The new documentary “YouTube Changed My Life” in the ARD Mediathek looks back at the beginnings of YouTube in Germany. The central figures are childhood friends Y-Titty, influencer Ischtar Isik, and the first dream couple for many teenagers, Daggi Bee and Liont. As a counterpoint, ColdMirror serves, who back then shook her head at everything.
This is the documentary: The documentary “YouTube Changed My Life” consists of 3 episodes, each 30 minutes long. The first episode is available on YouTube, the other two are in the ARD Mediathek.
Just recently, a similar documentary by Paul Sydow was released. The four-part documentary was criticized for having too few women appear and being too uncritical, whereas the NDR documentary now focuses more on women with Daggi Bee, Ischtar Isik, and Coldmirror and at least touches on critical topics, such as the role of the network Mediakraft.
But this documentary is primarily a nostalgia trip for 30-year-olds today, transporting them back to their childhood.
Gronkh was one of the stars in Paul Sydow’s documentary, while he and gaming play no role in the ARD documentary:
YouTube couple shows young viewers what their life will be like
This is how the dream couple is portrayed: Early on, Liont (now 32) realizes that he gets the most clicks and the greatest reach when he displays couple activities with his girlfriend, Dagi Bee (now 30). Quickly, in every video, they cuddle, hug, and smile at the camera.
Liont was not naive back then, even though he was so young: He took the idea for couple content from English-speaking YouTube, where it had already been successful.
A pop culture journalist, Gizem Çelik, serves in the documentary both as an analyst and as someone who experienced the events as a young viewer.
Çelik was 10 years old back then and exactly the target audience for the dream couple
. The journalist explains the appeal of the couple. She says that through the couple, she saw what it would be like later on when she herself had a boyfriend. She had no older sister and learned so much from the YouTubers.
She says: She became a fan of the relationship
, a fan of this couple.
While many creators today are aware of the dangers of being idealized by their fans and viewed as girlfriend
, it was not clear to the teenagers in front of the camera back then. The YouTubers fully relied on this parasocial relationship – fans sought closeness to their stars.
The parasocial relationship with fans is fueled by the influencers taking hours each day to respond to comments, like posts, and be particularly approachable.
It was all about presenting a happy life
to the outside
This is how it was behind the scenes: But what seemed so authentic and real quickly became a facade, if it was ever real.
Liont says:
It was always just about presenting a happy life to the outside. A perfect relationship. We love each other above all else. And just showcasing the beautiful moments of our relationship. We never shared our problems with the outside.
For Dagi Bee and Liont, this means: They must pretend to have a perfect world, take the fans along everywhere, and be happy, even if there was a fight before a video.
Dagi Bee says that they never wanted to become like this and always wanted to remain authentic. But then just before a video, there was indeed a fight, the whole setting was already set up, and it was said: Put on a smile and go through with it.
Liont says that it put pressure on him. He felt that he could no longer exist without Dagi and the couple content.
The relationship suffered from it, and ultimately they separated.
What we did to each other
This is how the separation came about: Liont says they only stayed together for appearances. Because they were afraid to inform the fans about the separation.
Dagi Bee says:
Looking back, it is not cool, also for us mentally, what we did to each other somehow – mutually. Because we completely lost ourselves.
They both then delayed announcing their separation for months. When they finally did, they were confronted with the dark side of fame for the first time: hate comments.
- Dagi Bee takes herself out of the internet for years.
- Liont is still in the middle of his rap career and absorbs all the hate.
At the low point of the documentary, he presents himself as a broken man with alcohol problems. He goes live on air while intoxicated. The next day he thought he would be canceled for it, but in the end, it was a liberating moment.
The documentary shows how the lives of both unfold after the separation, as the media frenzy noticeably decreases.
Childhood friends on the fast track to success
What else is in the documentary? The three childhood friends of Y-Titty also experience rise and fall. They became known through sketches and parodies. Ultimately, the group breaks up because Phil Laude attempts to become increasingly successful with “military drill.” This is also to compensate for the early death of his father, while his laid-back childhood friend TC does not allow that to happen. However, the documentary says reconciliatory: That is all long ago, and they have come to terms with each other by now.
The most positive story is that of Ischtar Isik, who becomes successful from her childhood room and then interviews Angela Merkel. To this day, she says she receives the clip in which the chancellor says to her in amazement: “And otherwise, do you only do self-representation?” – but for Isik, this is all a long time ago. She seems at peace with herself.
The secret star of the documentary, as can be seen from the comments on YouTube, is Coldmirror, who from the beginning rejected all the commercialism and hype surrounding YouTube. She became known for parodying some Harry Potter films.
In every scene of the documentary, she also gives the impression that she doesn’t want to be involved with all that stuff.
At Gamescom 2010, the birth of the hype in German YouTube is shown. In a conference room that is far too small, fans crowd around the YouTubers:
- Phil Laude says he really felt famous there.
- Coldmirror says it was all madness. She felt overwhelmed and fled to the roof through the emergency exit.
Perhaps it is also because she is 10 years older than the other protagonists in the documentary. For even though all of this seems to have happened a long time ago, the people in the documentary experienced everything they went through at a very young age. Coldmirror is now 40, Phil Laude is 34, Liont is 32, and Dagi Bee is just 30.
Here you can watch the first part of the documentary:
The ARD frequently makes documentaries about German influencers. With one documentary, they had bad timing. The influencer AnniTheDuck was still portrayed as a rising star, shortly thereafter her story took a downturn: “Here comes The Brain” – ARD documentary about the rising star shows German Twitch streamer
