In August of 2007, a group of friends in New York City got together, made a video and posted it to YouTube. Though not a totally unusual occurrence, what made this video unique was that it was a birthday card to award-winning author John Green from his writing and critic partners who are also popular young adult authors. This was the result:
The awesomeness of these friends-so willing to put themselves out there-fueled the online popularity of John Green and his brother Hank who were already on YouTube as Brotherhood 2.0.
Since 2007, Brotherhood 2.0 has evolved into the Vlogbrothers, a YouTube Channel of John’s and Hank’s musing about everything from books and politics to romance and censorship. As their online popularity grew, their digital community began to make connections based on their similar interests. John and Hank rallied their fans around the idea of awesomeness and fighting against “world suck” developing the identity of Nerdfighters. Now, the Nerdfighters have their own Ning were they can post projects and join together to support different efforts. Their Kiva effort support microloans in developing countries, is one of the largest online civic efforts, and is mostly funded by teenagers, young adults and librarians.
When John Green’s book, Looking for Alaska, was challenged in a Depew high school, John made an online appeal to his fans to support his novel and the teacher who wanted to use it in their classroom.
The result was overwhelming, and as John posted, “The Depew School Board voted unanimously to keep “Looking for Alaska” in the curriculum; more than 99% of parents allowed their kids to read the book, and it was taught without incident or complaint. Huzzah!”
On March 8, 2013, the Nerdfighters added their one millionth member and their YouTube channel hit 1,037,00 subscribers. Through the effective use of social media, the Vlogbrothers have energized their fandom into a larger, cohesive digital community and a civic force to be reckoned with.
Read more:
Bennett, Lance. Civic Life Online: Learning how Digital Media Can Engage Youth (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning). MIT Press, 2007.
Gladwell, Malcolm. “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.” The New Yorker. N.p., 4 Oct. 2010. Web.
Halpern, D., Gibbs, J. Social media as a catalyst for online deliberation? Exploring the affordances of Facebook and YouTube for political expression. Computers in Human Behavior, Volume 29, Issue 3, May 2013, Pages 1159–1168.
Rideout, V., Foehr, U.G., Roberts, D.F. Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8-18 years olds. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. January 2010.
Youth in the Digital Age: Digital Media and Technologies for Supporting Civic Engagement, Proceedings of the Fourth Annual Teachers College Educational Technology Conference, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, NY, May 2012, p. 14-15.
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