Vlogging has long had a reputation for being a so-called “dark side” of the internet, and there are good reasons for this. From exploitative family channels to apathetic influencers putting others in harm’s way for content, vlogging has certainly earned its current standing.
Vlogging wasn’t always this way, though. It was sort of the everyman’s YouTube video, where creators like Justine Ezarik (also known as iJustine), Emma Chamberlain, and John and Hank Green made videos documenting their everyday lives, immortalizing a time before the massive success they see today. This kind of video content we used to see is exactly why I started casually vlogging.
What is Casual Vlogging?
Vlogging casually means exactly what it sounds like: logging parts of your life on video, but in a relaxed and informal way. It isn’t meant for an audience of millions, but rather just for you and your friends to see.
This hobby is meant to be a way to document moments of your life that are nice to look back on. Whether it’s a weekend trip or a night in with the girls, casual vlogging can be whatever you want it to be. The most important thing to remember is that the emphasis is on preserving the memory, not getting content.
How do you know when to record?
When recording videos for a casual vlog, I tend to just focus on capturing the things I want to remember. If I’m on a girls’ trip and we go to a cool restaurant, I’ll take some videos of it. It’s almost the same as when someone takes a photo of their meal; the only difference is it’s a video!
Everyone always says to live in the moment, and that’s no different when it comes to this hobby. Yes, you’re recording parts of the moment, but it’s still important to remember that the reason for doing so isn’t for content. It’s for cherishing moments you want to remember in the future.
How can you edit your content?
Once I’ve got all the video material I want for my vlog, I combine my videos using a video editing app. My personal go-to is CapCut, but with recent uncertainties regarding apps owned by ByteDance, I’ve switched back to my previous go-to, VN Video Editor.
I enjoy adding extra elements to my vlogs, like music and text overlays, so these apps are the ones I gravitate towards! However, this does make the process a little longer for me. I’m currently still working on making a vlog for a trip I had at the start of the year, but to me, it’s worth the added fun! Once I have the vlog looking the way I want it to, I save the video through the app at the highest possible quality.
Preserving the Vlog
There are lots of ways to preserve the vlogs that you create. Sometimes, I’ll upload mine to a YouTube channel but as an unlisted video. This makes the video available only to the people that have the video’s link. In other words, only the people I share it with can view it. I like this option because while the video remains available to the people I want it to be available to, it’s not open to everyone. In the future, I may put shorter ones on my Instagram so I can share them with my closest friends!
Another option is to just post it publicly. I’ve done this before in cases where there are multiple people I want to access the video. For example, when I made a vlog following my family trip to Ireland, I thought it’d be easiest for my grandparents to access the video by just searching for it on YouTube. So, I made that video public so they could also look back on those memories anytime! Aside from these alternatives, you can always just post the video privately or go with the tried-and-true way of saving it to your computer’s files.
At the end of the day, the purpose of a casual vlog is to be able to look back at a time in your life, similar to a scrapbook or family photo album. While I can still look through a Facebook album or an Instagram photo dump to reminiscence with casual vlogs, I can go back and live through these exact moments again and again!
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