The rise and fall of StudyTube: hustle culture and TikTok consumerism
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Go to betterhelp.com/accordingtoalina for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help #advert
In 2018, Sutdytube was one of the fastest-growing niches on CZcams. A year later, creators like Ruby Granger, Jack Edwards and Jade Bowler were making national headlines which hailed them as beacons of hope for students hoping to improve their grades everywhere. Fast forward to the pandemic years and the popularity of 'study with me' videos reached a popularity that none of the teens posting study tip videos in 2015 could have imagined.
But with the study with me boom came increasingly extreme content, chief among them, the real-time 12-hour study with me stream.
Elsewhere on StudyTok, the TikTok studying niche, "study inspiration" videos began raking in millions of views, despite offering little to no actual advice, but rather functioning as cute and aesthetic vehicles for the consumption of stationery and studying gadgets.
In this video, I trace the history of the online study community, from its beginnings to its hustle culture-fuelled peak and its current consumer trend-based form.
timestamps
00:00 - intro
00:43 - what is studytube?
1:48 - studytube and hustle culture
4:55 - the origins of the online studying community
6:09 - first gen studytube: the relatable study buddy
8:17 - second gen studytube: the 12-hour work day
11:04 - when the criticism goes too far
12:25 - studytube and mindfulness
14:25 - the importance of "how to study" content
15:59 - studytok and overconsumption
videos referenced:
Alice Cappelle: study with me videos have gone too far... (hustle culture and studytube)
• *study with me* videos...
Tiffany Ferg: The Impossible Standards of College Admissions
• The Impossible Standar...
The Workload of College is Overwhelming
• The Workload of Colleg...
EllisJ: The Problem with James Scholz and Study With Me CZcams
• The Problem with James...
Mariana Vieira: the studytube community + consumerism // an honest conversation
• the studytube communit...
Studytubers mentioned (in no particular order - also keep in mind some of them no longer make study content):
Jack Edwards, Ruby Granger, UnJaded Jade, James Scholz, Study with Merve.
Articles and resources mentioned:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StudyTube
inews.co.uk/news/education/st...
www.vice.com/en/article/7k9qv...
www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-494...
theorbital.co.uk/studytube-he...
thestray.org/2021/04/02/im-so...
studybreaks.com/tvfilm/studyt...
www.trillmag.com/life/social-...
www.theguardian.com/education...
glasgowguardian.co.uk/2020/12...
the song used in the intro is William Tell Overture (by Rossini)
Licence: CZcams Audio Library
As always, thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next one xx
#studytube #studytok #commentary - Zábava
Go to betterhelp.com/accordingtoalina for 10% off your first month of therapy with BetterHelp and get matched with a therapist who will listen and help. Thank you for watching xx
PSA to anyone considering using this code: please look into recent controversies and exposés of BetterHelp. These include privacy issues, concerningly negative user experiences, and unqualified therapists.
Hi!! uhh if you did a little research, betterhelp is a TERRIBLE AWFUL company !! please look it up, theres so many accounts of it being terrible, your advertising a terrible and detrimental service. I love this video though, keep it up! no hate to you, get your bag
I don't watch your channel but I've been recommended a LOT of your videos and this happened to be the first one that I decided to watch. To me, you lost all credibility when you said this was sponsored by BetterHelp. Not only are they a shitty company, but they released private health information about MILLIONS of their customers to advertisers such as Facebook and Snapchat. In the US, we have a law referred to as HIPAA that basically means that a patient’s information is protected from anyone but the patient and whoever they authorize access to said information. BetterHelp SEVERELY violated that law so much so that they were sued by the FTC for it. I get that as a small creator, sponsorships may be super hard to come by, but as a commentary CZcamsr, you really should be looking into the company that is offering a sponsorship before accepting it.
You make great videos, but Betterhelp is a horrible agency. Please reconsider in the future.
Thanks for deleting my comment. Thankfully, I wrote it in my notes app before posting it here. So here it is again:
I don't watch your channel but I've been recommended a LOT of your videos and this happened to be the first one that I decided to watch. To me, you lost all credibility when you said this was sponsored by BetterHelp. Not only are they a shitty company, but they released private health information about MILLIONS of their customers to advertisers such as Facebook and Snapchat. In the US, we have a law referred to as HIPAA that basically means that a patient’s information is protected from anyone but the patient and whoever they authorize access to said information. BetterHelp SEVERELY violated that law so much so that they were sued by the FTC for it. I get that as a small creator, sponsorships are super hard to come by, but as a commentary CZcamsr, you really should be looking into the company that is offering a sponsorship before accepting it.
please do research into sponsorships you take in the future 🙏 happy for you to get a sponsor but betterhelp is really not something you should be supporting
Why is that? It seems like everyone is sponsored by betterhelp these days..
I'm about to go do some searching myself but thought it would be useful to see more info in the comments
@@StochasticGreenTake my words with a grain of salt as I don't have the best recalling, but one of the issues of Betterhelp is the fact their therapists are often not even licensed. At least that was the problem when I started hearing about their controversy.
Hello clinician here! In July of last year (2023) BetterHelp was ordered by the FTC to stop selling information from clients’ intake forms (which are considered personal health information aka PHI) to advertisers. Therapists and counselors can only do this intimate, personal work with people when they know their privacy is being protected, so confidentiality is one of the things we value and prioritize. The selling of clients’ PHI for advertising is unethical and goes against our core values because it undermines the trusting relationship we have to build with clients in order to help people. There are also concerns about therapist quality, because BetterHelp tends to target newer clinicians fresh out of school and pay them at awfully low rates, so quality of services provided can also be a huge concern, but that’s not my area of expertise and you can find more horror stories on YT and other social media platform. But in a nutshell, that’s why BetterHelp actually sucks!
Yeah Im so tired of seeing respectable people be sponsored by them ugh
...and an interesting thing is that Ruby changed her outro from "I hope you have a productive week" to "I hope you have MORE than just a productive week," so even she is pulling away from hustling and worrying about productivity as much.
Aaah I didn’t notice that! Wish I had included it in the section about og studytubers moving away from the hustle culture of it all
For me, the "fall" of this whole genre (or however you want to call it) is, that the early study tubers are now at an age when you expect people to get a job and think about their career. The person who was once very relatable just isn't anymore because "gap years", vacations for months, living comfortably and rent free in the parents house ... just isn't the reality for a lot of people. A lot of people need a job and a place to live when they come out of university.
One might start to wonder what the point of all the hustle was when the degree that was earned in 12 hour study sessions isn't put to use but instead the person just continues to live a student lifestyle.
This is very interesting. I think that so far Jack Edwards is the only person I can think of who has made a seamless transition (from studytube to booktube). His whole content journey makes perfect sense to me. Same with Vee Kativhu (I don’t really mention her in this video). But it’s still early days. I understand how it could be confusing/ unsatisfying to go from making 100s of thousands of pounds from content about school to applying the knowledge acquired for maybe half the income in a normal job…
@@accordingtoalina Jack is more transitioning towards your typical influencer livestyle with constant traveling, fashion shows and other supposedly "glamorous" type of activities ... interrupted by videos that involve books. I'm sure that's more appealing and pays better than the master degree he had originally planned or the hard work it takes to get his book published. I can see why someone would fall for this. Instant gratification is more fun than hard work with a potential pay off somewhere down the line. It will be interesting to see where people like him will be in 5 years.
It could also be burnout and the inner part of them now rebelling against that since they overworked themselves. That's what happened to me in some ways just with work instead of school.
I really like @PaigeY for that. She had nice and honest vlogs from uni and then applied for a job and started making job vlogs which are mixed with fun activities, holidays and going out with friends and family. Feels realistic. Plus we're the same age so I kind of went on this journey with her 🤗
@@Aigra I've been trying to find out why I don't really love his videos now as a long term subscriber and this is exactly it!!
And I also miss when he would just go crazy over reading bad books. Now it's just normal booktube content
What annoys me the most about studytubers is this obsession with Big Name universities. Even if people like Ruby Granger talk about their rejection by their dream university, you can still see the unspoken assumption that studying at Oxford is something to strife for at all cost, even if Oxford is not the right place for what you’re interested in (I always think of Jack Edwards who said discovered that Durham was better for his major than Oxford).
Honestly, these peeps forget that Oxford, Cambridge and the like are still work places full of real people who have their flaws and talents. Prestige is an illusion (the original Latin word actually has this meaning!). The best kind of research is not found within the walls of Big Names Schools. It is found in the network of hard-working people all over the world (think about the race to produce a vaccine in 2020-2021). Pretending that all valuable knowledge is in one place is like never leaving a village while revelling in the glory of your own ignorance.
We don't really have "prestiges" universities where I live and it's so insteresting to see how people from small town universities publish papers with scientists of universities like Oxford and the like because it really proofs that these institutions don't offer much that can't be found in other places (for a lot less money and mental strain)
Ruby Granger is at Oxford currently (and vlogging about it).
I agree with this to some extent. As I said in a reply to another commenter, my experience at Oxford was great, but not entirely dissimilar to any other university experience. I was still working loads and having ups and downs as I'd had at other times in my life. Except now when people heard the name of the university I went to, I was suddenly more interesting to them lol
But let's be honest I am sure that the name of the university you went can have an impact for future employers
Alina, I am not sure if I can follow. Could you tell what you are not agreeing on?
I used to consume study content out of desperation and while struggling, cut to the final year of my masters and I get an ADHD and dyslexia diagnosis. Now I see how little this content takes neurodivergence and mental health into account while prioritising aesthetics, consumerism and external validation of results not individual development. It defiantly made me feel bad about myself for not being able to do these things, or panicked that I didn’t and that my habits/style was terrible.
sorry to hear about your diagnoses! my work process is also all over the place, no matter how hard I try to be systematic and organised and I'm not even neurodivergent, so I can't imagine what it must be like for you. I agree that there isn't a lot of diversity in that sense - I've seen some videos with study tips specifically for people with adhd here and there, but as you can imagine they don't have nearly the same amount of views as traditional ones
oooh i know!! i was diagnosed with adhd in my final year of highschool and for the entirety of highschool i consumed this studytube media and i felt horrible because i "wasnt motivated enough" to study like the people that posted that stuff, to the point where it significantly impacted my mental health and almost made me have a breakdown a month before college admission exams started. i wish neurodivergency was taken more into account in this type of media.
Depression was kicking my ahhhh after I had lost all my friends right before going to back to school, which is how I first found this content to feel less alone and to stay motivated and encouraged until I started comparing myself to them, not just from how much more productive they were than me but that they were also able to have friends and hang out and have a side hustle while I was struggling to get out of bed and log into my online classes
Literally
Diagnosed ADHD as well that just finished my degree.
It was definitely disheartening to never live up to the ideal vision of the perfect student that could study without much difficulty.
When all the successful students are telling you to just follow the straight line, when your brain is constantly rattling and swerving, it becomes frustrating to see the disconnect for ND people.
When my A-level exams drew near, I remember watching the "study with me" streams, and I'd usually study for four to eight hours per day on average. I almost saw it as a challenge to try and study for as long as they were, as I thought it would make me more productive, and that working harder would give me better results. But this kind of hustle culture personally only led to complete and utter burnout for me which took many months to reverse. In the end, I achieved the grades I needed, but it was at the expense of my health.
That's so true. I remember studying for my exams and not always hitting that 8 hour mark, thinking that I wasn't doing well if I didn't. Even though it would've helped for me to study around 2 hours consistently each day rather than studying 8 hours one day and getting burnt out after. Really unfortunate about your health, hope you're healing!
Hope you’re resting and recovering! Nothing is more important than your health, take it from a chronically ill person. Sending you love c
@@iwashere583 This! Shorter periods of study would have been far more beneficial because I would have been able to recall the information more easily. I'm pleased to say that my health has improved significantly, and that period of burnout caused me to rethink whether I wanted to pursue higher education at all - was I doing it because I wanted to, or because it seemed like the only respectable option available at the time? I took a gap year to get my health back under control and discovered that there's so much more to life than a grade on a piece of paper, and that university may not be the greatest fit for me. I enjoy learning and am passionate about it, but university is not the only option, and while I am extremely proud of the grades I received, I am happier living without constantly chasing academic validation and instead focusing on helping myself and those in my community who also need it. My family questioned why I didn't go to university in the end, but ultimately I'm sure they'd rather I was alive and happy than be dead with good grades!
@@accordingtoalina thank you :)
That's kinda insane, I didn't know ppl over did it like that. For me "study with me" videos were just used as a body double for executive dysfunction issues. I also would listen to the videos that said never to cram before an exam and about adding other factors between studying and how to study effectively. Idk why ppl would think studying for 8 hrs was okay. I only ever did the 1 hr one and that was a lot for me. Anyways my point is anything to the extreme is bad but those videos were helpful if you didn't overdo it.
If it wasn’t for studytube and “Study With Me” videos I would not have my degree.
Same 😭
The thing I’d be the most concerned about is the post-graduation adjustment. It not so much the emotional“hole in your heart” thing, but how having such a high standard of work ethic outside of Academia is not great in a workplace.
I was a hyper-motivated student, but now I’m an adult. No one in a workplace wants to deal with the person who goes above and beyond because most working people are really just trying to pay rent.
Such an interesting angle to look at it from. In my experience the one downside of being the hardest worker in a professional environment is that good work gets rewarded with more work - but not always the kind that challenges you, in fact most of the time it’s the boring, death of creativity kind
19:48 THAT is so true and so important. That is why I stopped watching those videos. It gave me an urge to be productive but seeing how most of those vloggers only showed their perfect side and pretty stationery as well as expensive apple devices, it just made me feel bad in the end. It is difficult not to compare ourselves with the people in those videos and think that we need those things to be successful and worth a good grade.
sorry to hear you felt like that. You don't need physical objects to be smart or interesting, I promise you x
I started turning to "read with me" and "study with me" videos after the pandemic. I especially enjoy the ones that don't have any music in the background and just have the regular noise of pens clacking or keyboard typing because that's just what I was used to. I've never been one to socialize with others at school to begin with, but I found that studying by myself in my room with no other noise around me is actually kind of lonely and the silence is distracting in its own way. Even now I still do my schooling online just as I did during the pandemic, so I'm constantly playing those "[activity] with me" videos while I'm doing other things just to have some semblance of human connection in a non-distracting way.
I understand how these videos can be a source of companionship for a lot of people and I hope my video isn’t dismissive of that. I think a lot of us turn to our favourite creators in any niche for company - see for example the idea of “comfort shows” or “comfort content”. And in that respect, I don’t think it’s bad to have these videos playing in the background. It’s fine if you put on the 12 hour study with me and then turn it off after 3 hours when you don’t feel like working anymore. The problem starts when you feel like you *have to* do work for the whole 12 hours
I liked watching studytube before uni while I was studying for my exams. But weirdly there wasn’t that much to learn in uni at least in my major. That esthetic was too different from my uni experience
Yes, well aesthetic is a good word for a lot of the content in this category isn’t it. It’s not really about reality but the ideal student
I make study with me content because if I film myself studying on my phone I can't play with my phone and get distracted haha. But in seriousness I agree with your points. Some of these videos really make you think you need every product they recommend or use to succeed, and if you didn't get into an Ivy League school your life is a failure. And they target an audience at that pivotal moment in life, those who are desperate to succeed. I graduated with honors with a Math degree from a no name college in the US, using pens I found on classroom floors or borrowed from friends, the same calculator I received in 9th grade (not even a graphing one!), and cheap notebooks I would reuse semester after semester, and here I am with a great job, financially stable, by my terms successful and loving life. It all looks pretty online, but I can guarantee you can succeed without the aesthetic.
So nice to get a creator’s perspective. And congrats on all your success!!
I am the first in my family to visit university and I started my first semester in 2020. So I kind of relied on studytube, since I didn't really have the opportunity to socialise with peers or my teachers. And the creators mentioned in this video helped me immensely.
After a while I caught myself watching these videos religiously whenever I was feeling unmotivated or lost in hope for an answer. Instead of solutions to my problems, I noticed the increasing focus on consumption, the portrayal of unrealistic standards and the lack of original ideas. As studytube became increasingly popular, it got quite washed out. In the end, education and the process of studying is different for everyone.
congratulations on getting into uni! I can relate to watching this type of content for a sense of companionship, so I'm glad to hear you didn't get sucked into it and managed to take it with a grain of salt
I have been following studytube (and blr/gram) since the very beginning and I noticed the shift in content a lot. I live in a western country that has a school and especially university experience very different from the UK/USA one (we don't have uni campuses, our degrees do not require essays etc) and I mainly watched the videos because I loved the community. Both the OG British ones (Ruby, Jack, Jade; Lydia and others who aren't active anymore) and the OG USA ones (tbhstudying, studyquill, studyign etc) while their content was very different, with the British being more vloggish and the USA being more flatlay, were great, had an amazing community, that at the time wasn't very big at all, and it truly felt like a big friendship group of people that were like you and that could keep you company while you were studying or taking a break at it. I feel like not every single one of them had a nice transition from school/uni to post life but I still follow some of them because of their personality. I never liked the second wave of studytube because it really felt less genuine to me, the hussle culture way more prominent in them. People like Ruby have always studied a lot (I remember the 12-13 hours long study vlogs) but she has also always been very open about the fact she loves learning and reading more than anything else, so it still felt genuine to me and not a way to tell the viewers to act like her and study those insane amount of hours (for most people).
I never really cared about the prestigious university thing because it's not really a thing in my country, I just love watching the footage of those beautiful libraries and places, it gives me more motivation to study for my degree and makes me feel like a dark academia character, which isn't bad if the result is getting me good grades.
I think there’s definitely a place for this type of content out there!! I definitely used to watch a lot of it both to understand what to expect from university in the UK and for entertainment/company, so I get you! As long as you look after yourself x
I'm older enough than these people that I will volunteer to be the Negative Nancy and tell them to stop studying so hard 😂 go outside and play, kids!! You need breaks to help the concepts stick anyway; after a while your brain gets tired and can't retain information anymore. Playtime and rest are just as important to being a good student as study sessions. Trust me, I have two degrees and I forgot that part and unfortunately had a menty b after my master's degree. Learn from my mistakes.
So true
It's also not great for your physical health to sit in a chair for most of the day. Go for a walk, get some stretches in, your body will thank you later.
sorry to hear about the menty b :(
@@accordingtoalina thanks 🩷 I'm doing a lot better now!! It was back in 2018 so I've had a lot of time to recover.
I was into tumblr's studyblr niche near the end of high school in 2014 and 2015. The lifestyle aspect was strong enough then that I was still in the habit of finding good lighting during meals and neatly arranging class materials all the way into my third year of college. I went to an art school, so I was pretty separated from the academic side of study communities, but I still had these habits.
I think romanticizing academics and classwork is only fun until you actually have to find a job. I personally realized that my pride in my academics didn't mean anything in the real world, and especially not to any of my creative peers. I still enjoy academic learning, analytical writing, and have a lot of motivation to work hard. But after graduation it feels arrogant and delusional to insist that those things make me any more intelligent, competent, or accomplished than other people who just don't care about that stuff.
Yes to all of this! There are aspects of this content that place so much emphasis on perfection, harmony, tidiness and real life is rarely this orderly, so the transition into post education life will inevitably ne disappointing
I appreciate this not being an hour long
after a lifetime of teachers telling me to elaborate in my essays, I'm happy someone appreciates the conciseness lol
Nice video! I feel like this has been happening a lot lately where communities online become marketable and then content becomes harmful and goes downhill quickly. I've loved Ruby Granger's and Jade Bowler's content for years because it didn't felt like they were trying to promote a certain aesthetic, but instead were focused on spreading their love of learning because education is a valuable thing that not everyone has access too. I have never seen someone who genuinely loves learning as much as Ruby and THAT is what inspires me.
agreed! I think everyone I mentioned from that era of studytube had a very wholesome vibe about them - and still do
I didn't enjoy my experience at uni nor did I develop the discipline to study for hours like studytube (which I suspect has something to do with undiagnosed ADHD), but I loved watching studytube during my uni days for inspiration. As a stationery enthusiast, buying stationery did wonders for motivation and having a "study buddy" streamer/study with me video helped me get into the zone (sometimes). However, I also had the self-awareness to realize that no, my notes won't ever be as aesthetically pleasing as others, and I didn't really need to buy everything that was advertised on screen (not that I had the funds to buy everything anyways). At some point, I realized how detrimental it was to compare myself to others online and that eased that burden of having self-doubt along with my insecurities about productivity. Since graduating, I stopped consuming studytube and I think it's for the best tbh
Good to hear you look at it critically now. Productivity content can easily turn into fuel for comparison and insecurity in ways that you don’t even notice until it’s too late
I wasn't aware this was a thing and I'm surprised. I personally can't buckle down and focus unless it's the most extreme of occasions, but I've still managed to find some success in ecology and it looks like I'll be attending a nice, well-funded program for grad school. I hope younger people don't take this as an external cue that you must be perfect to get ahead. I am unfocused, in the middle of four books simultaneously about wildly varying ecological concepts, and have always put together my talks and manuscripts at the last possible second. However, passion and loving the life you are building is just as valuable as doing the hard work. People are imperfect and I personally don't want to work for an organization that expects perfection out of me.
this is so nice to hear, congratulations to you and thanks for sharing x
I just wanted to say that I'm glad that you pointed out the usefulness of study videos for those of us who have no older siblings or any other sources of help, because many of us just have to learn how to study and it sucks that they never teach us this at school early on, I left school at around the seventh grade for homeschool and was therefore in a situation that meant i was my only teacher and so study videos on how to study and memorize as well as video lectures on youtube that gained popularity around the 2020 were indeed a great help to me.
I would say that CZcams is a great place to learn in comparison to that of tiktok or its equivalents (reels), but at the same time it really depends on the type of content it is that you consume and the way that you use the information you've gotten. In the case of study with me videos i used to need them for accountability as well to beat the loneliness but now i can just set my own timers and study for as long as i want, I think that no matter how long some people make study with me videos for we must figure out our own capacity and study for that long, remembering to find balance in studying and in our life. We cannot expect that following along with an 8 hrs long study with me video will change us as a student if we do not know how to study and thats where those tip videos come in place.
Studytube/tok videos are great to pass our time and to get motivated but it is also easy to start comparing ourselves and thus getting pressured to work alot, and i think that is the trap to be aware of, which is why i always emphasize to people to do what works for them, because at the end of the day you gotta know how to study smart rather than hard, we often loose sight of the fact through study tiktoks that this isn't an aesthetic we actually are here to study and learn, and that is a process to enjoy rather than being like yes im done with this, on to the next thing!
Thats all I've got to say... I feel like its quite scattered but i think i may turn this comment into an essay someday!
I loved this video so much! I think two things really stick out to me about studytube - 1) the illusion of productivity that is being portrayed (but as you saw literally ANYTHING on a social media can be argued to be an illusion of something so this doesn't really bother me too much.. you would never find me studying for 12 hours haha) and 2) perpetuating the cycle of glamorizing "prestigious" universities (of which I am not excluding myself lol) and their histories as colonial projects. I think for me I have loved creators both in studytube and other spaces who actually share their ideas of research/analysis/books, etc ABOUT their work, rather than the aesthetic shots of one studying (tbh I find this pretty boring and don't watch many vlogs like this). It is tricky to balance, but I genuinely am in the place I am today because I followed other scholars' and historians' work online which showed me the vast abilities for research I didn't know existed. And that is what I am trying to do myself (hopefully), as I am interested in showcasing to others the possibilities of research within an academic setting while being cognizant of the fact the privileged, academic bubbles are not the only place one can and should learn in. Excited to keep hearing more of your thoughts :)))
I def agree that it's nice and USEFUL to see what is possible in academia via creators in this space, because let's face it, it's a very gatekeep-y field and if you don't know someone who has done research work you have no idea what the options are and what to expect once you get there.
@@accordingtoalina Yes exactly! I also think there is a space for academics to think more outside of the box in terms of how they share knowledge and their research, and I think there are many interesting avenues to pursue if one is open to sharing their work online. But for now I am going off of CZcams and back to my own studying lol
I've only watched 2 of your videos but the way you deconstruct concepts and articulate your thoughts is grand, keep up the great work.
Ahhh thank you 🫶🏻
As a single mum of 4 going back to Uni, study lives have been amazing to help not only my want to get in and study, but also through joining some of the CZcamsrs discord chat rooms I’ve built a community of good friends very quickly even though I’m studying every day in my living room with my teens running around. It’s good for my sanity 😁
Ruby wasn't less toxic than the others. She suffered with mental health issues, OCD, most of the time she showed quite an obsessive behavior and she used very sick words.
Yes, this was one of my mistakes in uni. Some of that pretty stationary still lies somewhere untouched 😅
Regarding the tips on studying, they were only serving as an aesthetic inspiration to me, a desire to immerse myself in the beauty and grandeur of historical, elite buildings and have a full-fledged scholarly experience. I have the same feelings now when I pick up some of the books considered *dark academia*. While it can motivate you to study more and strive for a similar experience, in my country, the exams and the student experience are vastly different from what those videos suggest. Therefore, most of those tips did not apply to me, except perhaps the memorization techniques and such.
you bring up a very good point - these videos address mainly Western students or students who want to study at western universities. I found them useful when moving to school in the UK because it was so different from what I was used to.
just found your channel and I'm loving these discussions and how calm and nuanced your arguments are. more of this please!!!
Thank you x
Hey, I wouldn’t really talk about mental health while being sponsored by better help, I’d do some research on them, it’s wild that in 2024 there is someone that still partners with them with all the proof of how disgusting that company is. I enjoyed this video tho.
I love anything books so, I love your your channel so much! You’re my top favourite video essayists on here and I’m always excited for/ wait for your videos. Thank you for your work!
This is so lovely to hear, thank you
Great Video! I have always been weirded out by those highly cluttered or "organized desks" filled with stationery items, every other video is about another haul and buying more shit. As someone who was once addicted to just buying stuff and feeling happy for a moment waiting for it to arrive, enjoying it for the first few days and then getting uninterested with it, Content like that just grosses me out. Its a real problem and bringing awareness and looking down on this behavior is the best one can do .
one thing I love about your videos is how nuanced they are which is so important especially on topics like this where the harmful behaviour (working insane hours and therefore promoting hustle culture) is rooted in like you say "noble intentions" (to be a successful person in order to help yourself and people around you). one thing I see a lot with people my age (early 20s) on the internet is that everyone is so busy trying to have the right take that they forget that not everyone comes from a middle class family in a first world country. That being said, what you're saying about the consumption aspect of it all is true. It's actually pretty clear that the content creators who can afford all these ipads and latest apple headphones are not using education as a way to escape poverty, hut rather as yet another status symbol...
Isnt it the same as booktok? People have made a bigger hobby spending money on books rather than actually reading the books? But we say, at least people are reading, to that one. So why not use the same logic for studying?
well, people (myself included) criticise those people in the book community too!
Great vid Alina! As a teen, whenever I watched those studytube videos, I always wondered how are these guys living so aesthetically? And I ended up feeling worse about myself and my studies. In recent times, I've figured out that's its actually the standards and lifetsyles that is so aesthetically pleasing but is actually unrealistic. I do still watch studytube sometimes for tips but I remember to be mindful and realistic according to my own goals and lifestyle. This video is a great step for me for realize all those things! Thank you so much.
I feel that the hustle culture started booming when I was in my third year of college. I kept myself busy during my last two years with going to the gym, work, studying on-campus, coffee shops or diners with friends sometimes, and pulling all-nighters till 5am and waking up at 6am to repeat everything again. Yes, my grades or GPA spiked in a positive way, however, I was doing all of this to avoid being at home, and also blocking my mental health, which wasn't good. It all came crashing down on my final week of my Degree. I was in a MVI, and only one instructor was accomodating and was more lenient on my final assignment; wheras the other two were unfortunately not, and I had to finish one project, and study and write a final exam WITH a concussion and whiplash. I paid the price for not stopping because it became habitual--I'd feel "lazy". Although I was able to graduate with my Degree I'm still paying the price for not putting my health first. All my goals and plans I had for myself during that time is realistically unnattainable because of my chronic pain, migraines, and post-concussion syndrome.
I am so sorry this happened to you! I have a chronic illness which got much worse than I thought it would about a year ago (almost to the day!) and has derailed some of my professional plans as well, so I fully relate to this inability to pursue the goals you had set for yourself at university. I hope you’re taking care of and being patient with yourself. I know it’s not always easy. Sending you all my love x
“StudyTube” for me was taking PROSCRIBED medication listening to the three German composers and reading Hegel, Marx, et el.
Looool and was your productivity up?
@@accordingtoalina passed all my classes and cleaned the house too!
Your videos are so good! I am in the application process for a prestigious university right now and I have been watching this type of video a lot. Suddenly, I was looking online for iPads with blue filter and the pastel highlighters, which is so funny because I have always preferred to take notes by hand. They kind of trick you into buying stuff as if doing so would force that university to accept you!
Having said that, I also find a little motivation in productivity videos just because I was on the other extreme of doing absolutely nothing so they can be helpful. However, I don't think it is a good idea to watch them if you don't have discernment or the ability to take the information given with a grain of salt. Most of them are not based on scientific research and are just made up junk (or their unfounded opinions on the subject). And you may start watching them for the longest time and end up procrastinating, like Alina said. Be careful!
8888iı9ı8î8iî
Everything in moderation I guess
Always love your videos, Alina! You express yourself so well ❤️
Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
Here early so I’m going to warn you about the incoming comments about the controversy about BetterHelp (I’m so proud of you that you got a sponsorship though)
This is so kind, thank you for the heads up
Yeah disappointed to see a better help sponsorship :( exploitative company
I too used to watch studytube. I used it as an insight into the college life while I was still in high school. Once I graduated with my bachelor’s and kind of learned my own method to getting good grades, I abandoned the studytube community as I didn’t need it anymore. I am still in college and am working towards obtaining my master’s and I find some of these study with me sessions silly. I don’t see how it’s possible to study 12 hours in one day. I hold a full time job so that would never work except weekends. It’s all a little unrealistic to me.
Congratulations on your soon-to-be masters!!
I don't think romantization means exactly, buying to feel better, but its more of appriaciate the small stuff you already own, the cute park you walk near to go to school, choosing a good outfit to go to school or similar things. I think its more rooted in appreciation and gratitude, but in its extremes it can become the phenomenon you are describing.
Anything that has to do with school/uni being romanticized is bs (minus the people you meet along the way and the valuable insights from time to time). The only good thing about these vids is that they have been a source of escapism from the dreadful life of being a student. Just a personal take from someone on the other side of the world that has sht educational system. I always thought learning is more authentic and fun when it's stripped away from formal education (if it still isn't the case for everyone). We even have this notion that passing is given more emphasis and not learning itself, which sucks. I think people can benefit from having a pragmatic outlook if they want to do better in their studies while keeping their sanity. Know what works for you, be diligent, do your best but don't expect too much so you don't suffer lol
such great advice
But anyways, really interesting and well made video! It's a small point but I loved your comment about the life cycles of these communities we see happen over and over again and where the studytube/studytok spaces are in that life cycle right now.
I don’t think I can see your first comment
@@accordingtoalina Haha it was a long ass comment about BetterHelp’s extremely unethical business practices
this is so relevant to when i fell down the bullet journaling rabbit hole and found like 90% of the people in the fb groups just wanted to consume the materials for the hobby as their claim to being involved. then the other issue was people who seemed to have endless time to quantify all their habits- another toxic grindeset mentality. after unplugging and seeing planning more as a tool than a an aesthetic goal its got its value back to me and i can actually enjoy adding fun touches (going paperless also helped, since its easier to collage digital images without buying or creating more waste).
wow, ok I had no idea the bullet journaling community was that big. will have to look it up!!
@@accordingtoalina i see the rise of studytube/studyblr and the rise of bullet journaling as synonymous tbh, but obviously the venn diagram doesn't entirely overlap!
I used to have a studygram/bookstagram account and I ended up switching full into talking only about books. For starters, there's only so many study tips you can give before you run out, on top of it, I don't study an "aesthetic" career that involves a lot of pretty physical notes (i do compsci) so I felt very self conscious about my content. But the biggest thing for me was motivation. My mental health started to dip and studying for hours became a challenge and again I felt like I wasn't good enough because I wasn't spending every breathing moment studying. Let's not even start with the consumerism when it comes to stationary, tech and the "I study 40 hs per day" or "THIS is how I study tu have A++++ in Harvard" that just made me feel like an idiot or lazy.
Ughhh hate that you felt that way! I also agree that there are only so many tips you can give and that studying - like all work and life - is not always tidy and aesthetically pleasing
I've seen some comments about how the hustle culture perspective in the long study with me videos isn't sustainable and it was going to hurt them long-term. I 100% agree, and I think that the pressure isn't a new phenomena that is coming out with this long term content.
In the US at least, there is pressure in high school and middle school to get into college. I remember students would have contests about how many extracurriculars there in, how many college level classes they're taking, how many hours they're studying, their hours at the jobs. And then college, while it's vastly different, can still have this really large amount of pressure and workload.
It makes sense to me that we see this need for companionship while studying come out during quarantine and still continue. In some of my classes, we would talk about how the workload we were having felt so much more unrealistic and heavy after coming back in person. The hustle culture we see in a lot of these videos, I think is how colleges and education in the United States have been set up since early on.
I think the critiques of it and the level of exposure we have to it is a new phenomena. It's very interesting to see how the critiques will or won't translate into change.
omg i relate to you SO much - immediate subscribe
i loved your approach on the topic. but then there’s the fact i also grew up with these studytubers (the OG british ones lol) and that alice cappelle has been my fav youtuber for yearss (and i also adore tiffanyferg’s videos)
anyway, sorry abt how out of context and random this is lol. love the video, keep up the good work x
I know this doesn’t apply to everyone, but discovering study with me live streams while working through my master’s thesis with ADHD has been an absolute game changer for me. It’s like having a body double that I can’t get distracted talking to and my little brain really loves that for some reason. I think my relationship to my work is unhealthy for now, but it’s actually gotten a lot better since discovering this virtual body double thing. I at least come up for air once an hour when the time goes off!! Maybe it’s good for people who already have an overworking problem sometimes?
This didn't get mentioned in the video, but it really has bothered for years how inside this community there was the "paperless movement" that was supposed to be so good for the environment and be the better alternative to having notebooks for your study and such. The catch, though, is that the people who made videos promoting that were always using Ipads, making it instantly non accesible for literally anyone who couldn't afford it. It's such an insidiously cruel messed up thing to tell to people "if you can't spend that kind of money on this thing I am promoting, then you are doing something wrong and this is your fault actually."
Nooooo not me going to youtube to find some studytube video to watch when THIS pops up😭❤
Sorry 😭
As usual you are always very right! Brava Alina
Such a good take! Really interesting video, good work 🙌
Thanks for watching and for the support, I appreciate you!
it's nice to watch a study vlog when I'm back home from school all angry and exhausted. it really helps me focus and calm a little bit and i seek nothing else out of this videos. ofc i like to do my homework with "study with me" playing in the background but i just turn it off after 40 minutes.
also I just can't understand why people want to buy unnecessary thing that have been influenced on them. isn't looking at pretty thing enough? you don't have to own everything yourself to have pleasant sensory experience 😌 especially when they already have a huge debt 🥴
I'm still annoyed that one of my favourite shops HEMA (A Dutch company) stopped delivering/have shops in the UK. I loved their products and they lasted. I do love stationery, but I like my stationery to last, I am paying for it. My biggest peeves in how quickly the ink goes on some paperchase and/or typo pens. I must be one of the few students to never have anything apple. My windows laptop and computer work just as well. I am also a firm user of the local library when it comes to books and often buy the books second hand from thrift shops if I can as well as donating my books when I am finished.
Now this was a trip down memory lane! Definitely some really interesting points raised here.
I used to consume a lot of this sort of content (studytube) while in community college, but when I was in uni, going to the cheapest state school to avoid student debt, I discovered the fact that I wanna go into emergency medicine. It ain’t pretty and it ain’t aesthetic and it’s a long grind. It can’t really be prestigious or aesthetic-ized, and these long grinds are more difficult to swallow when there ain’t a pretty filter or soothing music behind it. I love it though. I wish I weren’t so wrapped up in the idea of things when I was younger-to make things perfect (and especially to spend money to do so). Fantastic video!! Just wanted to share my experiences as someone studying to go into blue collar work :)
I do not understand why are people complaining about that not everyone can go to an university. Ofc they can't. Imagine if every single kid in highschool went to an university. I believe that universities should raise their standards but not in the way they are doing it right now. The job market is overflowing with people. We do not need another stem dude or a lawyer, there are a lot of jobs that are not glorified as they used to be (for example teaching which you already have mentioned). These jobs need more people. Also, I hate that it has become a trend to major in certain fields. By now everyone knows that the education system needs major change (globaly speaking).
btw great video! I really enjoyed watching it
Out of pocket but I just hate studying
valid
wake up babe! Alina just posted
Lol love you
Lol love you
The irony of watching this when I should be studying for exams
It’s ok you deserve a break
Same
omg this was so good!!
omg hi Jade!
im an art major so i only have like 2 courses for which i have to sit down and study and ive always been so grateful for it but when i started watching studytube for fun it made me feel literally BAD about it like ???lmao. but i actually like studying and aquiring new knowledge so im okay i guess and the content is still motivational and helpful to me but sometimes i catch myself ridicuously rethinking all my major choices just because its not THE dark academia secret history sleepless nights type of major. im an aesthetic girlie and i love an aesthetically-pleasing vlog but im trying to distance myself from the mindset that i need all of the products/clothes/whatever. i know its possible to enjoy pretty things without the pressure to acquire them all at all costs
Ughhh being busy for the aesthetic of busy-ness is the worst. Stay strong friend!!
i never could relate to them. i went to a decent sized university but it was a communter school. there weren't dorms. there was a cafeteria though. i'd arrive on campus about 7am and stay until 4pm and in between classes i'd get my work done since some days i'd have 3 hours between. but seeing these girls film their expensive universities and walking across beautifully trimmed courtyards and buying expensive cafe items and showing off so many expensive office supplies and talking about only going to class, working out, and studying, it just felt very mind-numbing to me.
yes to all this! one of the things I didn't really discuss here is that the vast majority of the studytube community are middle/upper-middle class people, so their portrayal of life on campus is not the most realistic...
I still love study / student vlogs because I'm nostalgic for my college years but have to live my sad adult life now. I also love studying and stationery. In many ways study tube is like any other youtube community: there are problems with consumerism, there are people looking for advice and people looking to share their love.
This is so interesting! Would you watch creators who vlog about their 9-5 job or is it specifically academic content that does it for you?
@@accordingtoalina No, I wouldn't. The reason I watch Ruby Granger, for example, is that she gets to spend so much time in a library, which is something I really loved back at uni.
I think even the StudyTube, after the initial flurry of motivation to study 10-12 hours, preferably in Oxford, has changed in a very healthy direction. The love of learning is also very much emphasised in Ruby's videos. I think that StudyTube can be very motivating, of course you have to find the right content producers, but overall I see a very healthy trend of development! However, it is quite sure that people with ADHD should have a separate "StudyTube"...
From all the ones i used to watch didn't drop out or stop the rhythm th
ey had because of burnout.
I stopped watching them when I lost my job and I did not find a new one for 6 months. It became really hard to be confronted with this content while not being able to be "productive" as they are, meaning in terms of working and being active. I still like them but I think this content is very alienating when your mental health or professional situation are a struggle, because then it really feel like your experience is out of the realm of their existence and you feel like shit, because it feels impossible to get back to.
I had no idea study tube was anything else than pomodoro and study with me videos. As a neurodivergent adult trying to study after my 9 to 5, these were amazing at making me study for longer period than what I was capable of on my own. And not to take my very unique experience as the norm, but for me (and most of my classmates at that time) 12 hours were completely possible if the only time you had free was a Sunday. I would agree that it would definitely bring some people to burn out, however sometimes life pushes you to the edge for (hopefully) just a few years. In this, does art imitates life or life imitates art, really ?
that's an interesting perspective. I had a teacher who used to tell us that school prepares you for life, not because of the content actually taught, but because it teaches you that sometimes you have to do things you don't like to get to where you want to be. And I see his point, but the idealist in me wonders if life has to be like that?
You are so smart i love listen your content🤩
Thank you so much for watching ❤️
Well i saw this talk this December on the planning community with the hobonichi planner because its was the time to buy a new planners and its actually an expensive planner because of the fees but i have to admit they are very pretty 🙈
That’s how they get you!
This is my kind of video hell yeah
Yay
a video talking about overconsumption by watching media about self improvement get sponsored by a paid therapy product in order to improve their mental health
If I could get a dollar everytime I hear about another Notion template from these 'creators' - I could have already saved for my kid's college fund.
Studying for 12 hours a day.... Damn! That does sound insane to me and also... How much 'real' studying happens in 12 hours? It's too much for our brains, even with breaks in between.
I remeber watching videos from those LA vloggers like Alisha and Rclbeauty that would give study tips (this was around 2013-2014)
I found studyblr around (2016-2017) and it was really awesome but It centered more on tracking and tumblr at the time was a dark place.
studytwt in 2020, I had one right before freshman year
Now I’m going to University in the fall lol.
Congratulations! I hope university is all you wished for x
Personally, studytube/studytok videos do motivate me.
And if people enjoy them there's nothing wrong with that
I'm in my third year at a RG uni, and I've also been diagnosed with autism and ADHD. I used to watch a lot of studytube content in my first year, and beat myself up so badly because my routine(s) didn't align with these people who made it seem like they studied 12+ hours a day. I've since built routines that suit my own needs, that still allow me to achieve good grades and personal goals, but I think when some studytubers stitch together footage over multiple days and lie about timelines to make it seem like they fit an impossible amount of tasks into one day, it adds pressure to those of us who couldn't imagine studying for that long.
I think the particular studytubers who stitch together footage from multiple days should add disclaimers about it; people would appreciate the honesty. Not only this, but even with huge amounts of people still having not figured out a lot of studytubers do this, I'm not sure what they achieve by lying about it seen as they know they aren't the persona they are presenting to their audiences. Surely this would create some kind of imposter syndrome for themselves?
I do like study with me, usually do 2 hours. Feels like I'm studying with a friend
I think the main reason why some people study so much is that they can. Like someone who studies 12 hours a day either has exceptional endurance. Average person can do about 3-4 hours of focused mental work per day. They can talk about motivation and stuff, but motivation doesn't make people not turn into zombies after several hours of studying.
Personally, I'm mentally and physically exhausted at around 3-4 hours of studying per day and doing it like 3 hours per day is basically being constantly exhausted so when learning something I usually aim for like 2,5 hours per day.
Bullet journals and tracking productivity were invented as a disability aids for ADHD. I have to use them to do anything consistently.
I understand that the comment about teaching "not attracting the best minds" was not meant as an insult and is probably linked to some empirical truth you've experienced, however the way education systems are built (not only the low pay) should be addressed. Most public education systems do not have the infrastructure to 'teach' how to teach - not enough funding in education, the political structures in place not caring about it, not enough hours to teach the other mandatory subjects. Very often, this kind of knowledge is offered willingly by teachers as extra-credentials after school hours (as you mentioned). I do think the phrasing is unjust and not addressing all layers of the problem. I think you understand that very well - but pointing it on the 'minds' of the teachers is frankly insulting...
I find it interesting, cause I always wish when I was able watch these study esthetics video when was in high school, Where it is required for us to sacrifice all our physical and mental health just for the mark on paper (East Asian kid). These videos would have helped so many of us deal with our lives in hell.
While these study with me videos are good background noise, most of the tips are specific to western, mostly American schools. I live in Europe, so a good chuck of them don't work for people who study or live outside of the US
Yes!! I didn’t really dive into but you rarely come across study content in a language that isn’t English, which is interesting
wait where did the book club go?? I deleted my insta, is there a reason? It was so much fun
Hiii!! Yes I’ve put it on hiatus because O have a bunch of things going on health and personal life-wise. The videos are not deleted, they’re just unlisted (you can still watch them if you have the link) so that new people on my channel don’t start the first few vids and then get disappointed. But for everyone who has been following along, I’ve put the links in a newsletter which I’ve scheduled for 7pm today (GMT). You can see my newsletter in the channel “about” section
@@accordingtoalina Thank you for the explanation :). The videos on the first few cantos were the perfect start for me to get into the divine comedy. I really enjoyed it and will continue reading. (And watch the videos I did not yet get to ;) )
Much strenght to you from germany :)
@@accordingtoalinasorry to hear about health reversals. Wishing you prompt and lasting recovery.
would've been great video if not for sponsor
It was surprising to hear that you grew up in Romania. It's sad that teachers here are not so great and do not provide basic informations on how to learn
Yep, 100% Romanian! It’s a tough one cause some of my teachers were some of the smartest and most disciplined people ever and I have huge respect for them. But they were not exactly using the socratic method lol. It was more “this is the information and you have to learn it as such otherwise you’re in trouble”. But that might also be a remnant of the way teachers were trained during Ceausescu’s regime. It could be that the younger generation of teachers are better at actually teaching and not just scaring children into memorising information
Does anyone who is the CZcamsr here 2:18 at the top left? I uses to watch her all the time
It’s Holly Gabrielle I think
Hey:) completely unrelated but you look a lot like Rachel Weisz
Stop I’m *in love* with her
Studytube really has its good and toxic traits.
❤❤❤
Y'all seen that guy that cut any type of entertainment from his life to the point that he only feels alive when he's working? Like, good that he's successful but most successful people just don't need to stop listening to music or watching a movie every once in a while.
what??? who is this guy, I have to see this!
Can someone explain what’s wrong with betterhelp?
girl, you’re from Romania??
Yesssss
Romanticizing studying at Oxford and other prestigious universities always seems off-putting to me, given the colonial history of such institutions. I am not saying that people should avoid these universities. All I'm saying is that there is nothing prestigious about schools that were financed through colonial ventures. Yes, studying is great, and promoting it is also okay. But we shouldn't romanticize really problematic institutions just because they are pleasing to the eye.
I can add that being at Oxford day to day, although I’ve had some of my best memories yet there, is just like any other university…
better help is awful do research pls :/
GIRL NOT BETTERHELP!!!
Off topic but is it just me or you kind of look like Winona Ryder?
not the betterhelp as sponsor
ARE YOU ROMANIAN??? HELLO?????????
Yes I am, born and raised baby! Well, for the first 14 years, anyway
Talking about mental health and promoting better help is certainly a choice ... well that's another channel on the do not watch list.
idk, i feel like something is fundamentally different between men and women regarding life philosophy and it shows in "motivationaltube". saying that, because your opinion seems from a "feminine corner" of the internet and it stood out to me repeatedly its not something im familiar with. it might be that for men winning matters a lot more in regards to getting things that traditionally "make a good life" and "being providers", there are a lot of motivations for men to subscribe to "hustle culture". personally i like it when im called out on being a bitch because winning really matters in life and i rather kill emotions or forego temporary discomfort and win than be a bitch. good reason stuff became popular, cause people know they should be doing something they're not i know i was.