There are many different ways to celebrate New Years, people  watch the ball drop in Times Square, others hang out with friends and shoot confetti all night, but some celebrate by watching YouTube’s annual rewind video. Ever since 2010, YouTube has put out a single video that celebrates the year and what occurred on YouTube itself. Many people  enjoyed these videos that came out annually, as they would always show that year’s trends and most popular creators. 2018’s video, however, was met with much criticism and became the most disliked video on all of YouTube. YouTube saw this and tried to make this year’s video a lot better. Unfortunately, when the video came out, it showed that YouTube had not learned their lesson, and 2019’s rewind video was just as lackluster as 2018’s. Instead of YouTube’s usual music video-esque style, they decided to format the video as a top ten list of the most liked and viewed videos in various categories, such as most liked beauty videos and most viewed gaming videos. Most people did not like the switch, as it just felt lazy and uninspired. Sophomore Brija Fradette believed this as well.

     “Overall the video was just lazy,” Fradette stated. However, there were some people who believed it did better than last year’s, noting the appearance of more well known Youtubers that had been previously excluded, like PewDiePie and Shane Dawson. The video also put a spotlight on the team trees movement and Minecraft’s comeback, which many people agreed deserved to be in the video.

    “I thought is was good they included the team trees movement, even if the rest of the video was kind of bad.” Allie Diller explained, a current sophomore at Grand Ledge high school. Even with the video receiving a lot of hate, there were a few more positives with the video that had to be acknowledged.

    “The transitions between the different videos playing was well done, and I thought the music they played was okay.” Fradette shared. But, that’s where the compliments end for 2019’s YouTube rewind, and the negatives continue. With the video being just a little over five minutes, YouTube tried to make sure they packed every relevant trend and Youtuber into the short video, unfortunately it seems they failed to accomplish this.

    “I thought is was kind of dumb how they basically just did the most liked or least liked videos of the year instead of actually doing what was a trend or popular that year.” The sophomore Alyssa Hogan said. 

    In the end, most people believed 2019’s rewind did not show what happened in the year properly, and that more steps will have to be taken to hopefully make next year’s video better. Although 2018’s YouTube rewind video is currently the most disliked one on the platform, 2019’s might be able to beat it, and if this trend continues, everyone should be nervous for 2020’s video.