Today, educational YouTuber Tom Scott posted his last video. It was posted to the minute, 10 years after he posted his first video. He’s not the biggest or the most influential. He never claims to be, however for me and many like me, he has had a massive influence. He’s one of the people I have watched for the longest and even though many of the videos he’s made throughout the years are not something I’d normally be interested in, his videos made it interesting. I can’t remember when I started watching him or how I discovered him, but I do know that I always go back to him. His videos would often be playing in the background whilst I do other stuff. I feel like I learnt a lot from his videos, about the topics but also just about life in general. He’s somebody that I’ve looked up to for a long time.
I am someone who loves to learn, and his videos have always been an opportunity to do that. More than that though, his other, less educational, videos like the Matt and Tom channel and the technical difficulties videos have been very interesting to watch and follow. The Matt and Tom videos were often fun, and I loved their tech reviews and their what’s in my bag/what tech they use videos. They inspired at least a few purchases (or at least some dreams) and made me think about how I use what I have and what purchases I should make. They are maybe some of the videos I miss the most (they stopped some years ago). The technical difficulties videos are continuing and are great. They are a great example of a true friendship between adult men, something that (I find) is often missing today in media. Returning to Tom Scott’s main videos, they taught me a lot about many topics. His videos about computers gave me a solid understanding of the basics between computers. His videos about energy, specifically fusion reactors reinforced my interest in energy which ultimately ended up with me writing my master’s thesis about this topic. Finally, his videos about linguistics made me so interested in linguistics and languages that I decided to apply to do linguistics at university (to the same university he went to) and even though I didn’t end up doing linguistics, I did do languages and my interest in linguistics has remained intact.
The end of his videos is a sad event to start this year off with. I hope it will be good for him and that he will enjoy his time off. Arguably, he is one of the people who started the educational section on Youtube. His influence on the platform and internet in general will be felt for many years to come. I remain hopeful that one day he will come back but, in the meantime, I do believe that the 10 years of Tom Scott videos will be felt for a long time to come. He’s made some viral videos. His main videos would be 5 to 10 minutes long but some of my favourite are shorter or longer. Here are some of my favourites:
This short video always makes me chuckle, it’s a mix of genres no one would ever expect to be mixed but it makes for an interesting video.
This longer video is all about how Youtube’s copyright system works. I may not agree with all his points but in a time when seemingly everyone criticises Youtube’s copyright system, it is interesting to look at it from a different perspective and this is something Tom Scott was often great at.
The video in and of itself is not particularly impressive but it went incredibly viral and I feel it really shows Tom Scott’s skills and his ability to make videos.
This last part is a sort of message directly to Tom Scott:
Thank-you. For years I have had the pleasure of following your videos. I have learnt a lot and will miss seeing your videos in my subscription box. I hope you are able to enjoy your time off and that when the time comes, you may come back with some new great videos.
Your videos have always been some of the few that I would tell my parents about. They are somewhat of the opinion that you can’t learn on youtube so I would say I read it somewhere: Nonetheless, your videos would be the only ones I’d talk about.
Tom Scott, thank-you!
Playlist of his videos about the basics behind computers
Playlist with Tom Scott’s linguistics videos.