With post-election results and coursework stress in November, I wanted to keep up on important unfolding news of the forty-fifth – and now forty-seventh – President of the United States of America. One evening, an old The Onion – a satirical, digital news media source – video popped up on my YouTube feed as I sought to simultaneously distract, dull, and stimulate my brain from the multitude of stresses of the day. The title, as many Onion headliners tend to, caught my eye: ‘Trump Voter Feels Betrayed by President After Reading 800 Pages of Queer Feminist Theory’. It’s a short mock interview of what is supposed to be the ‘classic’ Trump supporter: an older white American man who is a steel worker in Pennsylvania. The actor who plays the man does so incredibly well, were it not for when he discusses the aforementioned queer feminist theory with the same tone as droning on about the weather, in classic Onion fashion. Despite the video being nearly eight years old, the satire hadn’t aged one bit.  

Watching the video made me take a step back to momentarily reflect on my own views. Although the comments were both picking fun at, and agreeing with, the video, many made good points about the disconnect between academic understandings of systematic issues and the average voter who simply wants direct, digestible solutions to their political issues. As one commenter put it: ‘Everyone’s arguing about whether this satirizes the left or the right, but no one’s stopped to consider whether it’s satirizing academia’. Ironically, the coursework I had just submitted contained several citations of queer feminist theorists (apologies Judith Butler). I begin to ponder the university educational sphere in relation to the ‘average person’; not the average university individual, but your local cashier at a corner shop, bus driver, bartender, etc.  

The video and comments then prompted me to think about how we are educated and consume media, specifically how these two have become increasingly interlinked in the past decade, even more so in the past five years. Although The Onion is satire, it is educational too. Online videos are the reason I’m a student at St Andrews in the first place: the video essays I stumbled onto at fourteen years old still inspire me and drive my curiosity today. 

Educational videos online – whether satirical news like The Onion, video essayists on YouTube, or commentators on streaming platforms – have educated me far longer (and perhaps far better) than television news and other outlets. What makes educational media like video essays so interesting for me is how they can make topics typically seen as ‘too academic’ and ‘too complicated’ entertaining and easier to consume. Take Natalie Wynn from ‘ContraPoints’ and Abigail Thorn from ‘Philosophy Tube’, creators who can both be found on YouTube; both women have university degrees in philosophy and utilise this education to teach others philosophy online for free. It’s produced in a manageable manner, relating to modern discussions around pop culture, such as philosophies within Twilight, cancel-culture, incels, and anime. These two women, for me, were so influential I even cited them in my personal statement! That’s how important (I think) educational media is and can be. 

To get to my point, educational media, especially on YouTube, bridges the gap between the average person and the university educated. Being at university for a year and a half now, it’s easy to get sucked into the academic world, where common sense is Russell, Butler, and Said, or where it seems silly to not know what epistemology is. But when I scroll through TikToks and see interviews of voters (Trump or not) expressing honest concern for policies and the ramifications of these in their lives, overtly academic concepts do not tend to leave their lips. 

One thing is sure in our modern spaces: everyone has access to YouTube, in some form or another if you own a device… and it’s free! There’s just as many educational video essays on film, physics, literature, politics, and any other topic you could have an opinion on, all probably more legible (and perhaps more interesting) than the readings you’re getting for tutorials. 

Here are some of my recommendations to get you started: 

• Like I mentioned before, Abigail Thorn (an alumnus of St Andrews!) of ‘Philosophy Tube’ on YouTube is great for all things social commentary through a philosophical lens. I personally love her video on capital punishment, but it’s hard to pick a favourite. Also, for Natalie Wynn of ‘ContraPoints’, her most recent video about Twilight is guaranteed to get you interested for all the right (or wrong) reasons on the pop culture phenomenon. 

• For commentary on film, video games, and politics, check out hbomberguy’s videos on YouTube. His endless dry wit makes any video a treat to listen to or watch. For similar styles and focuses, have a look at Big Joel and Shaun. 

• Alexander Avila has recently done some great videos on the cultural impact of brat summer, self-diagnosis through social media, and the phenomenon of Taylor Swift, culture and person. 

• Two recent faves of mine are F.D. Signifier, a slightly older guy within the video essayist demographic who makes videos regarding social issues around masculinity, and Dasia Sade. Sade is wonderfully soft spoken, yet both academically and emotionally intellectual about the current world climate, especially in America. 

That’s just the tip of the iceberg! Hopefully, after watching one or two of the recommended above, your algorithm can bless you with names I haven’t mentioned. So, I encourage not just you, university student, to sit down and watch a video essay on a topic you like or just find minutely interesting, but also your family, friends, bartender and bus driver to do so as well. And don’t tell me they’re too long, your screen time on Tik Tok says otherwise.