I was recently offered a free cable subscription and I said “Why? I don’t have a TV, and all my shows are on YouTube.” I would like to think that none of the stereotypes listed here apply to me. Fortunately, usage statistics can shed light on the reality of negative stereotypes of YouTube users.
The stereotypes in this infographic are really stereotypes of internet users, or Internauts, in general. I think these negative generalizations came out of the fact that computers were largely marketed as toys for boys when personal computers were first coming out. Of course, computers, and the internet, are much, much more than that, but when people kept interacting with this thing that had been presented as a toy, it was interpreted by the wider public as immature and unhealthy.
As this infographic on the growth of the internet shows, internet use exploded in the decade between 2002 and 2012, and is only increasing as more and more of the world comes online. Sterotypes of internet users are going to die pretty quickly as the vast majority of people on earth join the ranks.