Why do so many youtubers have adhd? Huge youtubers like markiplier, jacksepticeye, crankgameplays, etc all have adhd... what is the correlation? I feel like recently every time I discover a new creator they eventually mention they have adhd, at least 80% of the time. This isn't a criticism at all, also- I love seeing content from fellow neurodivergent peeps!!
I'm an autistic bean who is very intrigued by this trend... is this just the algorithm working to my interests? That seems possible. Maybe it is nothing ;^; At this point I feel like I'm being gaslit... is this just a coincidence? I am losing my mind. Send help.
Why do so many youtubers have adhd? Huge youtubers like markiplier, jacksepticeye, crankgameplays, etc all have adhd... what is the correlation? I feel like recently every time I discover a new creator they eventually mention they have adhd, at least 80% of the time. This isn't a criticism at all, also- I love seeing content from fellow neurodivergent peeps!!
I'm an autistic bean who is very intrigued by this trend... is this just the algorithm working to my interests? That seems possible. Maybe it is nothing ;^; At this point I feel like I'm being gaslit... is this just a coincidence? I am losing my mind. Send help.
part of it is definitely the algorithm, but I think it's also because people like them are more likely to do something like youtube since typical jobs don't necessarily agree with them.
on a funny side note; I don't have the neurodivergent radar but I definitely have a youtuber gaydar. many of my favorite content creators (and not just the big ones!) are nonbinary, transgender, and/or not straight. it's really amusing tbh
part of it is definitely the algorithm, but I think it's also because people like them are more likely to do something like youtube since typical jobs don't necessarily agree with them.
on a funny side note; I don't have the neurodivergent radar but I definitely have a youtuber gaydar. many of my favorite content creators (and not just the big ones!) are nonbinary, transgender, and/or not straight. it's really amusing tbh
The algorithm is probably part of it.
But if you think about what it takes to get popular as a content creator, it kind of selects for adhd. You need to always be uploading, often about very different subjects. You're also having to engage with people on social media.... There's a lot of plates to keep spinning. It's not gonna get boring.
Add to that the ability to work weird hours and the fact it's a creative medium, and you get a recipe for a job or hobby that works well for adhd brains. :)
The algorithm is probably part of it.
But if you think about what it takes to get popular as a content creator, it kind of selects for adhd. You need to always be uploading, often about very different subjects. You're also having to engage with people on social media.... There's a lot of plates to keep spinning. It's not gonna get boring.
Add to that the ability to work weird hours and the fact it's a creative medium, and you get a recipe for a job or hobby that works well for adhd brains. :)
This is more of a pet peeve for me, but I could swear even the more laid-back YouTubers these days are deathly allergic to silence. It's hard to find any that don't punctuate everything with sound effects, which feels Pavlovian at worst.
- An autistic who finds most popular things overstimulating. (There's a pattern there somewhere.)
This is more of a pet peeve for me, but I could swear even the more laid-back YouTubers these days are deathly allergic to silence. It's hard to find any that don't punctuate everything with sound effects, which feels Pavlovian at worst.
- An autistic who finds most popular things overstimulating. (There's a pattern there somewhere.)
[quote name="ufollie" date="2022-09-29 08:02:23" ]
But if you think about what it takes to get popular as a content creator, it kind of selects for adhd. You need to always be uploading, often about very different subjects. You're also having to engage with people on social media.... There's a lot of plates to keep spinning. It's not gonna get boring.
[/quote]
My girlfriend (who has adhd herself) has told me that it can help with things like livestreaming because you have to keep track of so many things in real time! We figured it might be similar for youtube :3
ufollie wrote on 2022-09-29 08:02:23:
But if you think about what it takes to get popular as a content creator, it kind of selects for adhd. You need to always be uploading, often about very different subjects. You're also having to engage with people on social media.... There's a lot of plates to keep spinning. It's not gonna get boring.
My girlfriend (who has adhd herself) has told me that it can help with things like livestreaming because you have to keep track of so many things in real time! We figured it might be similar for youtube :3
It's for the same reason you're more likely to find people with Anti Social Personality Disorder in jobs like EMTs and surgeons-- the traits of the neurodivergence play well with their chosen field.
ADHD just tends to lend well to gaming and streaming.
- F.
It's for the same reason you're more likely to find people with Anti Social Personality Disorder in jobs like EMTs and surgeons-- the traits of the neurodivergence play well with their chosen field.
ADHD just tends to lend well to gaming and streaming.
- F.
[quote name="Quellian" date="2022-09-30 10:55:50" ]
It's for the same reason you're more likely to find people with Anti Social Personality Disorder in jobs like EMTs and surgeons-- the traits of the neurodivergence play well with their chosen field.
[/quote]
I haven't heard that before abt EMTs and surgeons, that's interesting!
Quellian wrote on 2022-09-30 10:55:50:
It's for the same reason you're more likely to find people with Anti Social Personality Disorder in jobs like EMTs and surgeons-- the traits of the neurodivergence play well with their chosen field.
I haven't heard that before abt EMTs and surgeons, that's interesting!
Partly I’m convinced it’s because gaming and playing new stuff all the time lends itself well to neurodivergence. Idk, I feel like I’d enjoy myself streaming, and I have adhd! I also recognize it’s super hard to be popular in gaming, though (especially when you’re not super competitive and really just like playing things for fun and don’t lose it over mistakes), so I picked a more reliable career, lol
Maybe with said career I’ll buy some streaming stuff and make a setup and do small-time gaming as more of a hobby in my spare time
Partly I’m convinced it’s because gaming and playing new stuff all the time lends itself well to neurodivergence. Idk, I feel like I’d enjoy myself streaming, and I have adhd! I also recognize it’s super hard to be popular in gaming, though (especially when you’re not super competitive and really just like playing things for fun and don’t lose it over mistakes), so I picked a more reliable career, lol
Maybe with said career I’ll buy some streaming stuff and make a setup and do small-time gaming as more of a hobby in my spare time
There's a few reasons for this!
One is that, as many have pointed out, the traits do play well with the job. (Barring burnout, of course. It's funny that the same thing that can make you more well-primed for entertainment is also the thing that can make it absolutely impossible to do for months at a time.)
Two, gifted kid mentality. Many people with adhd were also "gifted kids" growing up, therefore getting a lot of attention based on their accomplishments, and therefore developing a kind of attention addiction. As they grow, they get less and less of that approval they've grown accustomed to, partly because standard things become a lot more difficult for them. They may try to seek that attention and approval by creating stuff and putting it out online. (This also can make it difficult to continue as a lot of their reason for creating is other peoples' opinions of them.)
Third, having no other path. For people with adhd, the future can be difficult to picture as a hopeful thing, since a lot of things are just that much harder to do. There's the option of settling for a normal, boring job, which is absolute torture for the adhd brain a lot of the time. There's the option of going to a college/university/trade school, which can either be a great experience or again, absolute torture, depending on how interested you are in the subject and how easily you get burnt out, especially with the workload on other required subjects. This is a huge barrier in the way of pursuing fields the person might be very interested in and skilled at already. It may seem like a much better option to throw yourself into a field in which one of the main factors of whether you succeed or not is luck. And when you succeed, oh boy you succeed. Out of all the people throwing themselves into the algorithm, only a few actually make it, but it seems like better odds to the desperate person with adhd and nowhere else to go.
Those are just a few thoughts on it, more negative ones for sure, positive motivations would be that they're just absolutely that passionate about it and fired up to keep going.
Source: when I got diagnosed with adhd, I did a lot of research on it. I've also done a bit of youtube, and when I was hardcore into it, did a lot of research on that as well. There's also this great channel called HealthyGamerGG which goes in depth on just basically how different minds function, especially online.
TLDR: life hard, youtube interesting
There's a few reasons for this!
One is that, as many have pointed out, the traits do play well with the job. (Barring burnout, of course. It's funny that the same thing that can make you more well-primed for entertainment is also the thing that can make it absolutely impossible to do for months at a time.)
Two, gifted kid mentality. Many people with adhd were also "gifted kids" growing up, therefore getting a lot of attention based on their accomplishments, and therefore developing a kind of attention addiction. As they grow, they get less and less of that approval they've grown accustomed to, partly because standard things become a lot more difficult for them. They may try to seek that attention and approval by creating stuff and putting it out online. (This also can make it difficult to continue as a lot of their reason for creating is other peoples' opinions of them.)
Third, having no other path. For people with adhd, the future can be difficult to picture as a hopeful thing, since a lot of things are just that much harder to do. There's the option of settling for a normal, boring job, which is absolute torture for the adhd brain a lot of the time. There's the option of going to a college/university/trade school, which can either be a great experience or again, absolute torture, depending on how interested you are in the subject and how easily you get burnt out, especially with the workload on other required subjects. This is a huge barrier in the way of pursuing fields the person might be very interested in and skilled at already. It may seem like a much better option to throw yourself into a field in which one of the main factors of whether you succeed or not is luck. And when you succeed, oh boy you succeed. Out of all the people throwing themselves into the algorithm, only a few actually make it, but it seems like better odds to the desperate person with adhd and nowhere else to go.
Those are just a few thoughts on it, more negative ones for sure, positive motivations would be that they're just absolutely that passionate about it and fired up to keep going.
Source: when I got diagnosed with adhd, I did a lot of research on it. I've also done a bit of youtube, and when I was hardcore into it, did a lot of research on that as well. There's also this great channel called HealthyGamerGG which goes in depth on just basically how different minds function, especially online.
TLDR: life hard, youtube interesting
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