In this project I will be analyzing the profile pictures of 60 Youtube users who are subscribed to my Youtube Channel, namely the relation between profile name and the profile picture. Each picture is characterized based on whether it is an actual image of a person, if it has a character from another piece of media, if it has words, or if it falls into none of the above categories. The names are categorized based on whether they are actual names, if they seem to represent an organization or personality (ie. Caleb the Animator), or if they are clearly an online persona. The data is collected below (Note that some profile pictures fall into multiple categories)
Outcome
Before analyzing this data, it is necessary to give a preface about the content of my Youtube Channel. Though the channel is no longer active, it had hosted a variety of video game walkthroughs in the past. Most of the games featured on the channel were nintendo or old school games with a non-gritty, realistic aesthetic. This is likely why many profile pictures were characters from other pieces of media. It also explains the surprising amount of profile pictures categorized under other, as many of these pictures featured cute animals or other iconography. The sparsity of pictures with actual people on them is not surprising, given that Youtube was considered a site with relatively anonymous personas when I was active, and the sparsity of pictures with words is also unsurprising given that many users express their views and opinions through their videos. That is to say, the site is unlike other social media sites where the interaction between users is on a larger scale than that of facebook, where interaction is generally limited to an immediate friend group
Now to analyze the type of profile names seen. The abundance of actual names wasn't very surprising, given the integration of youtube with Google Plus in recent years. The number of online persona's also isn't surprising, given as those are likely remnants from the time I was active on Youtube. The lack of organization or personality profile namescan be explained by correlating those accounts with other content creators, who are probably less likely to consume videos that other produce than they are to create their own content.
The last bit to analyze is the relation between profile names and the type of picture. Unsurprisingly, those with a profile picture of an actual person typically had actual names. However the association doesn't work both ways, as 1/2 the people with real names chose an external media avatar to represent them. This may be due in part to the nature of Google's google plus social network, where sharing photos isn't as emphasized. Aside from that, there aren't many other associations that particularly stood out, aside from the association between online personas and using imagery from other media.
In all, the results of this study has revealed a lot about how Google Plus's integration with Youtube has changed how users decide to represent themselves. Whereas before everyone would use some external imagery or persona to represent themselves, many new users are simply finding it more convenient to use actual photos with their real names, though there is still a larger contingent of those who will use external images. In addition, I noticed that more users are becoming consumers rather than the content creators, as there are very few people whose profile name or image would suggest that they represent some entity which needs some degree of professionalism to create videos.
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