YouTube Question Youtube performance anxiety?

[Bigjesticles35]

Hi Everyone,
I'm relatively new at this but have been wanting to do youtube for a while. I often see people say they are concerned about the possible hate they may get on their channel, negative comments ect from the public but what I often don't see is people discussing how they feel about their friends and family knowing about their channel.

I find that I am more anxious/worried about people I know judging my videos. Does anyone else feel this? Do you tell your friends and family about your channel and are they supportive? Or do you keep this journey to yourself?

Love to hear your thoughts
Jess

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

Yes ma'am, we all go through that anxiety a bit I think. You are opening up a piece of your creative self to be judged and man that can be scary. Honestly I didn't tell my family for over three years (which is funny because I do a family-oriented channel).

I am proud of my videos and that showed in my work, plus a library of 200+ videos not only proves how dependable and dedicated you are to your craft it also tends to desensitize you from the anxiety.

So the solution; MAKE MORE VIDS!

 

[Ater]

I try to live by the following rule in my life. I love constructive feedback that help med get better. When people write/say negative stuff I go through the following filter (some of is based on IRL rather then YouTube):
Do I know the person?
Do I respect the person?
Is the person giving constructive feedback?

This makes most of the crap people say/write just go in through one ear and out of the other without me getting affected by it.

So if someone would comment on one of my videos with something like: "You suck and this is the worst channel in the world!" that wouldn't affect me at all. But if someone wrote something in the style of: "Hey I have been watching a couple of your videos and over all I really like them but the way your microphone sometimes pick up other noise than your voice is really annoying to me" then I would listen and try to improve my sound quality and see if I could find a way to reduce the amount of background noise.

When it comes to people knowing about the channel to me it all comes down to if the channel would be of interest to them or not. I have a gaming channel and most of my gaming friends know of it. But most of my non gameing friends don't know about it, not because I try to hide it from them but because it would not be of interest to them. Just like my friend who is really into fishing very rarely talk about fishing with me since it's not a shared interest or hobby.

 

[Beanie Draws]

Hi Everyone,
I'm relatively new at this but have been wanting to do youtube for a while. I often see people say they are concerned about the possible hate they may get on their channel, negative comments ect from the public but what I often don't see is people discussing how they feel about their friends and family knowing about their channel.

I find that I am more anxious/worried about people I know judging my videos. Does anyone else feel this? Do you tell your friends and family about your channel and are they supportive? Or do you keep this journey to yourself?

Love to hear your thoughts
Jess

I've lived with anxiety pretty much all my life, but I never really had any anxiety about friends and family seeing my channel. My cousin will occasionally comment on my videos and in chat whenever I DO live stream, but he's always been supportive of my art endeavors so that's not a big concern. I've never publicly promoted my channel to any of my old friends, so if they discover it, that's simply through organic discovery. The only thing I've ever been concerned about is family using my comments as a way to ask or call me out about my private life, but they've never done that.

I keep this journey to myself. Luckily YouTube isn't like Facebook. For some reason Facebook will always try to recommend you to long lost acquaintances when I might just want to remain private. YouTube doesn't do this, so you don't HAVE to tell anyone.

I'm a very shy introvert so I don't like having people knowing what I'm up to on my channel, but whenever you publish you know it sends out notifications which comes with comments, so that's where my anxiety comes from.

It's weird, I like to show off my art because I have a level of pride in my abilities, but I also like to shy away from attention because I just like to share the art and let the art live on it's own.

 

[Bigjesticles35]

This!!! I am an introvert also and the struggle between wanting to create and share but also not draw attention to myself is real. Nice to hear others also feel this way and push through.

Yes ma'am, we all go through that anxiety a bit I think. You are opening up a piece of your creative self to be judged and man that can be scary. Honestly I didn't tell my family for over three years (which is funny because I do a family-oriented channel).

I am proud of my videos and that showed in my work, plus a library of 200+ videos not only proves how dependable and dedicated you are to your craft it also tends to desensitize you from the anxiety.

So the solution; MAKE MORE VIDS!

Thanks so much for your reply. Sounds like this kind of apprehension is pretty commonand often we fear the the opinions of the people we care about more than random people of the internet. I've always felt the same way performing (much less nervous singing in front of a couple of drunk people in a pub than my family). But yes the solution, keep creating, improving and building your confidence.

 

[DamoΓÇÖs Paintings]

Hey there no need to fret, as you can see weΓÇÖre all in the same boat, but I really couldnΓÇÖt really care about how people, family or otherwise, would ΓÇ£judgeΓÇ¥ my stuff, I enjoy uploading videos, and am not afraid of being on camera despite looking like a cross breed of a horse and bugs bunny

Plenty have given their thoughts and theyΓÇÖre great suggestions, so yeah just sharing my 3 cents worth

 

[Katelyn Borg]

Yes I get this a lot. My words often get stuck. I procrastinated starting a channel for 2 years, filmed multiple videos and had my first video ready in my camera for a month. Guess it just takes some practice and confidence which we often get through supportive comments and milestones

 

[SILTHW]

Speaking is a skill. Like any skill, you have to develop it. While it is very easy to say "just do it and it gets easier" (it does), it is a craft and that means you have to choose to learn it, practice it and get better at it. There are tons of techniques for getting better at things. One of the most effective it to rehearse and record the rehearsal. Play it back and decide on one thing you noted that you want to work on. Then work on that until you feel you have that down. Then rinse and repeat.

Once the world is more normal, I strongly recommend taking an improv class. A lot fo the games and techniques you learn in improv are about getting your head out of the game. Those are great tools. Honestly acting classes, stand-up comedy classes, speech classes, debate, etc. are all great ways to improve and gain more skills.

 

[Bigjesticles35]

Thankyou everyone for your replies. I'm glad to hear this is a common experience when first starting and appreciate the tips on how to overcome it

 

[Stanley | Team TB]

You do great work ma'am. Keep doing what you are doing... it's working just fine.

 

[talanajordan]

Hi! After a while, you get more secure in your videos, and usually, you won't receive regular negative comments until you have over 1K subs. Your friends and family should totally support you with your channel!!

 

[golfwithjohn]

Yes, I thought multiple times if I should upload my 1st, 2nd and even 3rd video. I don't know what people would think or how they would view me after watching. But I find filming and editing fun so I'm still doing it!

 

[Benny1985]

I've been doing videos for a year. I still get kind of sick thinking about filming and editing. Have I gotten negative comments before? Yes. But I've also had hundreds of people thank me for helping them. No one really attacks other people on YT for audio or video quality - the metrics kind of speak for that instead. What people care about is you, and what you're doing, and what the video is trying to accomplish.

Go for it, you won't regret it.

 

[Meifesto]

I find that I am more anxious/worried about people I know judging my videos. Does anyone else feel this? Do you tell your friends and family about your channel and are they supportive? Or do you keep this journey to yourself?

Love to hear your thoughts
Jess

I never really told people about, but i also didn't hide it as such.
The first years nobody i knew (friends / family) watched any of it.

At some point, my dad watched one or 2 video's. Even though his English isn't that great he seems to like it.
Both parents and my brothers do know i have the channel and i think they are happy that i have something i love doing.
You might get the interesting remark once in a while, but other than that it isn't really mentioned.

Present-day, my girlfriend knows it, but doesn't watch it all (for as far as i know xD ).
I have a colleague that watches once in a while. Mainly if it is of interest to him, or he is in it.
And my brother watches some of them since he is riding himself. Mainly to see himself and gets a head-up for any events.
So again, mainly what interest himself xD

 

[Cheche004]

T

Hi Everyone,
I'm relatively new at this but have been wanting to do youtube for a while. I often see people say they are concerned about the possible hate they may get on their channel, negative comments ect from the public but what I often don't see is people discussing how they feel about their friends and family knowing about their channel.

I find that I am more anxious/worried about people I know judging my videos. Does anyone else feel this? Do you tell your friends and family about your channel and are they supportive? Or do you keep this journey to yourself?

Love to hear your thoughts
Jess

TBH my parents are supportive but for some reason my older sister is not supportive at all. I've been someone like you begging her to support and then I moved on. You dont need anyones help to grow on youtube. If you are passionate enough to do this and want so badly to grow, it will grow fast. Good things take time. xx Hugs