 First of all, yeah. That's how my pandemic experience is going. How are you? Today's another Wattpad video in my dudes. Hell yeah, Wattpad. However, it's not Wattpad's wildest today. The series where we read through some of the, just the greatest stories on Wattpad. Today I wanna discuss the question, should we take Wattpad? Seriously. Look, I know I joke around a lot and at the best of times, I'm sarcastic. I'm a sarcastic ass who uses dry humor as a coping mechanism and a crutch against the crippling fear that I bore, the people that I care about and the people that I so desperately tried to entertain. But hey, I plan on treating this topic seriously. But look, on a serious note now, okay, jokes aside, let's be real. Let's... Let's get serious. Wattpad doesn't have the best reputation. We all know it. It doesn't have the best reputation if we're talking about measuring literary credibility. Personally, I don't think that's a problem. I think it's silly to expect that every creative platform or medium has to be an upstanding example of excellence. I think that's just... I think it's silly. But I personally believe that the reason that Wattpad has this reputation is because it's developed for itself a bit of a stigma and it's a stigma that comes with a lot of things that are easily accessible. If you don't know what Wattpad is, basically it is a website that is completely free to read through and upload on, basically just where you post stories. It's like an Instagram for writers kind of. That stigma I mentioned that comes with things that are easily accessible, I have another example for you. Think of self-publishing. Self-publishing now is starting to be taken way more seriously than it used to be. But back in the day, it was basically treated as a joke as far as publishing credibility goes. The problem was that anyone could do it. So what you would find is that the market would become flooded with amateur work. And I think that's pretty true. And like I said, I also don't think that's a problem. In fact, I think that's the major appeal of Wattpad. I think that's how a lot of people came to find Wattpad. But it does understandably deter people who are looking primarily for quality storytelling. Not just creative ideas, but stories that are actually written well. These quality stories may exist on Wattpad. But they happen to be buried behind a wall of K-pop smite. What the fuck? Now it's important that you note that the question I asked was, should we take Wattpad seriously? Not, do you like Wattpad? I actually dig Wattpad. I'll admit, mostly for laughs. I mean, come on. Hey Shrek, you have a juicy green pair of bum cheeks. I may have to ask for a crumb of your whose green will eat the leading dime. But let's say you don't like Wattpad. Fair enough. However, it's impractical to believe that anything you dislike shouldn't be taken seriously. I'm sure you agree. That's a pretty rational point of view. For example, I'm not a huge fan of TikTok anymore. All right, look, I mean, don't get me wrong. I'm only human and I'll still spend an hour or more surfing through it before bed. And there is still a lot of great creative and funny content on there, but I think it's changed pretty drastically since, at least since I came across it. Yeah, there's a lot of people having fun and dancing and making harmless jokes, that kind of thing. But it's almost entirely become saturated now with recycled jokes, these weird like race, gender and political wars. Most of the time between kids, it's just, it's weird. People are very passionately at war with anyone who is different from them on TikTok. People like me, minorities like me. No, so basically what you're trying to say is that she can't make a video using this sound because she's white. Where are the four thug dancers? And then you have thirst traps. Lots and lots of thirst traps and it's almost completely from people who are either way too old or way too young to be doing that, at least on TikTok. TikTok is, well, it's basically become Twitter. So I don't really like TikTok that much anymore. Be that as it may, I can still completely acknowledge that TikTok was, is and I imagine will continue to be a cultural phenomenon. I may not get the whole Charlie D'Amelio hype, but millions of other people seem to. The whole point I'm making with this is simply that it's not usually wise to dismiss a whole platform as being nothing but just silliness and rubbish and poor content. Because while you may feel that way, that platform can very well end up changing the social landscape as we know it. You might be wondering if anyone from Wattpad has actually ever been published. And the answer is yeah. In fact, there's been like over a hundred people. That's obviously not a small number and I imagine I've surprised at least some of you. That's just a, that's, that's another surprise for you. That's, that one's a freebie. Anna Todd with her story after. Beth Riekels with kissing booth. Abigail Gibbs with the dark heroine. Lillian Carmine with the lost boys. Not that lost boys. Nikki Kelly with Layla. And Brittany Garagotellis with what the spell. So something is probably immediately clear. And that is that these stories and many others have something in common. I have quite a few things in common actually. They are all relatively young women with young adult romance fiction stories. Some of them are even. The explanation for this is actually pretty easy. Aside from romance being just straight up the most popular fiction genre and YA especially being the most marketable. Wattpad itself is almost entirely made up of a female audience. On top of that 80% of Wattpad is Young Millennials and Gen Zers. Simply put most of Wattpad is the exact demographic that these stories were written for. These successful stories. I love rom-coms more than I should. But these particular stories, they're just not for me. These young adult female-centric romances do not please, they don't please me. A 26 year old man. It's a fucking outrage isn't it? So we've clarified the commercial success through Wattpad is entirely possible. Albeit through a very narrow window. What that tells me is that if you are a writer who specializes in romances intended for a younger perhaps more female audience putting out some short stories or maybe some chapters of the story or trying to sell through Wattpad might actually be a really good idea. However, if you're writing a military action or a full length fantasy novel Wattpad probably isn't for you. You'd probably have to go to a bit of a different platform or something like that. Something like a fucking boypad. Am I right? It's for boys. Girls, girls stink. Ew. Oh wait, I just thought of a funny analogy. Do you think Wattpad writers are kind of like the sound cloud rappers of the book world? I'm not throwing shade, I promise. But it's like, I mean... So Wattpad's known for one thing in particular. That's fan fiction. And I'm not talking about writing your own fantasy imagining of an existing fiction story like your own tangent of Harry Potter or something like that. That's not what I'm referring to in this instance. I'm talking about people taking real people like celebrities and writing a story around them. And it's usually to fulfill some kind of sexual fantasy. Right? I got my magnum condoms. I got my water hundreds. I'm ready to plow. Hey, more power to you, man. When you think about it, it's kind of like just a classier form of masturbation. But personally, I don't ever see that specific branch of Wattpad being taken seriously. And I mean, can you blame them? Further to that, I think those like sexual fanfics of celebrities are probably one of the primary reasons that Wattpad isn't taken seriously outside of that community. The truth is, sometimes it's intriguing. Sometimes it's funny, but most of the time it just feels kind of icky. Again, let me be clear. If you're doing that, that's fine. I don't think it's actually causing any harm at all. But when you really think about it, it's kind of creepy. Okay, imagine you're browsing the web one day and you come across a huge compendium of just hundreds of stories that are exclusively about you banging random people. Not just you banging random people, but like graphic descriptions of your naked body interacting with other random people's naked bodies. It's a bit creepy. I mean, imagine the same thing, but instead of stories, it's a collection of very realistically photoshopped pictures of you and other people, smash and genitals. You and this stranger, you know? Just, hmm? See what I mean? I think you get it. Some people take their intimacy very seriously. That's all I'm getting at. Look, I joke about what pad, but I actually do love it. I think it's a great platform. I think at worst it's creepy, but at best it's a great practice ground for people who might one day become published authors and people who may end up telling a fictional story that you genuinely enjoy. I think it's great that there is a platform, such a huge platform, that is built almost exclusively off creativity. Look, maybe one minute you'll be writing a gross, icky, Harry Styles fanfic, and maybe the next you will be writing a profound three book series that explores the intricacies of idealized sexual promiscuity. Maybe. Should we take what pad seriously? Yeah, of course, but, you know, not too seriously. There's a lot of funny shit on there. Thanks for watching. She's got class and style. Free knowledge, but baby, never act wild. Very low key. Catching feelings isn't all. Let me show you how it...