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MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

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Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#151

Post by _9omd »

iamleppert wrote: post #136

He isn’t genuine. In his origin story you’ll notice he talks about trying lots of different strategies to maximize his views and engagement. That’s his only real goal. He stumbled upon his current formula by accident after significant iteration. It strikes me that he could have just as easily be producing any kind of harmful content if the rules of what’s acceptable to society and YouTube were different. It just so h…

But if he’s honest in telling his origin story about figuring out how to optimally drive engagement, doesn’t that actually make him genuine? There’s no lie here. He’s upfront about how he’s optimizing content for views and using profits to drive further content, grow the business, and donate to charity.

I don’t really find his content very interesting, but he seems like a decent guy and you can definitely make an argument he’s doing some good in the world.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#152

Post by chrisbolt »

iamleppert wrote: post #136

He isn’t genuine. In his origin story you’ll notice he talks about trying lots of different strategies to maximize his views and engagement. That’s his only real goal. He stumbled upon his current formula by accident after significant iteration. It strikes me that he could have just as easily be producing any kind of harmful content if the rules of what’s acceptable to society and YouTube were different. It just so h…

> He stumbled upon his current formula by accident after significant iteration.

Wouldn't many people call this "learning"?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#153

Post by HDThoreaun »

scaredginger wrote: post #50
xrd wrote: post #4

My kids love Mr Beast. I'm uncomfortable with it and can't put my finger on it. It feels like he makes life look like you stand a good chance of having someone walk in and give you $100,000. Maybe there is no harm in thinking that? But it feels like the same thing as buying a lottery ticket. I guess YouTube is free? But is the time spent on that channel worth it over doing other things? I admire the approach he takes…

For me, the discomfort is that Mr Beast's content relies on exploiting people's desperation due to the lack of social safety net. It's not his fault that they're in such dire straits to begin with, but he's nonetheless behaving opportunistically and his actions have no chance of changing the system that landed these people in such tough situations

He’s making these peoples lives better though. How would him not doing this stuff help anyone? Just because he’s not overthrowing the system the happiness he’s provided is worthless?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#154

Post by memefrog »

scottLobster wrote: post #41
triyambakam wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could not let them watch it if it makes you uncomfortable.

Then they'll resent you and watch it on their friends' phones anyway when they can. And they'll suffer socially because they won't be able to talk with other kids at the lunch table about the most recent episode.

Your children aren't going to resent you because they can't watch a YouTube channel. Nobody has ever resented their parents as an adult because of something like that. My parents didn't let me watch adult-rated movies or play adult-rated games (eg The Godfather, Call of Duty) as a child, while others' parents did. You'd have to be insane to resent them for that. How far do you take this? No rules? "Sorry, no chores in this house: our children will resent us." No boundaries at all?

Your children are more likely to resent you when they grow up incapable of hard work and with no sense of delayed gratification because their parents were terrified of ever imposing any rules or expectations on them for fear of causing "resentment".

No child is going to suffer socially because they don't watch Mr Beast. It's literally one thing. A child might conceivably suffer socially if they're cut off from all leisure activities, but not being able to watch a YouTube channel is so minuscule as to be laughable. I didn't watch Saturday morning cartoons as a child, as my parents didn't like having the TV on in the morning. Did I suffer socially? Not remotely.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#156

Post by _9omd »

httpz wrote: post #150

It's appalling some people are more upset that his motives were not altruistic than being happy for the people who got their eye sight back. Are we going to start criticizing doctors next because they're saving lives to get paid?

Exactly. Anyone who’s ever done something good for someone else partly did it because it felt good. This is what drives humans to help others, and society would fall apart without this basic urge to help others.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#157

Post by seydor »

irishloop wrote: post #114
seydor wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is philanthropy porn. He is not the philanthropist because he doesnt haev the money in the first place, he is using other people's money to perform charity on camera. I 'm not very religious but it is a tale as old as humans. The christian gospels called out this hypocricy for a reason: > Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the…

But if we never celebrate altruism or philanthropy, are we not, perhaps, discouraging it? Don't we want to instill these cultural values of giving? It seems to me that keeping quiet is a kind of purity ritual that perhaps does more harm than good as well. Personally I don't care about MrBeast one way or the other, he doesn't affect my life in any appreciable way, if he makes money giving other people money, cool, I c…

where is the celebration?

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#158

Post by HDThoreaun »

iamleppert wrote: post #136

He isn’t genuine. In his origin story you’ll notice he talks about trying lots of different strategies to maximize his views and engagement. That’s his only real goal. He stumbled upon his current formula by accident after significant iteration. It strikes me that he could have just as easily be producing any kind of harmful content if the rules of what’s acceptable to society and YouTube were different. It just so h…

So what if he’s not genuine? He makes viewers happy. The contestants come out happy. Why does it matter if he’s doing it to enrich himself?

The difference between the flower TikTok’s is that the contestants in his video signed up for it.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#159

Post by ethbr0 »

adamwk wrote: post #138
nfw2 wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He figured out a sustainable way to keep giving money away. I call that smart philanthropy, not selfish philanthropy. Yes, he makes a lot of money but it mostly goes back into growing his channel and charities.

It’s philanthropy the same way Who Wants to Be a Millionaire is philanthropy

No, because the whole point of game shows is they restrict how often someone wins the jackpot, to make it profitable.

Afaik, all of MrBeast's stuff is conducted with the rule that at least 1 person is going to win the jackpot.

Re: MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

#160

Post by kcb »

httpz wrote: post #150

It's appalling some people are more upset that his motives were not altruistic than being happy for the people who got their eye sight back. Are we going to start criticizing doctors next because they're saving lives to get paid?

> Are we going to start criticizing doctors next because they're saving lives to get paid?

A doctor is a profession, unless doing charity work, the act of being a doctor is not philanthropy.

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