You have probably seen these videos several times on your facebook feed being shared by your aunt with the caption, "what a great message!". But it seems that our aunts are not the only ones who enjoy them because a single one of these videos rake in millions of views on various social media platforms within the first few days of being uploaded.
As I have mentioned, from the looks of it, it's usually older people who seem to enjoy these videos, along with people whose first language is not English. But why do these people like these videos so much? From what I can deduct, it appears that every single one of these videos has a very simplistic protagonist and antagonist dynamic where the protagonist always comes out on top and the antagonist is left feeling sorry for themselves, or learning a valuable lesson. And by ending every video showing how the protagonist lives happily ever after, it basically materialises what every person fantasises about. This, along with the simplicity of the dialogues, the very predictable nature of the videos, and the motivational music makes these videos the perfect no-fuss watch for people from all around the world, and people who have quite a bit of free time on their hands.
Regardless of the reasons why some people might enjoy these videos, I am personally not a fan of this kind of videography. First of all, the click-baitiness of the titles makes it so obvious that all these videos are essentially just preying on people's good nature, as well as people's vulnerabilities in case they might have gone through a similar hardship in their lives as portrayed in the videos. The music and narration in the videos also make it no secret that the main aim of the videos is for it to resonate with you enough that you end up clicking on the like button, causing the algorithm to then suggest it to even more people.
I am also aware that many people who think critically about the media that is presented to them know that these videos are essentially motivational porn that have deliberately cringy and over the top acting and a lazy story line. I also do not feel very bad saying this about these videos because Dhar Mann, the founder of these videos, is a serial entrepreneur whose main concern is making money. Mann has also been accused of selling "professional" courses as a side job, but failing to deliver through with any of his claims, and basically ripping innocent people out of their money. And from seeing how the quality of his videos and the storylines seem to remain stagnantly low even though he has been making thousands of dollars through them, it is quite obvious that his interests lie firmly in banking in more money, rather than creating good content.
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