Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

MrBeast has become a viral sensation for his acts of altruism

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

231–240 of 565 posts

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

#231

Post by jerojero »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #52
bitcurious wrote: post #34

Two reasons I find this distasteful. It might be a net good still, I’m not sure. It’s not obvious however. One downside is that it competes for the same “feel-good” feeling which much more effective charities compete for. Someone engages with Mr.Beast, feels like they did good. Later they walk by a food shelter in need of volunteers and thinks “I already did my part.” As we have parasocial relationships, we have para…

> One downside is that it competes for the same “feel-good” feeling which much more effective charities compete for. [...] Later they walk by a food shelter in need of volunteers and thinks “I already did my part.” The exact same argument is made against government programs. And there's a long history of research showing just how much government grants crowd out charitable giving because tax payers feel like "I alrea…

There's other arguments in favour of government programs though. For one, a lot of the wealth that's generated in a country is due to the collective historical effort of the people which is summed up in the state (for americans, the "government").

So taxation is simply the United States of America, or Norway, or Sweden, taking back some of the resources of the "now" that have been generated thanks to the collective effort of the "past".

Also, there is actual research on the effectiveness of government programs (such as food stamps for example) in increasing quality of life of children who grow up on these; compared to those who grow up without those. In reality, children don't choose where they are born, and as much as it is the parent's job to raise them it is not the child's fault to not have gotten responsible parents.

So, in reality, tax payers shouldn't be doing charity. Why would they? If charity is needed then the government is obviously not collecting enough or allocating resources efficiently. I would very much say that charity is a systemic failure, and philanthropy is usually spear headed by the very same people who argue against universalist measures such as higher taxation. Why would a billionaire know where resources are needed better than the government, who has much more data on people to properly know where money should go.

So, in my opinion, it's really easy to argue against philanthropy and in favour of government programs. I mean, there's a lot of data out there.

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

#232

Post by inconceivable »

memefrog wrote: post #154
scottLobster wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 i…

not letting your kids watch saturday morning cartoons because you find them to be annoying seems pretty dickish and seems like it has an extremely asymmetric possible negative long run consequence.

you're talking about it to this very day in a way that seems like you can't wait to enforce these rules on your own children.

i can't recall a single thing my parents did along these lines. this is just not how they operated - by just laying down restriction after restriction. seems kind of shitty, honestly.

also my parents didn't teach me how to sit in front of a computer for 20 hours until i got a program to compile without errors. did they MAKE you do stuff like that? lol in fact i remember my parents complaining that i was wasting time on the internet.

joke's on them though, now they spend all their time glued to their devices.

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

#233

Post by 0x0203 »

dharmab wrote: post #96
amanzi wrote: post #55

I don't mind MrBeast, but what I really hate is how every other YouTuber has decided to copy his "screaming face" thumbnail strategy. My YouTube home page is full of screaming faces and bright text with some clickbait title. Even middle-age woodworkers (the polar-opposite audience to MrBeast) fall prey to this strategy, and I've started to unsubscribe from channels that insist on doing this.

They do it because it measurably improves viewership. Linus Tech Tips made a video about why they started doing it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA&pp=ygUMbHR0IHRodW5...

I suspect that so many do it because it's so often repeated and taught that it works; but they figured out it works when looking at the whole of youtube videos, which percentage wise, is mostly targeted to a younger, less mature audience, and the content is made to match. When a channel's target audience is a similar demographic to the "average youtube viewer," it works very well. But I'd wager it doesn't work very well when the target audience doesn't match the average youtube viewer. I'd love to know if the people that measured and promote these bright, astonished-face, click-bait thumbnails ever bothered to test their effectiveness with different target demographics. My guess would be no.

I really wish the people making videos on subjects like science/physics, engineering, woodworking, etc... would stop putting thumbnails and titles on their work that target an audience that isn't going to care/enjoy/understand the subject of the video. And maybe even keep some of the intended audience away.

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

#234

Post by Invictus0 »

reureu wrote: post #66
maximus-decimus wrote: post #54

I think a reason why people are uncomfortable about him is that boasting about giving to charity is very unchristian. "Be careful that you don't do your charitable. giving before men, to be seen by them, or else. you have no reward from your Father who is in heaven." Matthew 6:1 If you're not allowed to even tell people you give to charity, I can't imagine what God in the old testament would do to you if you profit f…

This is what makes me uncomfortable -- if you have to be seen giving something away then you're not really doing it for altruistic purposes. Also, this isn't strictly a Christian concept, but similar ideas exist in Judaism: https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/256321/jewish... Buddhism: https://www.learnreligions.com/perfection-of-giving-449724 Islam: https://www.quranexplorer.com/blog/Education-In-The-Ligh…

Mr. Beast's philanthropy is specifically enabled by his audience (sponsors contribute to the philanthropy in exchange for short ads), his videos bring awareness to the issue he is donating to, and his philanthropy is amplified by viewers donating their own money in kind to the cause. None of these things could happen (neither the large donations nor the awareness nor the amplification by ordinary viewers) without making the videos. I don't see how you can conclude that a gift only made possible by this process (thousands of people regaining their sight) is not altruistic merely because some ancient books said you have to be quiet about your donations.

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

#235

Post by kaba0 »

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…

It feels a bit like the “good news” like ‘kid sells all his toys to pay for mother’s chemo’, which are just insanely dystopian.

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

#236

Post by photoGrant »

memefrog wrote: post #215
HDThoreaun wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Attention is money. Their time is paying for the charity in the videos.

Attention is not money. Watching a YouTube video is not being charitable. You cannot just blankly assert that "their time is paying for the charity in the videos" without explaining why this is true. You will have a difficult time explaining that, because it isn't true. As I said in the comment you replied to, but apparently didn't take the time to read, his viewers do not give him money by watching the videos. YouTu…

Attention is money. How you skin it doesn't matter. Your attention is what's for sale, and bought.

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

#237

Post by nkozyra »

motoxpro wrote: post #227
daed wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also don't understand the take that altruism/philanthropy has to be zero sum https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/altruism By the first definition it requires “unselfish regard”. If MrBeast is pulling 54 million a year (along with lots of fame and clout) he’s not exactly qualifying for the first definition. Definition 2 is the one I’m most familiar with from the animal kingdom, and it actually requires that…

That makes sense. Thanks for that. If unselfish means that I can't benefit in addition to you benefiting I don't think I see altruism as a super positive thing. Turns into "he gave up his last dollar for that person!" which is seen as a super altruistic thing to do, but now, not only does that person only have a dollar, you've taken yourself out of the game and can no longer do any more good in the world because you…

> If unselfish means that I can't benefit in addition to you benefiting

One doesn't preclude the other. But if my benefit is a pre-requisite for the benefit of others, it changes the dynamic.

Would Mr. Beast continue these acts if he weren't also turning it into content? I'm sure everyone has an opinion, but I'm not particularly convinced.

I suppose what makes it hard to be skeptical here is there is real "good" being applied here, but the motivations behind them are important, too.

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

#238

Post by guyzero »

oh_sigh wrote: post #224
guyzero wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Mr. Beast built his channel by taking all profits from each video and plying it into the next video" To me this seems like a semi-obvious minmaxing solution to making popular videos: make essentially zero profit, regardless of revenue. At some point you get so much revenue that you can't spend it all so the next logical step is to simply give it away as part of the video. And in this case it's a virtuous cycle - app…

The reason those people don't have access to surgery has nothing to do with mrbeast. Do you think he could actually get a law changed and help more people than he already did? Why wouldn't a "Mr Beast goes to Washington" style video get as many views as his direct support videos got?

"Do you think he could actually get a law changed and help more people than he already did?"

The most popular YT video creator could probably start a fairly large lobbying effort although yes, the multi-trillion dollar US for-profit health insurance industry could probably do better.

"Why wouldn't a "Mr Beast goes to Washington" style video get as many views as his direct support videos got?"

It might, there's only one way to know.

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

#239

Post by kaba0 »

NoZebra120vClip wrote: post #204
pictureofabear wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Susan G Komen foundation figured that out years ago.

Charities like Komen, and the American Cancer Society, and all those charitable Foundations and Societies that fund research on incurable diseases: they are exactly the reason why breast cancer and all the other diseases will never, ever be cured. They must never be cured. Billions of dollars in revenue depend on their incurability. Scientists and researchers have an amazing cash cow, a goose that lays golden eggs, a…

I don’t fundamentally disagree with you, but I think people’s conception of curing cancers is just out of touch with reality. Cancer is a group of diseases, and we have come a very long way in successfully treating many members of that - there are many many millions who would have gotten a death sentence just a decade ago, being completely cured nowadays.

I don’t know about these foundations, maybe it is mostly funded by governments/EU funds, whatever instead, but there is good research out there.

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

#240

Post by Aunche »

mostly_lurks wrote: post #73
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…

What makes me uncomfortable is the elitism running through many of his videos. Put 100 "poors" in a circle so they can fight it out for $500k [1]? It's just another rich person making poor people do demeaning things for his entertainment and profit. It's disgusting. 1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxYjTTXc-J8

I'm not exactly a fan of Mr. Beast, but this comment reeks of more elitism than any Mr. Beast video I've ever watched. Are "poors" too stupid to make decisions for themselves? Everyone in that video received thousands of dollars. I'm nowhere near poor, but if I was given an opportunity, I'd probably participate.
Post reply on HN