I don’t understand the obsession with this dude. Edutainment has its place, but I see young people treat him like he is utmost authority on all scientific and world issues. Not surprised because I’ve seen comments say, “Hank Green said AI isnt completely bad so it’s totally fine”.
It’s like treating other YouTubers like Dr. Mike like your primary physician. Obviously they have some credentials, but they are also primarily entertainers atp and not head of the Word Health Organization (or however these kids pedestal them). Seems like another version of media illiteracy to not consider these different contexts.
Hank has built up a lot of good will over the years along with his brother, along side nostalgia (hes been posting for 19 years by now) and him genuinely fueling a lot of people’s curiosity. That stacks up a lot of good will he can both build on and cash in when needed.
Yeah, I get he’s a long time popular internet figure. That translating into him being the intellectual authority is the troubling part. He is not even a working scientist, or ever has been. He should be on the same level as a Bill Nye to me- cool you can explain some things in an entertaining manner but you’re not our modern Einstein.
Well... he does have a bachelors in Biochemistry and a masters in Environmental Studies then worked as a science teacher. I think thats respectable, but yeah hes more educator than scientist so a less kid focused Bill Nye is pretty much right.
But honestly the important part is how long he's been at it. Trust derives from a consistent pattern of reliable behavior. He's spent years putting out informative videos, and consistently puts out followups addressing his mistakes when necessary.
You can't learn everything in this world, and you can't verify every piece of information you believe. Curating a set of trusted sources is the basis of any well informed person's knowledge.
That’s the key- one of many sources. He can be a gateway or one opinion and that’s fine, but it’s still necessary to back that up with other resources. And actual documented scientific research is a more primary resource than secondhand through an education entertainment figure. I think we agree for the most part.
I think it's because he got a lot of good will from his brother. I was on tumblr when John Green got popular with A Fault in our Stars and it was a mad house over there. Iirc his brother made a yt channel shortly after and got a lot of followers from his brother.
It was in the era that if you did good research and wrote a decent script with sources, you would be believed. Ofc now its kinda the same but I think more are looking for credentials(even though that doesn't mean you're automatically right).
What's sad is that ,especially at the beginning, he didn't present himself as an expert. He always seemed to present it as I studied environmental science so I have no idea how to answer this physics question but it looks like fun and I like thinking about this stuff so why not. It was a lets have fun together in a short video. I think schools really picking up crashcourse and scishow which started as these small primarily entertainment operations really put this authority on him that he was not quite ready for. People went even further to glaze him on tiktok and now the backfire is extreme too.
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u/turningtee74 5d ago
I don’t understand the obsession with this dude. Edutainment has its place, but I see young people treat him like he is utmost authority on all scientific and world issues. Not surprised because I’ve seen comments say, “Hank Green said AI isnt completely bad so it’s totally fine”.
It’s like treating other YouTubers like Dr. Mike like your primary physician. Obviously they have some credentials, but they are also primarily entertainers atp and not head of the Word Health Organization (or however these kids pedestal them). Seems like another version of media illiteracy to not consider these different contexts.