Some content creators attempt to tailor material to TikTok, Instagram and any other potentially profitable platform. But by 2020, Chow, aware that the Trump administration might ban TikTok, had also read the book “Essentialism,” whose message he summarized as “you can be good at many things or you can the best at one thing.” He threw himself into YouTube, specifically YouTube Shorts, videos often under a minute that are designed to be watched on phones....
The audience is heavily Generation Alpha, children roughly 7 to 14 who grew up with screens. His work is not so different from the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon shows that Chow and his cast mates came of age with. “This show is for the children that are in middle school,” said Moris Zingman, 27, a lead producer on “Alan’s Universe,” “and this is their illusion of what high school looks like.”
Is Alan Chikin Chow the new Disney? Or do you just want to know if "Chikin Chow" is his real name? Apparently it is. "Chikin" is Cantonese for "strong-willed" (unless he's pulling my drumstick).
What do you think of that line "You can be good at many things or you can the best at one thing"? It's a bit like "Jack of all trades, master of none." And then there's "I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times" (Bruce Lee).
Taking the opposing position, there's Robert A. Heinlein: "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
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So, THIS is what our youth is watching today? It explains a lot.
FWIW, I just re-watched "Generation War," a German series about a family in WWII. Very good. It require reading subtitles, though.
I met Heinlein's nephew in school. Fascinating and brilliant family.
It's not possible to create a Disney of the past today. The nation and even the world had a much more homogenous culture toward children and childhood. Today it's nowhere near unified enough to build that, especially when we know what must be included politically.
When you were a child, there was no fear of what other families might believe or what customs they may have had. They were either similar to yours, or if different, at least harmless and likely interesting and fun. There just wasn't as much suspicion and hate between people who lived or thought differently.
Disney creators rarely worried about extensive menu of offense that must be navigated today. It's impossible to not piss off someone today, even with the most innocent of material.
Get kids off this junk. Parents - its up to you. wake up.
Is the home page titled 'Alan Chikin Chow Main'?
Aspiring young filmmakers used to craft their film projects by imitating what they saw on the screen in theaters, or on television. I would guess he's doing the same - but what is now on the screen has devolved from complex imagery and story lines with nuance, into a simple gratification of the senses - over powering colors, loud noises, shock tactics, and a drive for physiological reaction to visual inputs. How sad, Barbie world. I'm glad to see my kids being strict with any kind of screen time for their toddlers. Not forbidden, just very limited.
Yes, a lot of the Disney stuff could not be made today. Like when Sgt. Garcia yells indignantly “El Comandante! Zorro has come and stolen all the wine!”
there's some sort of hedgehog (and fox?) thing..
i wouldn't know.. I'm bad at quite a few things, and really bad at some
Regarding the number of internet followers, the youngest generation is always trying to find out what the latest fad is and join in, no matter what it is. Same as it ever was.
meanwhile,
netflix just spent a zillion dollars buy some old film studio?
people don't want a one minute video, they want a one second meme
Does the content create the fad or does the fad create the content?
Disney was always a degenerate company.
I guess it makes sense to move on to the next generation of degeneracy.
Well it wasnt under disney thats why they tried to defame him, like mark elliot and the like
98M subscribers is quite impressive and lucrative. NYT and Media Matters would love those numbers. Alas, I’m too busy to give him anymore attention. Best of luck.
Gilbar: “ there's some sort of hedgehog (and fox?) thing..”
Yes, Ron Jeremy knows one big thing. CC, JSM
I thought it was pretty good. The messaging was positive. Kids like to see drama and silliness superimposed on the strictures of their everyday lives. If this is what kids are watching on Friday night, that's okay.
NYT inadvertently admitting Trump's on-shoring works?
Some content creators attempt to tailor material to TikTok, Instagram and any other potentially profitable platform. But by 2020, Chow, aware that the Trump administration might ban TikTok... He threw himself into YouTube...
Make having a boyfriend great again by turning him into a domesticated werewolf.
I grew up in a time when Renaissance Man was the ideal and I still think it’s important to be competent at many things in many fields. But if you want to be really good at something, you can’t spread yourself too thin. Choices must be made.
Unless he builds his own platform, he'll be at the mercy of the Ellison family and Google. No matter how popular, they can ban him at any time. Lots of popular people on youtube have been de-monitized or banned because of some whim of Google ownership.
That how we got Musk buying twitter. A small group was strangling, gatekeeping, and censoring the internet.
It's tempting to envy these young millionaires like Alan Chikin Chow or MrBeast who made it big by posting frivolous content.
They are productive, generating content that many people freely consume. They did not get rich through corruption, market manipulation, or oppressing anyone.
I don't know if their content is beneficial or educational. PBS or the BBC might worry about that since they have big budgets, but choose not to compete.
If Alen Chiken Chow is more influential than the trillions of dollars we spend on education, then we deserve what we get.
@ Joe Bar
"So, THIS is what our youth is watching today? It explains a lot."
My grade school grandnephews watch Skibidi Toilet, very strange. Many episodes.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d9z9J4Wz6Ns
What do you think of the idea that line “You can be good at many things or you can be best at one thing.”
It’s from a popular management book.
The Discipline of Market Leaders by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema (first published in 1995)
As a long-term fan and lurker, I was drawn out of my closet by your reference to my favorite Heinlein quote “A human being should be able to … “ I read my first story in Boy’s Life and am still giving copies to my great nephews. Are you a reader or did you come across the quote by other means?
It's like peak era Nickelodeon shows and Asian dramas had a baby. A trope-filled baby. I can see why it's popular. If young teens are watching this, I think it's a good thing, especially if it's a choice between this and the politically/socially divisive garbage that's getting pushed at them.
"You can be good at many things or you can the best at one thing"
I'm on the internet 24x7x365.
Never heard of this chink.
And if the NY Times is fronting this chink, then he's dangerous and shouldn't be let anywhere near our children.
And Heinlein is right. You should have a plan to kill everyone you come into contact with, should that become necessary (or even merely desirable). That requires a multitude of skills beyond tickling people's dopamine levels up with 1-minute horseshit on Tik-Tok.
Chikin Chow dresses like he's a K-Pop icon. I guess that's what young people like. I suppose, though, that with all the stuff thrown at kids, the wave of the future may just be turning everything off and going outside to play.
Bob Eland said..."I read my first story in Boy’s Life and am still giving copies to my great nephews."
I presume you are referring to the magazine formerly published by the former Boy Scouts. I was a bit dismayed, but not surprised, to see that the magazine now is called Scout Life.
I got Boy's Life during my year of scouting. IIRC I read Clarke's story about solar sails in one issue. (I'm sure it wasn't in the New Yorker.)
My bad. Should be Teh New Yorker.
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