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Census Analysis 2019! (IT'S SO LATE!!!!)
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Duration: | 58:19 |
Uploaded: | 2020-07-16 |
Last sync: | 2024-09-09 17:15 |
Thank you so much to everyone who participated in the census this year! So happy to have finally had the time to go over it with every one :-)
Hello and welcome to the Nerdfighteria census 2019 edition! It's July, I'm sorry, it's mid-July. More than halfway through the year. I have excuses, of course, but uh, but what good are they? It became difficult to run a business for a little while there and was really scary and required a lot of attention. I also finally just had my book come out, which means that I can start catching up on obligations of which there are many that I have let sit by the wayside, backburner over the last year so, hello. I do feel bad, but thank you for tuning in for this, the analysis of the 2019 census.
Which Nerdfighteria Census' have you participated in? (1:35)
I've, of course, looked at the census and spent a lot of time looking at it, but I had not made the video yet so here's the video and we start out by asking which Nerdfighteria census you've participated in. Since--there are still a large number of people, over 5,000 people, who have done it every single time since 2013. Badge of honor to all of you, and then this is the first one is a relatively small percentage. That stands up to sort of, oh gosh, that stands up to previous years and why is that moving? There's like a little white space over here. I guess I should just do that? Okay. That worked. So yeah, I mean, last year, it was 5,700, this year, it's 5,200. Like, that number is remarkably consistent over the years, but of course, it just spreads out throughout the curve as time goes on and yeah, which is great. Which is great, love it, and that makes sense to me.
How old are you? (1:54)
You know, one of the most striking, always one of the most striking things that we can see in the census is that everybody gets older as time goes on, 'cause our audience is certainly not growing in the young direction anymore, and that's fine. How far back can we go with this question? I don't know, is it--yeah. All the way back. Not exactly the same categories because I did it wrong the first year, but uh, you can see that 16-18, we had a 16-18 category 'cause that's where almost everyone was, but we have broken that out since and--or I guess we haven't. I guess we did 16-18 the whole time. But look at how that 16-18 category shrank from--it was at 32% and now it's--now it's 10%, but that makes sense, right, because it's been, it's--since 2013, it's been a while! So those people are older now and we see that we are solidly in our 20s now, us here in this community, though also the 31-40 category is going up, as is the 55+ and the 41-55 category, so it just, you know, boop, boop, boop. Do you see what's happening? The bell curve is shifting as we age and eventually, uh, that, you know, death will come and get us all. So hello and welcome to everybody being in their 20s. I hope it's going well for you.
Rank your internet places by how much you enjoy them (3:20)
I find this question fascinating 'cause it changes so dramatically. I had even musical.ly on here and then Vine on the year before. Vine was never a big place for Nerdfighters, at least the ones that we reached through the survey. Yeah, so I've done that question the last five years. YouTube always being the top, but it's gone from 8 to 9, so YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, so Tumblr's dropping. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Tumblr, so Tumblr continued to drop and so is Facebook, and this is favorite, most enjoyed, not most time spent, so remember that. YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, reddit, Facebook. reddit now overcoming Facebook in terms of enjoyment of the community, and Snapchat and Tumblr basically tied, and then YouTube, Instagram, reddit, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Snapchat, reddit now above Twitter in terms of how much people enjoy it. Wild.
Rank your internet places by how much time you spend on them (4:27)
However is a different question and Facebook has maintained some, some control over that and I think that that makes sense and that we all recognize that Facebook is not great but we continue to spend time there, so YouTube still is the winner, but Instagram finally, this year, has pulled out ahead of Facebook, which is reflective of trends on the internet, internet-wide trends. Twitter, reddit, Snapchat and uh, it's--so musical.ly was there and then dropped off and I didn't have--I didn't put TikTok on the list but it wasn't really worth doing so there's no reason I had to do it the year before, but now I'd be--I'm so interested to see how this turns out in the 2020 census, because I think that quarantine has gotten a lot of people on TikTok, including me, so I'd be interested to see, I definitely think that it's moved up dramatically since this survey and that is a big internet story of the year, but YouTube maintains its dominance among Nerdfighters and Instagram also is doing quite well. I--I never think about Instagram. I do nothing on Instagram and I should. Maybe. I guess. It seems like it. I should also mention that my, the software that I used to use for doing the Nerdfighteria census has broken and so I'm doing it in a different way and I've just got my fingers deeply crossed that this even works, so. Let's hope. Let's keep on moving down here.
What would you like to see more of on vlogbrothers?(6:11)
This hasn't changed that dramatically, though explanations is dropping and discussions is going up, which I kind of like, 'cause I don't feel qualified to explain things as much as I used to. Turns out this is all very complicated and what--who am I? But discussions, I'm into, and big ideas I'm into, so uhh, we'll try to do, we'll try to do more of that. I don't even know exactly what we're doing on vlogbrothers anymore. We're having fun is what we're doing and I hopefully will be able to bring some fun to the channel in the future. It does feel a little like it's hard to have fun right now, so um, that's been reflected in our content because it is where our mood is but also where the internet is. Other than like, discussions sort of moving up over explanations, more--this hasn't changed much. Who wants collaborations anymore? Nobody. Nobody cares about collaborations. Yeah, that, that pie piece has significantly shrunk over the years and who cares about it anymore.
Do you listen to podcasts? (7:23)
Similar and I don't know why those are two different questions, but there we are. Podcast question, do you listen to podcasts? Frequently is now 51% and last year it was 48% and the year before that, I'm pretty sure I asked it. Uhh, there it is. It was 42%, so that's definitely increasing as time goes on, the share of people who listen to podcasts. The never category is now down, down around 10% of Nerdfighters, which makes sense to me. Podcasts are great and I don't know how I would survive without them.
Do you listen to our podcasts? (8:04)
Um, looks like The Anthropocene Reviewed and Dear Hank and John are the most popular. Delete This is second, SciShow Tangents still bringing up the rear there, and I should have asked, like, do you know what this even is, so I asked nope. Thinking about checking it out. But if you're thinking about checking it out, please do, any of these podcasts, because they're all very good and I like them.
Are you a YouTube Premium subscriber? (8:33)
YouTube Premium subscriptions. Let's see how that's changing. Uh, so four years of data on YouTube paid, 5% of people were yes, and 5% of people didn't know what it was. I also added 'it's not available in my country' 'cause that's a thing, so I went from 5% to 9% to 10% to 12%, so it's going up still. Now, I will say that this is the most dedicated parts of Nerdfighteria and the number of respondents has, you know, decreased significantly, so this was 70,000 people and then 53 and then 42, and then 42 basically, so the number of responses has not changed dramatically the last two years, which is lovely, but they are--they are gonna be the most dedicated, y'all who answered this survey are gonna be the ones who are--spend the most time on YouTube, so there's a sampling bias there and I also, in general, I will say I have a US bias when analyzing the survey an I'm trying to remove that from my mind because there, as we will see, there's a lot of people not in the US, but that's just a, that's a thing about me.
Click on any that you've attended (9:49)
Most people have not been able to attend a thing, that makes sense. It's hard to go to a thing, but thank you to all the people who have. If you stack those things up, that's actually a pretty substantial percentage of folks and some kind of Hank and John event of some kind and then we've done some events since then, so if you came out to see us at any of those, thank you for that. Oh, for example, I was advertising it here.
Where do you get news about what's going on in Nerdfighteria? (10:19)
This is nobody--I'm glad that nobody clicked Snapchat, because, well 64 people did, so I don't know how you're getting that, but uh, we don't use Snapchat for that. Whatever. Um, the newsletter, glad to see that that's something that people are using and are connected to. It looks like um, what's happening? So. Everything is going down. It looks like everything is going down and nothing is going up. Nowhere is going up a little bit and yeah, everything's going down. Basically, I don't. I have less and less so.
Please ruthlessly rank our projects from your favorite to your least favorite (11:05)
and I don't know how much I've asked that question. Just the once? Yeah, just the once. So uh, let's see. Vlogbrothers and then Dear Hank and--oh, vlogbrothers, Dear Hank and John has moved up ahead of CrashCourse and John's books, SciShow, Hank's book, the Anthropocene Reviewed has moved up substantially, Delete This has moved up substantially, hankgames has uh, you know, about the same. Microcosmos, hello to all you Microcosmos fans out there.
Is butt legs? (11:49)
We got a lot of people taking the easy way out here by saying it's complicated. I'm not a huge fan of that. You gotta, you gotta come down on a side, I'm sorry, but thank you so much to all of the yeses out there. I'm just gonna assume that this would equally distribute and that yes would be the winner. This I need to change so that it's showing it for descending. Da-da-da-da-dah!
What country do you live in? (12:16)
And we will see that 61% of Nerdfighters are in the US, which is uh, not--that's just--yeah, look at that! Surprise! So that's a thing to keep in mind always, Hank, and then of course, you know, the next biggest slice is Canada and then the UK, but then there's just a ton of people that are in this long tail, so hello to all of you all over the world and I increasingly need to keep my mind oriented on the reality that this is an international community, despite the fact that like, we are dealing with some really specific US problems. I mean, we're dealing with those problems internationally. The way that the US runs itself matters to the whole world. I apologize for how much it matters. I wish it didn't matter as much as it did, especially considering, so I just, generally, I apologize on behalf of how we have handled the last three years, but specifically the last six months. Not great. Shout out to all you New Zealanders. 397 of you, if you can figure out how to get me residency, just let me know. That's a joke, I'm not actually going to leave America. I like it here and I think we are needed. You know how I feel though.
If you live in the US, what state do you live in?(13:44)
California's our big state still. California, New York, Texas, Washington. So this is interesting. California, New York, Texas, very representative of like, the states that are big, but then Washington?! Like, Florida I think is the next state down by population and we just aren't big in Florida. You know, I mean, it makes sense, like, Washington is like, that's the vibe, right? It's--that's the, you know, it's a nerd center, for sure. Don't mean to get up in your business, Washington, but you're a nerd center and you know, how many of those people are in Bellingham, like, probably most of them. God bless you, Bellingham, and you know, I don't know, like, you're just--that's just the, that's the culture, so Michigan, I--you know, I'd like to do an analysis here where I do a per capita thing, but like, it's hard to do, but I can definitely tell you that Florida, per capita, would be higher on this list, but we just--and I've, like, the shows we've done in Florida, not bad, but I once did a show in Miami and there was like, like, dozens--like, maybe like, 24 people came, so that's a--you know. This is gonna be a lot of scrolling, sorry.
Gender (15:03)
And then we've got gender, check all that apply. Uh, yeah, the last two years are the only ones that are--that are complimentary to each other, because like, I did it poorly in previous years. So female has always been the biggest hunk of Nerdfighteria. We see non-binary is bumping up there, which is great. What's up to all my enby friends?
Race or Ethnicity (15:35)
And race or ethnicity! This question. So, remembering that Nerdfighteria--one of the things that I always do is I think about this question from a US point of view, which is, you know, like a, you know, pretty specific when it comes to race. What have I changed in this question over the years? Non-Hispanic white, right, I changed that to just be white, which I think, you know, that probably changed when--I remember last year being like, the percentage of white people went up, but I think that's partially because non-white Hispanic was in there. Confronting and understanding this, I think is really important. It's a thing that I think about a fair amount. First there is a sampling bias in general that people who feel they're in the minority are less likely to take a survey. I think that that's--that might have some effect, but like, not a huge one, but the other thing I wanna say is that like, this is, like, each one of the people who clicked on this is an individual person and so like, this can--I don't want this to feel like, well, look, it's a white space, so now feel even more uncomfortable inside of it. I--there are lots of Nerdfighters of color, lots of Black nerdfighters, and--but I also think that it's just, it's really important to recognize and to like, see at what point is it like, are there things that we actually do that feel exclusive, that feel like, oh, I see that that's like a--I see what that is. It's like, white, white people hanging out. I think the YouTube algorithm also tends to, you know, like, sort of put people into a kind of bucket and it may not know that it's doing that racially but it may be doing it racially and that's been something that's been really interesting about TikTok is that I tend to get a lot more content and maybe it's because like, I like or follow people, you know, more intentionally now than I used to, but it's something that like, uh, I'm glad that we know and I'm continuing to think about, but also I wanna be clear that just because, you know, you're not in a majority doesn't mean that this isn't a place for you, so I don't want that to be a scary thing.
What is your sexual orientation? (17:44)
Let's look at that. Similar, basically, is the vibe I'm getting from this. A little less straight. Unsure is going down, uh, yeah, we're just a little less straight this year, everybody and I think that that's generally seems to be how things are, at least in my world.
Do you feel like you belong in Nerdfighteria?(18:11)
Oh wow, that percentage actually went up and that really went down, so good. Wonderful.
Do you own a SodaStream (or other water carbonator)?(18:23)
God, Hank. Uh, so basically this was, this was an extremely illustrative question as I was attempting to decide whether or not to start a home-made soda syrup business and I saw the answers to this question and I was like, eh, looks like no, so I think no. I think I won't do that and I decided to not do that.
Do you think you are an extrovert, introvert, different on different days? (18:49)
I've asked that question two years in a row and wow, that's--so introvert has gone down a little bit. Different on different days has gone up a little bit, so that's nice, 'cause that's me representation, hello to those people, different on different days. I feel you.
Are you aware of these things?(19:11)
And then let's see how aware people are of the various things. I won't--it won't be comparable, because I added a thing to it, so people are aware of An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, good, Turtles All the Way Down, Patreon, DFTBA.com, VidCon, all aware of those things. Podcon, a little less aware. Hank Green and the Perfect Strangers, a little less aware. Complexly, our production company, Nerdcon, VidCon Australia, VidCon London. Project for Awesome got a good awareness there. Partners in Health, good awareness there. Journey to the Microcosmos, a little bit of confusion. Complexly's pilot season, most people did not know about it. It was fun. And then that was in there a second time. The Anthropocene Reviewed, good awareness there.
Do you support any of our things on Patreon?(19:53)
I think I asked that last year. I did. Pretty solidly the same. Okay.
What other things (if any) do you support on Patreon? (20:05)
Hmm. Hmm. Hmmm hmm hmm. Ahsante Bean, Carlos, Dear Hank and John, Red Letter Media, Sleep With Me podcast. It sounds like a thing but it's not. It's like a help you sleep podcast. Lindsay Ellis, hbomberguy. A few pin clubs. Ooh, pin clubs, interesting. Patreon pin clubs. Gaming communities. Julia Nunes, podcasts, a great a cappela group, (?~20:37) comic, Big Joel and Contrapoints, Very Bad Wizards. I don't think I can do a word cloud with this many--I can see if I can. Will it do it, will it do it, will it do it, will it do the word cloud? It will! So we've got uh, Lindsay Ellis, probably Hello Internet is what that is, CGP Grey, Hank, author, money. What's money? Oh gosh, now I've clicked on it. Oh, 'cause they don't have the money. Okay. Sexplanations, some comics, I'm broke, yeah. Crash Course, WheezyWaiter, that's who that is, Simone Giertz probably is who that is. Okay, nice. That was--that worked. That worked. Oh, it scrolls. It scrolls, everybody. Podcast, Amanda Palmer, CGP Grey, Contrapoints, Phil DeFranco, Veritasium, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Yeah. Nice. Yeah, that worked.
How did you first hear about the vlogbrothers? (21:58)
Just came across it on YouTube, don't remember, probably the same thing. A friend, a human friend. That's so great to hear! It really is. Harry Potter fan community, a little slice there, 556 of you, hello to those folks.
If you've ever bought stuff at DFTBA.com, check all that apply (22:18)
We use this mostly internally, so thank you to everybody. That helps us know how we're doing and whether we're doing a good job. Oh, we've got comments here on this. I'm currently waiting for something to arrive. I will say that this was not the case when the survey went out, but uh, shipping is both our ability to ship stuff in the, you know, one or two days between when it--like, the order comes in and when we ship it out, that's gone up because we wanna have fewer people in the warehouse right now, and then also like, just in general, shipping times are larger. Amazing socks in recent years, that's great to hear. That's great to hear. The shirt was a very thick material. That was probably a while ago. We do not--we use much thinner material now. I'm wearing one right now. It si nice. It's--the shirts have come a long way, man. My giraffe backpack is awesome. I want to do the book club. Wish we had a European branch. I know. It's--it's annoying. It's expensive to ship to Brazil. Yeah, I hear that. And apparently 40% of our people are international so, it was a little too long. Ah, I like the length. I really don't like a short shirt, I'll tell you that.
What Crash Course would you be most excited to see in the future? (23:46)
More philosophy, more history, more biology. I should do this in order. Well, I mean, yeah, I feel like--I feel like history. People want history. Let's see how this has changed over the years. I don't know ,I might have added stuff. History has gone down a little. Philosophy's gone up. Music theory continues to be a winner. I--we're working on it. I'm sorry it's taking us so long, but like, it is a thing that we are working on.
What is your first language? (24:24)
I apologize for this question not being ideal. I don't know how to do it better because like, what is a first language? There are many people who have multiple first languages, but like, it's just a thing that I would like to know. Like, I--like, I'm not--in this question, I'm not looking for like, individual experience. What I'm looking for is like, what languages might we look to make content in the future, but this isn't like, when we're thinking about like, Crash Course and SciShow, we don't--we're not thinking about Nerdfighteria, we're thinking about what audiences are the biggest audiences we can serve. So I'm not sure if this is that helpful of a question because like, I am actually more interested to know, like, what languages do you speak and to just have that be a like, check all the languages you speak and like, not think about what your first language is, because that's actually more interesting to me, so I think I'm going to change the question next year.
Who is your absolute favorite YouTuber who is not us? (25:27)
Let's click on that word cloud and see what happens. Alright. We got Kurzgesagt, we've got 3 blue one brown, Smarter Every Day. I don't know who Banner is. Safiya Nygard. There's such a big Safiya Nygard/Nerdfighteria overlap, but I, like, I am so intimidated by her. She's so cool and I know that this is dumb, but whenever I see her at YouTube events, I wanna hang out with her, but I'm like, you're too cool, so. Jenna Marbles, Contrapoints, Phil DeFranco, Try Guys, Bon Appetit, Hannah Hart, probably, or just multiple Hannahs, 'cause there are several and they're adding up. Benadette Banner, love it. Best Dressed, Rhett and Link, Grace, Dan Howell. I was like, who's Shane Howell? It's Shane and Dan Howell. Well, let's see what happens--oh we'll see what happens next year. Carrie Hope Fletcher, Jacksepticeye, Philosophytube, Destin. There's, David is, you know, who knows? David Dobrick? What David? What David is it? I am gonna wait and I am gonna click on David 'cause I --yeah, I'm curious about Jessica and I'm curious about David, 'cause they could be anybody, and Scott, too. Tom Scott? Maybe. Probably Tom Scott. Oh, okay. I'm gonna click on David, 'cause I'm curious the most popular David is. Who are we seeing? Is it multiple Davids? Is it David Dobrick? I don't think--like, David Dobrick is obviously the most popular David, but I don't tend to imagine that as being a lot of Nerdfighter overlap, but who knows. David Dobrick. It was, and Brian David Gilbert. Okay. So if you put Brian David Gilbert and David Dobrick on top of each other, then you get a lot of Davids and it makes sense that David Dobrick and Brian David Gilbert would both be up there, though those audiences, like, those Venn diagrams are like, we are in the intersection of those, but I don't know that they are the intersection of each other, but who knows? I will say that both of those guys are extremely talented and I like them.
What is your absolute favorite podcast that is not ours? (27:52)
The TryPod, Nightvale, um, This American Life, Earbiscuits, Radiolab, Pod Save America probably is what that is, this is, yeah, the--I can't remember what this podcast is, but it may be My Dad Wrote a Porno, it might be uh, there's one that's like a Murder She Wrote pun, I think, that's a true crime podcast. MBMBAM! Ologies is great. Nightvale is great. I am not a true crime podcast fan, so I can't really comment on them. Armchair Expert is nice, I like it, I do like it. Sawbones. I love Sawbones so much. Can I just say they do such a good job and have been doing a really great job over the last couple months and just, I'm a superfan. Radiolab, I wanna go deeper into this list, but I won't do it right now. I have a little bit. Adventure Zone, lot of, not surprisingly, a lot of McElroy overlap with the various brothers. Quartex is in there. But there's also, yeah, Critical Role. So much stuff goes deeper, like the long tail in this question is going to be very, very long and if I click on list view--oh! That's interesting. Yeah, 'brother' is up here, but so is MBMBAM, so you know that if you add those two up, then they're above Hello Internet. Adventure Zone, Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, Murder! Jen and Julian. Let's go deep down. Magnus, Conan, Behind, Happy Love Archives, Brain, I don't know what any of these are. I am hungry. I haven't had lunch yet. I'm gonna keep going, power through!
And finally, your absolute favorite book (that is not one of ours) (29:56)
Azkaban. Wow, not just Harry Potter, but specifically Azkaban. Catcher in the Rye, The Martian, Gatsby, that's probably just Terry Pratchett, anything Terry Pratchett, Pride and Prejudice, Brandon Sanderson I'm guessing. I do love Brandon Sanderson's work. Rainbow Rowell. Perks of Being a Wallflower, Book Thief is my guess as to what that is. Name of the Wind would be my guess here, Enders books. So no big surprises in the--in that, to me. Percy Jackson. Cool. Night Circus, that is a bit of a surprise, as my guesses as to why circus showed up. I don't know what 'Sun' would be. Let's find out what Sun is.
I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. I've seen this book but I have not read this book, and then there's A Thousand Splendid Suns, so there's two sun books. There's also others. It's just, it's a good word. The Sun is Also a Star, Children of Blood and Bone, okay. Hm. Some books.
How do you hear about new YouTube videos? (31:13)
You guys, how do you hear about them? You go to YouTube.com/subscriptions. Wow. Nerdfighters. You guys kick ass. Or you just go to you--more people go to their subs than YouTube. I don't believe you, but I accept. It's like, those are the people who just go to their follow tab on TikTok and not the For You page, like, who are you? I do that.
Do you hang out in Nerdfighter internet spaces? (31:42)
Facebook groups, 7%. Reddit, 10%. I'm on the Nerdfighteria subreddit quite a lot now. YouTube comments, 13%. Discords, 4%. That's great. That's wonderful. Just real quick.
Do you have any pets? Tell about them. (31:57)
Wow, the first one is just "dead :(". That's so 2020 of you. "I've got a 1.5 year old bull mastiff named Katie. Catty.", "Chunky, chunky cat", "Secret betta fish"? "Lives in my high school, unbeknownst to my parents," you gotta take care of that fish. "I have a beautiful tortoiseshell cat named Lorelai." That's a lovely name. "One dog named Lucy.", "My family has a lab named Gigi". Now, I--this is just so I can guess your passwords, you guys, I'm gonna hack all of you. "A husky called Jet", "A dalmatian called Duke", jeez, you got a lot of dogs!
Oh, let's do the word cloud on it. I'm so curious to see what happens. What we got? We got puppy, tabby, big, three, sweet, best, named, cat, dog, kitty. I wanna see if any name made it onto the list. Rescue, that's nice. will, time, adopted, think, play, looks, adorable, fat, still, even, adopted, boy, beautiful, fish, mom, family, world, lot, kitten. Well. No names made it, but lots of good words there. I'm a big fan of all those words.
Do you identify as someone with a disability? (33:17)
I think this was the first year I asked this question after people being like, you should ask about this, and so we'll--nothing to compare it to, I don't think, but I did want to have a little bit more, like, look at disability in the community, so now have that. 12% of people identify as a person with a disability, so disability is not unusual.
Does your disability affect how you interact with our content, and if so, how? (33:48)
This is very useful for us to read overall as, and I like, so yeah, for example, like, we've been trying to do better with subtitles on vlogbrothers, specifically. When, yeah, like, it really is not great that we had sort of lapsed off of that, so we had a period where we were doing it really well and then we sort of dropped off as like, things got like, there were like, internal reasons at Complexly that we weren't doing subtitles, but we're doing better at them now. SciShow and Crash Course have always been keeping up, but vlogbrothers dropped off and we--yeah, we try to do better with that, but I think also there are ways that we don't think about, and so reading through this is really helpful, so thank you to everybody who answered this question and I have been going through it more methodically, not recently, but right after the survey happened so that we could better think about how to be accessible to all.
Overall, how much trust do you have in the news media? (34:55)
I guess I didn't ask this question previously. I thought that I did because I'm curious. A moderate amount, a little, none at all, a great deal is even smaller than none at all, you guys. Of course, what the media is means nothing but I think that we all have sort of a vague idea, but I think that in general, if you could see this trend over time, my guesses would be that it would be trending from trust to less trust and I don't disagree, so that's a thing.
How much money do you make? (35:32)
So for the last four years, I've been asking how much money people make. I don't want this question to make people feel like they are not doing well, so obviously--it is a--it is a unfair, unjust world out there. It is mostly--I think this is mostly just a reflection of people getting older and entering the workforce, so you're seeing the percentage of people who have no income going down as people enter the workforce and you see a percentage of people making 30-50 going up. You also see the percentage of people making, so like, for 75-150, you've got, you know, that going from what, 3% to 7%, so um, glad to see people succeeding out there. Make sure that we take care of each other and try to decrease suffering as that--as those good things happen to us, but remember that still, the vast majority of people are down in this range in this community, but also I think internationally and nationally, so that's a thing to know and be aware of.
Click on things you have. (36:53)
I have asked this question several years in a row, I believe. Here it is. Click on things you have. Um. The--more people are getting mortgages. People are buying houses. Everybody's got student loans. That's not true. 38% of people have student loans, and then a lot of people have none of these, so no debt. That percentage of medical debt has also gone up. The percentage of credit card debt and car loan has also gone up. Student loans staying solid.
What's the highest degree you have? (37:32)
Still in school, secondary, or still in high school. Compare this over the years as well. Oh. I guess I just have two of those. Got more graduate degrees out there. Got more college degrees, and got more PhDs. Not a ton of them, but still more. Hello. Shout out to those 650 PhDs.
If you're in school, what kind of school are you in? (38:03)
Let's just look at that over the last two years. Boop boop boop. Yeah, looks like more people not in school and more people have masters degrees. I guess that's not surprising. People are getting older, is again, a theme.
Employment status (38:29)
How are we re: our job situations? I have a job, I like it has gone up. That's good! It's still less than 50%. I have a job, I don't like it, added to I have a job and like it still doesn't quite reach 50% or does it? No, it does not, and in school with a job, in school no job, I don't have a job, and I'm--I think that's an I don't want one. I don't have a job--so I don't have a job and I need one has gone up, which is--this was before the pandemic, so that's uh, to some extent, people graduating from school, I'm sure, but also to some extent it's hard out there.
Have you ever seen a Crash Course, SciShow, or vlogbrothers video in school? (39:22)
That looks pretty solidly the same year over year, and it's a lot of folks. It's a lot of folks. Very good.
Do you consider yourself wealthy? (39:34)
This is such a loaded and interesting question. It's been a rough year, how are you doing? Gosh. I find the 'do you consider yourself wealthy?' question interesting, so let's look at it over the last three years. (?~39:57) line those up. No is going down. Maybe is going up, yes is solid, pretty much solidly the same, but we--but maybe went up. It's just--it is entirely a perception question. Well, not entirely, obviously, but I think that many people would have the same amount of money but put themselves in different categories here, and, but I think that--I think this question is especially interesting because I think, my guess is that this is a higher percentage than would be the case if we were sampling the average American for the same income level because it's so easy to not feel wealthy in our society because it's so easy to be continually given new reasons to not feel wealthy, new ways in which we don't have enough or are comparing ourselves to other people and seeing that they have more than us, so that, to me, shows empathy at the very least.
Do you have any children? (40:55)
Yes is going up consistently, though 'currently pregnant' went down from 240 to 200, but congratulations to all of you 206, 'cause, yeah, congrats. I'm sure that this is--I'm sure it's a wild moment.
Do you know about our project to build a maternal health center? (41:19)
Yes.
Which best describes you? (41:23)
I watch every new video, that percentage has gone down. All of it--all of those have gone down. Hello, hello, nerdfi--it's--I watch most new vlogbrothers videos is going up, so wow, yeah. So the--I mean, look, I get it. We're getting older. We got stuff to do, so the percentage of watching every video, that might go down. For those of you who do watch every video, god bless you, thank you so much. It's only four minutes out of your day, but I also understand.
In three words or less, what are you most worried about? (41:58)
Let's open up that word cloud. In the meantime, let's go to
When did you start watching vlogbrothers regularly? (42:04)
Um, gosh, so many years. 2012. What's up? Thank you to 2012. Thank you to The Fault in Our Stars for that little peak there, but also thank you to the people who have been sticking around since the very beginning and for all these people who are new, relatively new. You can't say you're new if you started watching in 2014. You're an old school nerdfighter, it happened. If you've been around for years, it's happened. Let's see.
back to What are you most worried about? (42:40)
Financial, alone, losing, college, dying, okay, that's valid. Trump is a big one. Let's go to the list view and see. Climate change. That makes sense. The future. Health, war, money, world, Trump. Yeah. Everything. It's nice to see that death, just the old goodie, which, you know, is not--we're not gonna do anything about that fear. It's always gonna be there. Fascism probably is a fairly new entrant, though, and I do--I placed that one in my--that might get in my top three. Capitalism, human rights, loneliness, stability, Iran, Brexit.
How much time do you spend on the internet per day?(43:33)
Oh gosh, I bet if we asked this question now, there would be a significant change, but uh, it looks like even though--even now it's going up, though. Even at the turn of 2019, it was going up.
How many books do you read per year? (43:49)
Solidly unchanged. Amazing. Still a lot of more than 50s down there. Killing it. Killing the game, but if you wanna know where I'm at, I'm probably in the--somewhere in the 10-25, 10-15, I guess that would be me.
Which of these books have you read? (44:09)
Um, looks like An Absolutely Remarkable Thing got a kick up the list, so thanks for that and it's now above Will Grayson, so that's not--that's a win. Let it Snow, that'll be interesting to see next year, to see if Let it Snow gets a boost out of the Netflix series, though probably not. No reason. There's really not a reason to read Let it Snow. I didn't write it or anything, but I think John would agree with me. It's not his--yeah.
What are you reading right now?(44:55)
While we're loading the word cloud for that, let's see
How are you reading it? (45:03)
'Cause that's always a fascinating question, and um, it's changing substantially over time, so we're going from 77% physical book, e-reader, phone, and Audible are all creeping up until now. It is 71%, so still mostly physical books, though I will say that I think my sales for A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor were more than 10% audio. I don't know. What I'll tell you is that audio is going up. I can tell you that. I sold more audiobooks of A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor on launch than Absolutely Remarkable Thing and fewer physical books for a number of reasons. Sequels always sell less because you have to have read the first book and then also, there's a pandemic on and so bookstores aren't selling like they used to.
Is there anything you don't like about us, the stuff we make, how we communicate, the community, etc?(46:10)
Let's do a word cloud here, but in the meantime, let's go up and see--
Back to What are you reading right now? (46:19)
Re-reading is up there. I hear that. I feel rereading a lot right now. Why did that go away? Where did it go? What the heck? Okay. Nothing, series, Absolutely Remarkable Thing is up there. Little Women, probably, would be my guess, was where that, most of that is responsible for. Harry Potter, Good Omens? Is there a book called The Good King? I don't know. Kingkiller Chronicles, maybe? King--I don't know. Steven King.
Dark. Hm. I wonder what 'dark' is. Dark Matter? That book did well. I'm so curious! I can't help myself. I have to click. River of Darkness, His Dark Materials, ahh, it's gotta be His Dark Materials, yeah, and then other. 'Dark' is just a good word. Left Hand of Darkness. How'd you like the Netflix series? His Dark Materials, I don't know. I liked it, but then I--I don't know. I have a hard time getting into anything these days, so that might just be it. This isn't that helpful, I feel like. Let's just look at the responses, you guys.
Back to What you don't like...(47:43)
I went from the very beginning, started in 2007, I'm a 2009, I don't know I'm officially a Nerdfighter. YES, you are. Jeez. Clarification on the nerdfighter front would be nice. How do I know if I'm made of awesome? If you watched from videos from 2007 at all, you're a Nerdfighter, jeez.
Suck has other connotations in the UK. Alright, I don't need to know about that.
I'm worried you're working too much. Take a break sometimes. I appreciate that and you are not wrong.
There will be disagreements where each individually different--okay. Cool, cool.
Lot of focus on America. I was just talking about that!
Sometimes when you guys talk about specific political conflicts, you end up not explaining 100% well because some generalizations. Yeah. Yup. We're very--yeah. We're very US and--but our community is not, so we need to be aware of that.
Why would you even ask this? 'Cause I wanna know!
I want John's mustache back. Well, it'll show up.
Why don't you mention effective altruism itself and give well? I think that we have a little bit. I think that there are, I think that there are criticisms to be made of the effective altruism movement. Only in that like, you can't--there are more than one ways to do it, and there was this sort of like, thing a little while ago that was like, is altruism actually bad because it makes you end up giving only inside of certain communities? I think this is like, are you giving? That's good! Are you giving in the most efficient possible way? That's also--that can be good, too, but like, I also don't--I don't spend money in the most efficient possible way ever, and like, I don't--I think that it is important to, you know, like, in certain situations, to really consider efficiency and I think it's important in some situations to be like, not always driven entirely by efficiency. You know, John and I, like, our way of doing this has been finding people we really trust so that it's not just about getting the most out of every dollar, it's about, like, today, but like, how do you think about what it's gonna be like in 15 years from now? How do you think about having like, really systemic impacts rather than like, how many lives are you gonna save right now. I think that like, there's a lot of different ways to consider this stuff, so like, I--I feel sometimes like the effective altruism movement is really sure of its own rightness whereas I think that it is one good way to do things among several of them. But that is a tendency, I don't think that that's always the case with people who are into that stuff.
I wanted to write Hank to tell him how much I enjoyed his book but couldn't find a way to contact him. Yeah, you can e-mail me at hankandjohn@gmail.com or send me a TikTok.
You're too relatable. You feel like people I know, but then I realize y'all are famous and I'm like, whoa! Well, uh, we try to take that power dynamic seriously, but also remember that famous people are also just people and also, not that famous.
Do you know how to get special merch from Project for Awesome? I don't know how to get special--my special merch from Project for Awesome but I guess that's mostly my fault. It's probably my fault. I am behind on several Project for Awesome things. It is among the obligations that I have not fulfilled.
We do very little in Europe, well, now we're not allowed to go to Europe. We literally can't go, but it's also just hard. It's hard to go.
If there's anything else you'd like to say to us, say it now. (51:33)
I swear this survey is usually longer. Many question, yeah, I took some questions out. I've been trying to make it easier for people.
Elizabeth Warren should be president but sadly she will not be. Seems like you are correct, though, who knows. The future is uncertain. Who knows?
I'm more recently getting involved with the community and feeling grateful to have stumbled across Dear Hank and John. Hey, thanks.
I love you all so much. You're really cool. Thanks a million.
Books are good.
Really inspiring, keep doing what you're doing.
I don't own a water carbonator but my dad was, and when I was a kid, we once used it to make root beer. A standout event! Thanks for giving me that context.
From the deepest place within me, thank you. Aw. Aw. Thank you.
I took a few years off from following vlogbrothers. Don't remember why, but I'm back! Well, this is--this is like, totally normal and sometimes people are like, like, when I get stopped in the street, it's often because people are like, ah, I used to watch you on YouTube and people think that that would hurt my feelings. It does not. Like, I am--like, you know, the extent to which this is a part of your life is your choice and I, like, for people that it's been a consistent thing for a long, long time, I have media like that, that like, there are bands and there are YouTubers who I will never stop watching, and there are bands and there are YouTubers who I will come in and out and like, check out their stuff now and then, and I get both ways, 'cause I am both ways with different stuff, so.
You guys have been--you guys have--oh, so this, yeah, some of these comments are relatively recent actually, it turns out. This is from June, because people are still filling out the survey. So yeah, these people know! They know about the thing!
I don't know if you're aware but there's a YouTuber called vezitos--of course I am! I love, I love it! Yes, we're very aware. I wanna put them on vlogbrothers but I don't--I haven't, like, figured out how to do it. It seems like, a little weird, 'cause I want it to be on the vezitos channel and like, but I also want more people to see them!
I hope any one of you reads this. I am from PH. I st--Philippines? What's PH? I just finished reading An Absolutely Remarkable Thing and I was so mind-blown! I rarely read sci-fi, but I didn't regret staying up until 1AM to finish that. I'm so excited for the sequel. Thank you!
Thank you for encouraging me in a million different ways.
You are loved. Not in a creepy way. Thank you, for clarification. I love your content, too. Will you do a video answering fake questions from fake nerdfighters? Not a terrible idea. That--that's kinda fun. I don't hate it.
I love you guys, you're the best. You change the world. Thanks.
That's all--there are always so many of these and I do really deeply appreciate them. It's like, a thing to go read when I'm having a bad day.
I feel like I send you guys a sincere request for employment at least once a year. I've got a degree. I'd love to help write Crash Course video in law or legal issues if that's something you'd ever consider doing or musical theater. I love that that's--that you've got that combination of skills. That's a variety.
Thank you for helping me distract myself from the pandemic and the fact that I can't see my friends anymore.
Going back in time here, but still, not that far back. Still just in April.
Been following you since 2012. Had to take off of YouTube for a few years in the middle. Glad to be back. Catching up with everything. Awesome. Hello.
Love the census. Loved it! Loved filling out this survey. What a high quality piece of survey.
I love the silly jokes on the screens of Crash Course. That's Thought Cafe, man, they rock.
Truly enjoy both of your honesty, ability to connect remotely. You've made me laugh, educated me, and inspired me to find beauty and knowledge in my daily surroundings. Thank you. Thank YOU.
And these are extra Patreon questions.
Who do you support on Patreon? (56:03)
Dear Hank and John, SciShow, Crash Course, other and
Do you plan on keeping up your patronage? (56:12)
Probably, definitely, probably not. Great. What other--things have definitely changed, but I get it. I kinda asked this question twice, I guess, so sorry. Oops. And....
Why do you support us on Patreon? (56:28)
Good people pushing for positive change. Been watching your content for what feels like a really long time. I've started earning enough money to consider giving it back in small ways. I've been enjoying the extra pod when we get to finish Dear Hank and John and then go on and do like, 10 more minutes of like, just chatting, and uh, it feels good. You know, sort of a chance to talk about what I've been enjoying this week, 'cause there's usually something and um, and I need that, man. So thanks to all of our Patreon Patrons.
Wrapping things up (57:03)
Thank you, especially though, to everybody who filled out the Nerdfighteria census 2019. It's so helpful, it's so interesting, and it helps me remember how much of a community this is. I have a better idea of what this community is like, you know, internalizing the strengths that we have, internalizing the reality of the diversity of the community and that we need to recognize that, you know, a near majority of people aren't in the US, so thank you all for that and if you want any Floridians to know about our content, please let them know. I don't know why they don't, but they don't, but that's the situation that we are in.
I have to go pick my prescription up from the store, and then I'm gonna edit this hour and twenty minute long thing down so that it's less than, hopefully, an hour. We'll see if I can get it there.
Alright, thank you everybody for listening. Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for answering the census. There will be another one and I will do better next year at analyzing it in a timely fashion, I hope, because I--hopefully there will be fewer, fewer stresses on us all. Thank you for watching and as they say in our hometown, don't forget to be awesome.