Not so long ago I did a research on how people perceive virtual communication, to be precise concentrating on what impact that the youtube vlogs have on their audience, whether the clip culture pretends to be real when it is not really the whole picture about a person's life. My findings from that research was the fans of the famous youtubers who I might call here as the 'Youtube celebrities' knew that they were subjected to a hyper real or environment but most of the time the content produced tends to blur the lines between reality and hyperreality. 

To explain it with an example that I have quoted in my research where I concentrated on Bethany Mota's vlogs, who is a Youtube teen who produces content on makeup and some parts of her life that she likes to share with the people around the world. Talking about both the ends, starting with the Youtuber's end, most of the vlogs are filmed in their bedroom,car, or even on a picnic. What this exactly does is create an artificial environment which undergoes a lot of editing, lighting and we see just the best bits, which is critical and is not easy to comprehend the difference between what is produced and what happens in reality. 

To be fair to the Youtubers part who are similar to any other individuals who deserve privacy and also the same treatment everyone needs. The exact problem arises when they produce a content that looks like it is going to showcase most of there life when we leave out the other part. So, the audience of these celebrities are trying to take more advantage/ which naturally happens when we tend to consider someone very close to us, when we really cross the border and are not able to take in any other flaw about them even if the YouTubers themselves tend to agree. (Of course, to Err is human). The strong cult that they have grown over years make it difficult for them when there happens a sudden change in there life which they don't want to take in as a part of the youtubers life. 

But we cannot forgot, what they do is also a business and they can very well take advantage of their audience and play a part of manipulating there mind. It's the human nature that when I strongly believe in a person whatever they tell to me is going to be true and also If they recommend me something, then my mind insists me to go out and buy them if it is a product or use them if it is a service. This is none less than a celebrity endorsement that we see on TV. There is more sense of endorsed content when we watch it on the television, because it definitely strikes our mind that happens on TV is edited. 

When we see the problem of blurred lines between the content that doesn't seem like a content but looks like an interactive venture (hyper realism). Ofcourse, I truly support YouTube on providing a platform for a lot of people in connecting the world which was not made possible before Youtube. There are many many advantages of youtube as it helps in crowdfunding, connecting the two worlds, a great platform for exhibiting the new talent and projecting them, some errors like this can be avoided by just changing the perspective and the way the content is perceived by both the producers of content and also the audiences/fans of the content.

Here is a link to the research report on how people perceive virtual communication and the impact of vlogs on the audience.