The Rise of Studytube

Written by: Liew Yi Xuan (21-E1), Liew Shu Mei Jacynthe (21-O3), Leanne Soh (21-E6)

Designed by: Hao Rui (22-A4)

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Introduction

“4 hours – Study with me”, “10 hour productive study day” — Uploaded by creators across the world, coupled with aesthetically pleasing thumbnails, these are popular video titles that come up often on our YouTube feeds. 

The term “studytube” has only been around for a couple of years, but it has already gained much popularity, especially during the Covid-19 lockdown period. If you are not sure what Studytube is, a quick search on Youtube will present you with an array of beautifully-edited videos catered to – you guessed it – studying.

Essentially, it is a form of content creation on YouTube where people film themselves studying, giving advice on revision methods, et cetera. More than just entertainment, many creators – being students themselves – use these videos as a source of motivation too. 

In this article, we interviewed 2 such content creators to get different perspectives – from in front of the camera! 

Here’s an inside scoop from the creators of 2 such channels!

Why Studytube?

Rui, better known under the pseudonym of spudstudy, started her channel to motivate others in their studies. Her videos are filled with timelapses of her studying, as well as snippets of her daily life, and they have proven to be helpful to viewers through the myriad of positive comments left behind. 

Apart from the traction she gained on YouTube, Rui herself has gained much more from her channel. “Studytube allowed me to make friends and just meet people who make the same content as me! It also motivates me to study so that I have content to post,” commented the 17-year-old YouTuber. As with any other community, Studytube was able to bring people with similar interests together, creating many connections and friendships amongst these like-minded individuals. 

Since joining in 2018, spudstudy has grown tremendously, with a subscriber count of 121,000 now! Through the 4 years, Rui has not only learnt soft skills such as time management to juggle her Youtube channel and other commitments, but also technical skills such as liaising with different companies for various collaborations. 

The Other Side of The Coin

However, all good things come at a price. Studytube may have created a space for students all over the world to share their productivity tips and induce motivation. Yet, on the other hand, it may place additional pressure on Studytubers to keep up appearances and cause them to spiral into toxic productivity.

Toxic productivity is a mindset that manifests as the need to constantly work. It’s the overbearing pressure that says you can’t rest or take any downtime. Even when forced to rest, it’s difficult to turn your mind off and enjoy it—because you’d be too busy focusing on what else you “should” do.

A rising Singaporean Studytuber, hydrchloric, acknowledges that although Studytube has a multitude of benefits, it can also cause undesirable side effects if not managed well. She conceded that even though “having a study channel forces [creators] to study [in order] to continue setting good examples for their viewers [as an added incentive], this form of “stress” can be [harmful] if not in moderation”. 

While this is unfortunately the sad reality for many Studytubers, it does not mean Studytube should be discouraged!

Conclusion

Ultimately, Studytube does introduce many benefits to students seeking motivation. With a vast spread of study tips, methods and even aesthetics to pick from, most students can now easily find a style that resonates most with them, pushing them to work harder! 

However, it is critical to keep in mind that what works for others may not work for you, and there is no need to beat yourself up for not achieving the same results. Everyone works differently and at different paces too; remember to strike a balance between seeking motivation and comparing yourself too much to others. What is most important is that you use the information that has been made so much more readily available to you, to find the most effective way for you to study! 

Stay healthy, and all the best for your studies!

The writers of this article are also in this Studytube community, so do check us out via the links below! 

Jacynthe – https://youtube.com/channel/UCl4qXQ3WvzpT9MbBGymtDsw 

Leanne – https://youtube.com/channel/UCliP0F582iKdx3rSDXBNJ9Q 

Yi Xuan – https://youtube.com/channel/UCqSOOAJdpSkNM_EofAtD17g 

spudstudy – https://youtube.com/c/spudstudy 

hydrchloric – https://youtube.com/c/hydrchloric 

References

‘StudyTube’ has its faults as well as its benefits

On Progress and Stagnation

Written by: Zuo Yuning (21-A1)

Designed by: Alexia Teo (22-U1)

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It’s the year 2350.

Three people stand in a line. In front of them is a floating object. It has the shape of a water drop, and with a surface that fully reflects the surroundings without any distortion, it seems as though its sole purpose for existence is to praise the beauty of the immense universe.

“It’s almost a piece of art,” exclaims the young female officer.

These three represent the Space Armed Forces of the Solar System. Besides the young female, there is another man in military uniform, and in between the two is an old man. His hair and beard form a stark contrast against the overwhelming blackness of outer space.

Three weeks ago, humans detected an object moving at 20% of lightspeed towards the Solar System. Humans quickly responded by getting its military forces into combat readiness. But the alien object did not launch any attack, so humans have sent the three people group to investigate further.

“It isn’t good when an enemy’s weapon looks like art,” the scientist says while shaking his head, “if we cannot tell their weapons by the look, we probably can’t tell how they work, either.”

“It may not be a weapon,” the male officer replies, “maybe, it isn’t meant to be a weapon. Perhaps we are imagining aliens to be evil just because of our brutal history.”

Both of them know exactly what he’s referring to. Since the series of climate calamities in the 2050s, massive immigration has driven many societies to the brink of structural collapse. Pro-immigrant sentiment became heretical, as better-off countries deployed bloody measures to push back against the tens of billions of people fleeing from the global South. After that, the oil and gas depletion in 2100 was met by the continued inability of alternative sources to provide sufficient energy, and war broke out as governments used forceful means to either divert domestic dissent to foreign enemies or to grab whatever coal, thermal and hydroelectric power left on the planet. Ceasefire was signed after a series of nuclear attacks and annihilations between India and Pakistan shocked the world back to rationality, but that was already 50 years after the start. Thereafter, humans finally enjoyed a few decades of relative stability and astonishing scientific and technological progress, where humans developed everything from nuclear fusion that finally made energy virtually free and allowed the development of spaceships that possess the maximum speed of 15% lightspeed, to quantum computing that made traditional computers look like the campfires of primitives. But those good old days seem like illusions now, as ecological terrorism, skepticism of science and murder of scientists have begun their ascent.

The professor knows more. Recently, unnatural events have been occurring during scientific experiments. Physicists use particle accelerators and collide them to carry out theoretical research, but in the past few years the results of particular collisions have exhibited complete haphazardness and illogicality. To draw an analogy, while kicking a ball with a fixed amount of force in a fixed direction should yield the same results in theory, assuming every other factor is constant, now physicists are horrified to find that the ball can sometimes fly up in the sky, sometimes roll to the left, sometimes crashing into the kicker’s face, and sometimes sinking tens of metres deep into the ground! This has led to a complete pause on theoretical physics research, as nowhere in the world could a sensible result be produced.

“In any case, look at this thing! It is so shiny!”

She said in wonder as she reached out her gloved hand to touch, but her arm jerked back.

“Eek! So cold!”

The two men immediately focused. They cautiously touched the surface.

“This feels like absolute zero.” (Absolute zero is the lowest possible temperature, as it describes a state where no particles are vibrating or moving, and temperature correlates directly with the amount of vibration and movement of particles.)

“But how can anything be absolute zero?” the officer asks in shock.

The scientist takes a long pause, and fear starts to magnify as the two wait. Silence persists for half a minute, but to them it feels like a lifetime.

“Do you have a magnifying glass? The high degree kind?”

“Yes, I’ve brought the electronic magnifying device with me.”

“Can you use it on this surface?”

“Sure.”

The female took out an object that looks like a temperature gun, as there is a display screen at the back. She presses the opposite end on the surface, and the screen returns a smooth surface.

“How many times has the image been magnified?”

“50 times.”

“Make it 100?”

She proceeds with that. The image doesn’t seem to change.

“1000?”

Nothing.

“Ten thousand?”

Nothing.

“Your thing must be broken!” the male officer says.

“It can’t be! I used it just a few minutes ago, and it worked!”

As if to prove that, she points the device at the man’s clothes, and immediately the image of a ragged surface returned. This is expected, as the seemingly smooth surface of his military uniform is an illusion that can be easily shattered when the microscopic unevenness of the material is revealed.

When she points the device back, nothing can be seen. The surface is calmer than the surface of a waveless sea.

“Magnify a hundred thousand times!”

Nothing.

“Magnify a million times!”

Nothing.

“Magnify ten million times!”

She shakes her head. “A million was the limit, professor,” she said.

The scientist paused again, but this time he wasn’t silent. Rather, he was pacing back and forth while constantly mumbling a few words.

“Absolute zero… Utter orderliness of arrangement…”

At last, he said something out loud.

“There is only one explanation,” he said, not looking at the clueless duo, “there is only one explanation.”

“What is it, professor?”

“Think about it, young folks. This object is made of particles that cannot move or vibrate, and to achieve that they must all be packed so tightly that there is not even a nanometer of distance between each one of them.”

“But… what does it mean?”

The professor sighs, apparently at the stupidity of the ‘young folks’. “Any object our science has come to know of consists of particles that are always in motion, since there is always space between particles for them to move around. Gas has the most space, while solids have the least space, so if something has no space between particles, it may be even tougher than solids.”

The two officers look at each other, not sure where the professor is going.

“Anything, anything you have ever seen is not as tough as this alien object! It can hit our tiny aircraft, destroy our buildings, penetrate the core of Earth, and still emerge unhurt. It is not something belonging to this world, and we are just targets waiting to be hit by it. Even the warships we have come to be so proud of, are just a piece of paper.”

Officers realised at last. The entire Space Armed Forces are at risk of utter destruction.

But before they could issue their warning, the alien object began accelerating, and the heat of its engine vaporised the three.

In less than 20 minutes, the entire more than three thousand warships strong armed forces were completely destroyed. Only a few were able to escape the Solar System.

In one hour’s time, a televised broadcast appeared on every digital screen of the human world.

It consists only of English words:

Surrender!

You do not stand a chance against our civilisation!

We have stopped your scientific progress by manipulating the behaviour of the particles in your accelerators, and our spearhead surveillance device has destroyed that pathetic fleet of yours!

While you have engulfed yourself in endless conflicts for the past two centuries, you have failed to progress as a civilisation.

While you emphasised so much on morality over the past centuries, you have failed to realise that material and technology determine survival.

Our army will arrive in four centuries, so do the wise thing and stop resisting, so as to minimise the meaningless suffering on your part!

European Super League

Written by: Jachin Khoo (21-U5), Joshua Tan (21-I1), Nigel Ng (21-A3)

Designed by: Rebecca Yap (22-O1)

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Essentially a controversial proposal to include 15 founding members and 5 more based on their performance in their respective domestic leagues. 

U would have thought it works like other established football leagues right? Oh hell no, the idea of permanence was favoured over relegation.

Recently, it has caused a huge stir among football fans, with some even storming into the stadiums of the clubs they support!

Opinions were heavily divided, from a financial standpoint, it does seem logical, but fans were disagreeable.

‘Potentially ruining the beautiful game’, was a claim made by football fans all over the world

Essence of the sport was heavily diluted, as club owners were motivated by greed

‘A compromise must never be reached’

‘Never support the super league’, echoed the fans unanimously. The fans were firm in their resolution.

Saw the end, most clubs did

Under the pressure from fans and players who spoke with one voice, most clubs withdrew from the league, with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Juventus still remaining

Problems still existing, with money running dry due to the pandemic

Especially urgent is the cash, as cold as ice

Real dilemmas arise 

Like never in a million years would such a ridiculous money making “cartel” be plausible

Eager to start playing again, this time with more gusto

A sigh of relief, as the pandemic raged less violently. Matches could be played, this time with the fans

Good progress has been made, particularly how the pandemic is handled

Unfortunate to have such irresponsible owners at the helms of such major clubs

Elitism is never forgiven, as clubs reached a common consensus to receive the necessary punishment.

The End

Tiki Taka Politics

Written by: Jachin Khoo (21-U5), Jervis Ch’ng (21-U5), Joshua Tan (21-I1), Nigel Ng (21-A3)

Design by: Eris Kek (22-I6)

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Jachin’s POV: 

Eight days and a war were all that was required for the International Olympic Committee to pull off an audacious stunt that wouldn’t have looked out of place on the slopes of the Winter Olympics. It was impossible to miss the IOC insisting that that politics has no place in sport during the 2022 Summer Games in Beijing. “With regards to the Uyghur population, the position of the IOC must be to give political neutrality,” said Thomas Bach in early February. Hence the question: why are crimes against the Uyghur people and human rights violations okay in China, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine deemed unacceptable?

This all seems like a public relations display by sporting bodies, when it is now easier for them to speak out, they all claim the limelight by launching press conferences and giving long speeches and press statements as to why they decided to ban Russia from sporting competitions. This just shows their opportunistic nature to stay neutral when their interests are on the line, whilst swaying together with global opinion to get more positive reviews. 

This is why sports should never be associated with politics, from a group of loyal sports fans, please let sports and politics stay separate, if you are not willing to stand strongly by your principles!

Nigel’s POV:

While we understand that permitting Russia into the World Cup would allow them a global televised platform to justify the reasons for the invasion of Ukraine and therefore a possibility to gain some public sympathy, we would like to believe that politics should be excluded from the showcase of The Beautiful Game, although we know that results from such competitions can be an indirect display of soft power.

Throughout history, it is evident that football is used as a tool for peacekeeping, although there was a war between El Savador and Hungary that was indirectly caused by football. Furthermore, Russia was the host nation of the previous World Cup, where they performed pretty well ,seeing themselves out after a Quarter-Final exit to Croatia So excluding them from this World Cup would be unfair to Russian players who are not supportive of the invasion.

Now, I am sure we all have questions regarding the exact ruling by Fifa and Uefa, but what does this mean for Russian domestic teams that are involved in major European competitions like the UEL outside of the World Cup? Would this also mean that teams they are scheduled to play against them are given a free pass to the next round?

Jervis’ POV:

The recent Russia-Ukraine war has sparked massive debate on whether Russia should be in the World Cup, and I am one of those who firmly believe that Russia should be in the World Cup, and more broadly, sports should not be intertwined with politics in any way.

While sports and politics do have indirect relations with each other, one should not be used as a basis to judge the other. That is to say, politics should not be the main motivator of a sporting body’s decision. This would make sport essentially a channel for countries to drive their political motives, which would defeat the inherent aim of sport.

Joshua’s POV:

In conclusion, politics and football should not blend and Russia should still be allowed to play in the World Cup. It would be unfair to the athletes who have trained so hard only to be denied by their nationality, and for something that they have no involvement in whatsoever at all.