WIL DASOVICH
Social Media
Anyone wielding a moderately-sized camera with a robot-like appendage jutting out, filming just about anything and everything that counts as unique and engaging content is nothing out of the ordinary these days. In fact, our day-to-day is like the satirical scifi flick, The Truman Show, come to life, where it is as if everyone is a willing star of their own reality show. While there is nothing wrong with that, especially in an age where consumption of media has reached an evolved level of (self) consciousness, it is mighty interesting to even remember the day when the concept of recording and eventually publishing the material on the vlog was something unheard of. No one knows this more than Wil Dasovich, arguably one of the more prominent YouTubers in the country today.
“Back then, no one knew what I was trying to do,” recalls Wil. “They would see me lugging my camera and wondering what the hell I was doing.” This would mean raised or furrowed brows, or in worse cases, being flat-out told to stop filming completely. Fresh out of college and in search of his so-called corner of the world, Wil Dasovich sought adventures in Southeast Asia, which included the Philippines where he traces his roots in, naturally. This would prove to be fortuitous as his exploration of the country and all its glorious tucked out wonders offered more than just video logs on Facebook then. More than his videos gaining a good kind of notoriety online, this foray into vlogging and doing YouTube as a career became a reality once he found an understanding audience in the country.
Much of this success he chalks up to his brand of wit finding a match in the humor that the Filipinos are known for. “I was always sort of a class clown growing up,” he says. “But never to this much reception.” Well, it isn’t just the Philippines that agrees, but the world as well, as he just recently was awarded the Shorty Award for Vlogger of the Year. “The goal was always more than just getting the numbers or making things go viral online,” he reasons. “From the beginning, I’ve always wanted to show more, do more with my vlogging, and that is to inspire and affect a sort of change with my viewers.” Indeed he has, in more life-changing ways than one—but that is another story we will definitely tell sometime soon.—ARDC