentions are seemingly meaningful and beneficial to our world, there is a depth of controversy with himself and ex/current members on the team facing countless allegations including claims of racist and sexist remarks. Oh – and a 54 paged lawsuit (I will definitely NOT be covering that here). As his fame rises, we can only assume that the challenges will too as he is being criticised for his irresponsible spending habits and exploitation of others for the entertainment of his viewers.
Another thing to mention is the sheer scale of how he presents his videos. Sometimes, eerily reminding me of the terrifying Netflix show Black Mirror. This was especially prevalent to me after I watched his most viewed video, ‘$456,000 Squid Game In Real Life’, based off of a Netflix hit series about a deadly competition to win a huge cash prize. He also has an upcoming reality competition television series called ‘Beast Games’, in which contestants will be competing for the largest prize money in television history. 5. Million. Dollars.
Absolutely insane and weirdly dystopian (ish).
Whilst all of his activities and challenges appear light-hearted and fun, there is an underlying element of the fact that fame, money and power can seriously affect a person and we have already seen the ethical issues unravel as well as the fact that he and his colleagues are now facing challenges of their own in court. This highlights the fact that you really cannot trust everyone you see on the internet, even if in hindsight nothing is flagged as being a potential danger or in this case… someone.
We can only watch and anticipate as his channel continues to grow and there is definitely still a lot more growth to come for MrBeast, regardless of good or bad, right and wrong. This begs the question, where is he actually taking his career and how far is he going to go? For now, we can only appreciate his contributions to the world whilst seeing if we can actually uncover what’s entertainment and what’s actually going on behind the scenes.
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