Worth the Hype: Jake Paul, Youtuber

By Lucas Lee ’21 and Matthew Lee ‘21
Jake Paul is a 20-year-old YouTube personality who rose to fame with his brother on a (now defunct) social media app, Vine.  His first YouTube video was a compilation of his old vines created in March of 2014, but his rise to fame on YouTube really took off this year.  Paul had a little over a million subscribers to start 2017, but that number has risen to over 11 million.  He has assembled a group of close friends in his community creating Team 10.  They have been involved in a lot of YouTube drama and are known for making music videos making fun of other YouTubers.  His most viewed video, a song he made with his group Team 10 “It’s Everyday Bro,” has amassed over 127 million views.  Paul has made many controversial videos, such as burning his own furniture and performing dangerous pranks on strangers.  He has lost his Disney contract on the show “Bizaardvark” due to his rowdy behavior.
In an online survey sent to middle school students, 86 percent of the 323 respondents said that Jake Paul is not “Worth the Hype.”
Many of the students expressed their dislike of Paul.
“Jake Paul’s videos were interesting at first, but then he starting fighting with his brother and other YouTubers, and the fact that he was narcissistic was starting to show,” Charlie Seymour ‘23 said in the survey.
Paul and his team were in the middle of an abuse allegation.  One survey respondent weighed in on the topic.
“He literally lied about an abuse case, made it look like his secretary was the victim, but did this to gain popularity and views of YouTube,” an anonymous survey respondent said.
While Paul’s videos may provide entertainment to viewers, the heights he is willing to go in order to get more views, money and self-gratification has proven troublesome, making him not “Worth the Hype”.