The social media are flooded with content about working from home, both from friends and celebrities.

As the late-night hosts switch to broadcasting at home, I’m filled with nostalgia about a recent past. YouTube was in its infancy in 2005, shortly after its creation.

The laptop cameras used in bedrooms were a way to see glimpses into private lives. It’s now household names who are filming segments at home. Jimmy Fallon’s children are interrupting him. Project Zooms celebrities who isolate themselves. Ellen Degeneres interviews on her couch.

YouTube was much smaller in the beginning. Intimate communities were formed around certain topics and people, such as gaming, makeup, and pop culture. Everyone has the opportunity to participate and express themselves authentically.

We all feel nostalgic for the world before COVID-19. Nostalgia is not limited to the past. Our recent history can trigger nostalgia. It can be for our benefit.

Nostalgia is a powerful reminder of good times and a motivation to stay in and flatten out the curve so that we can get back to the activities we were nostalgic for.

It’s rare to have nostalgia for YouTube in 2005, but I remember the days when every bedroom video was shot on location and not in a studio.

The “full time YouTuber”

YouTube was launched in 2005 as a place to share and interact with videos online.

In 2007, YouTubers began to earn money by uploading videos. By December, the partner program was introduced, allowing them to do so. The “full-time” YouTuber was born. We saw brands sponsoring YouTubers directly and people starting to leave their day jobs in order to create full-time content.

The platform began to become more commercialized, and professional content created by established networks became promoted in order to make money. Original ideas were marginalized.

Early YouTubers capitalized on the growing popularity of the platform, bringing in thousands of viewers and millions of views. This generated ad revenue. Zoe Sugg, or Zoella to her fans, began posting videos on her YouTube channel in 2009.

She has more than 11 million subscribers, and her videos are viewed 1 billion times. (She also has 855 million views on her other channel.) She began filming in her childhood room as a teenager, capturing outfits and makeup looks. She owns a beauty and lifestyle company and is a million.

Enjoy the view from your living room.

Television talk shows start to feel like the early days of YouTube, with COVID-19’s social distance and isolation requirements.

Jimmy Fallon currently films The Tonight Show” home edition.”

The Tonight Show always finds its way to YouTube and is often on the top trending pages. Fallon’s home aesthetic gives his audience a new level of intimacy by revealing personal details. Now we know which books he owns and that he keeps a coat hanger by his back door (which is often left open by his children). The piano can be heard through the walls. We know that his daughter has lost a tooth because she interrupts his filming and tells him.

This content is timely and relatable, whether we look at it cynically or as a convenient way to prove Fallon’s sincerity. Many parents have to juggle work and children.

Georgiana Toma, a scholar of life narratives, believes authenticity to be a crucial characteristic for a following online.

She says that brand authenticity requires consistency in style, a softer approach to commercial motives, and a commitment to quality. Self-disclosure is a great way to establish an authentic online presence.

Commercial motives can be softened by the intimacy created when personal information is shared. This is true whether it’s child-rearing advice, product reviews, or quarantine experiences. It reinforces the trustworthiness and authenticity of the creator.

This included sharing personal stories, milestones, and personal turmoil in the early days. Zoella shared her anxiety about public speaking and large gatherings as well as her career milestones, such as her Madame Tussauds wax figure.

A talk-show presenter is more of a constructed personality.

Fallon’s “live from New York” viewers, like David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, and others before him, were familiar with the script, lights, and set. We see celebrities forced to go off hand as they are now only allowed to broadcast from their own homes. There are noises and interruptions from families. In YouTube videos, it is not uncommon to see a kid running in the background or a cat bumping into the camera while walking across the keyboard. Now, we are seeing them with talk show hosts.

Celebrities who have experienced isolation or distancing from others are more likely to share their stories. Shared homes and struggles with isolation are a way to connect with the audience.

Intimate spaces

The Project interviewed Australian singer Troye Sivan in his childhood room after spending a day with his father repairing furniture and self-isolating.

The set is very different from a few months ago, even though The Project continues to film in the studio. The hosts are seated far apart. Correspondents appear for segments, and the crew applauds guests instead of a live audience.

Sivan, seated at home wearing a T-shirt, suggested a relaxed and private self.

Fans of his past might see this as a return back to his online roots. Sivan launched his YouTube channel when he turned 13 in October 2007. Sivan posted videos of concerts he attended and cover songs sung at home. Sivan now has more than 7 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 1 billion views. He achieved chart success by selling 1.3 million albums.

The Project interview reconstructs Sivan’s authentic original aesthetic as he films once again from his childhood room.

We often watch videos on the internet from our own private spaces, such as our homes or bedrooms. When we watch talk show hosts filming in their homes, there is a feeling of connection and shared experience. This makes us feel as if we’re talking to a close friend.

In times of loneliness, being invited into someone else’s home can be a source of comfort and commonality. We all share isolation, despite the obvious disparities.

Janice Peck is a professor of media studies who believes that communication can help people overcome their problems. Talk shows are compatible with therapy discourse because they focus on confessions and participatory participation.

YouTube is also a great place to do this. Presenters will often end their videos by saying, “Let me know what you think in the comments section below!”

Read more: Friday essay: YouTube apologies and reality TV revelations – the rise of the public confession

Now, we don’t have in-person connections in our daily lives with those outside our households, so this interactive participation online has risen in importance.

Meta-searching

Celebrities are using YouTube’s traditional tropes to create nostalgic content. This includes framing, tone, and background.

Jimmy Kimmel quizzes his kids “live from his home” for a homespun edition of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.

This clip’s framing and backdrop are strikingly similar to other creators on YouTube, such as YouTube veteran Philip DeFrano. Kimmel and DeFranco sit on bar stools that have microphone stands on the table to ask their children questions. They ask their children, “Which is your favorite, Mummy or Daddy?”

Jimmy Fallon, on an episode of The Tonight Show At Home Edition, demonstrates a YouTube classic: The video Q&A. For YouTubers has used this format for their viewers’ questions for years. The segment “Ask the Fallons” begins after Fallon’s monologue. It shows a clip of Fallon and his wife walking. He recounts his story about proposing to his wife, along with some personal stories, during the walk. Q&A videos are a great way to interact with YouTubers and connect directly.

Relatable or die

The host of Full Frontal With Samantha Bee interviews Katie Porter. She jokes about the bad wifi connection on Zoom calls, an experience that every person who works from home can relate to. They share personal stories while discussing the state of COVID-19 tests in America.

These exchanges make you feel like your colleague is on a morning Zoom call dealing with children who wander and accepting multiple offers of sourdough starters.

Self-disclosure is not always a good idea.

In a video that has since been deleted, Ellen DeGeneres recorded the first episode of her talk show in her beautiful home. Likened self-isolation to jail.

It is a violation of the YouTube collaborative partnership to talk about a collective event in a language that few people understand. It is elitist, and it does not recognize the more common experience of isolation.

What is the best way to change channels?

YouTube will return to normal once the pandemic has been loosened.

Most likely, we will see talk show hosts returning to their studios and a dramatic drop in the number of “how to work productively from home” videos. This new trend for talk show hosts to host their shows at home could continue if they are successful.

Celebrities are people who gained fame on YouTube early by inviting us into their homes. Celebrities of the past are now bringing us into their homes. They use the features of YouTube to create more connections.

Self-disclosure by talk show hosts who film from home can be viewed as charming and relatable, while we feel self-isolation. Or it can be viewed cynically.

We respond regardless of the intention of the person we hold in high regard.