You may have been watching my videos for a while. Perhaps since I started doing tech videos one year ago. Or since my KontrolFreek Precision Rings video came out and ruffled a few feathers. Maybe you’ve even watched longer than that. But did you know that you could have watched me on YouTube for nearly 12 years? Yes, that’s right. So now that I’ve been entertaining – or attempting to entertain – you all for the past year with informative tech videos, I think it’s time to introduce myself.
About Me
I’m Isaiah. I’m 16 years old and I live in upstate New York. I was born here and have lived here my whole life, except for two years in between when I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio. My parents divorced when I was two, and my dad lives about an hour and a half away, but I see him often. I’ve always been comfortable opening up to my fans. I guess it’s because I’ve been doing this for so long (more on that later) and I feel a connection with my viewers. Anyway, I broke my leg when I was five. That sucked, and now my right leg is slightly longer than my left. I bet you didn’t know that tidbit.
My mom has been through three divorces now. I have a dad and I’ve had two stepdads. My first stepdad (2009-2013) was generally nice but kind of controlling and sometimes abusive toward my mom. My second stepdad (2015-2021) is amazing. His name is Jeff. You’ve seen him before in my IKEA desk-building video. He’s great, and I still hang out with him all the time. I also had a dog for most of my life. Her name was Zev’i and she died two months ago.
My dad’s great too. I’m at his house every other weekend. I have a stepmom named Rachael and a half-brother named Gabe. I could go on for a long time about Gabe. He says the funniest things. Sometimes I think he’s an adult living in an 8-year-old’s body. Like “Boss Baby” but to a lesser extent. We play ping-pong together a lot, we both love “Star Wars,” and he’s honestly my closest friend other than my mom.
My mom has sacrificed so much for me over the years. I won’t bore you with the details, but she’s basically always made time for me despite often working two jobs and going through a lot of stress. We’re stable and happy now, and we live in a nice mid-sized house (my dad lives in a very big house, which is pretty cool).
Nowadays, I’m always busy with something. I’ll list it out for you. I’m in eleventh grade, so that’s a lot of pressure in and of itself. However, I’m also the director of communications for my school’s Model United Nations club, editor-in-chief of my school newspaper, and program director for my local chapter of a free tutoring organization. Oh, and I do more tutoring with another organization, while at the same time trying to start numerous ventures: teaching media production to middle schoolers, volunteering, and building PCs in my community for a charge. I’m also a three-season athlete, and my sports of choice are cross country, track, and tennis (not by choice per se; I didn’t make the volleyball team). That’s all while preparing for the SAT, learning to drive, and making YouTube videos for my main and second channels. You could say I’m busy.
My History on YouTube
Before I get into my extensive history of content creation, I would like to do a Q&A in the future, especially because I’m doing this video. Please ask me questions so I can include them in that upcoming video. That would be greatly appreciated.
I made my first YouTube video on February 10, 2010. Yes, I was four years old (I was born in March 2005). For five years, all of my videos were on my dad’s channel. Most of the videos were uploaded by him (although I was able to upload one or two by myself), and they featured funny moments of me as a kid, sometimes featuring Gabe, who was born in 2013.
In 2015, I finally got my own email and decided to make my own channel: FrenchFry MC. I uploaded quite a variety of things: clips of gameplay of random games like Kill Shot, Clash of Clans gameplay, Nerf gun videos, hanging out with friends, Minecraft gameplay, tribute videos to Minecraft YouTubers, and much, much more. I will eventually react to some old videos on my second channel, ThaGangstaFTW.
I had many interesting learning experiences for the two years of FrenchFry MC, and also for the year or so after changing my name in 2017 to ThaGangstaFTW. Back in 2015, I was an idiot. Later in the year, I was caught by my mom after stealing her money to buy $3,500 worth of in-game content, most of which I spent on Clash of Clans and Gangstar Vegas (I no longer have access to the Clash account, but I do still use the Gangstar Vegas account occasionally). I was subsequently banned from all electronics for four months. In fact, my FrenchFry MC days were littered with hiatuses from uploading. In 2016, I found a video with an alarming title, something along the lines of “Sexy Teen Gets Raped by Six Angry Indians.” The video, uploaded by some vile pedo with the pseudonym “Tom Smith,” featured clips of me saying “um” and stuttering, taken from my many videos. We subsequently reported this guy to the police, and I think they found him in Colorado or something. I don’t think he got any jail time, but I don’t really remember. My mom promptly forced me to stop uploading videos indefinitely.
From February 2016 to March 2017, I didn’t upload. I continued to make videos, as it was and is my passion, but I made them unlisted so no one could see them. In March 2017, my mom surprised me on my birthday by allowing me to upload again. I had a year of content ready to be unleashed to the world. So I publicized all my videos. But there was a problem. All the videos from the past year were listed with upload dates of the same day, the day I published them. But I had made many of them months, or even a year before. This would not do. So I made the crushing decision to private all my videos and start my channel over with a new focus: better content… if you could call it that. I stopped doing Minecraft and switched my focus solely on VLOGS and Rocket League montages (I had been watching Woofless play RL for months and finally got the game in December 2016). I also republished a few of my best videos from the months leading up to the name change. Just a month later, in April 2017, I made my first Rocket League video, which I would call my first modern video.
When I switched to Rocket League, I dove straight into the deep end. Rocket League basically became my life. I quickly amassed hundreds of PS4 friends across the world, some of them kind people and some of them not. Case in point: codpro887 and Ohhzne. I was still young at the time and I didn’t understand how technology worked. I forget what led up to it, but I know that these two fools booted me offline. This scared me to death. I didn’t understand what it was they were doing and how they were shutting down my Wi-Fi. My mom freaked out too, shutting down our Wi-Fi for several days. Moments like this shaped the understanding of tech that I have today.
And I had plenty more unsavory experiences. In summer 2016 or 2017 (I don’t remember which) I was permanently banned for copyright infringement. My mom had to email YouTube and explain that I was just a kid and I didn’t understand copyright law. Miraculously, I was unbanned a week later. I was also scammed out of $373 worth of items in Rocket League, a testament to how careless I was in my early days of playing it. However, despite all the negative experiences I’ve endured on YouTube, I’ve somehow maintained a love for it like no other platform. Maybe it’s the thrill of perseverance or the adrenaline rush of overcoming obstacles. I’m no psychologist, but I will say that I’m proud of myself. If I didn’t make so many mistakes from 2015-2019, I would not have a stable, uncontroversial channel today.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention my songs. In June 2018 I published “Savage Planet Rap Song,” a short ode to my favorite content creator at the time, Rocket League streamer Savage Planet. The song blew up, both in comparison to my other videos and at my school. I was really annoying in middle school, so everyone knew of my channel. I would eventually sarcastically perform the song at my eighth grade talent show, one of the best moments of my life. I stood on stage with my friend doing Fortnite dances in the background and flopped to uproaring applause. I went on to publish 11 songs, with the last releasing in July 2020. I’ve built real communities around my songs, and one of the best years of my life, 2019, featured a strong bond with the community of a small Australian streamer named Sanaza (I made three songs about him as well).
From 2017 to 2020, I continued posting Fortnite gameplay, occasional Rocket League videos and montages, VLOGS, songs, and reviews. I built intricate storylines from video to video, assuming people would care. Throughout these years, I created hundreds of hours of content with some of my best PlayStation friends. I’d like to name them now because they’ve helped me a lot over the years: Jackson (jimmyleg), Jacob (Opmidnight560), Eduardo (Tego121985), Kaden (Warfighter719, who I went on to meet in real life), Ethan (thugdog119), CJ (BEASTMOB05), Sherman (sherman1024), and many more (Diesel, Tbouy, Ehines, Krispy, Kristian, Jecca, Foxforce). My thumbnails were decent, and my grind was impressive. Once I uploaded four Fortnite videos in a day. I even made my own merch (four times) but never sold it. But I became bored with the monotony and lack of views on my channel. I just wasn’t having fun doing Fortnite videos. Sure, the songs were fun and growing communities and friendships were great, but I was feeling too much self-inflicted pressure.
Why I Switched to Tech
In late 2020, I was burned out. I hated feeling pressured to make a video every time something new happened in Fortnite or I had a high-kill game, which was often twice a week or more. I had discovered Fortnite in October 2017 and was hooked by November, when I uploaded my first video. But the game was boring, and its glory days were long behind it. Rocket League was losing its luster as well. It was still fun, but when Sony changed the voice party system on PS4 I lost a lot of my friends. I clearly needed to make a change. I had been into computer parts since March 2020, and I knew I wanted to build a PC. I had been making occasional tech reviews for a few months by that point: SCUF controllers, KontrolFreeks, gaming chairs. So I settled on tech.
Again, I dove straight in the deep end. I stopped all Rocket League and Fortnite content cold turkey and started explaining PC tech in a way that would hopefully help newbies like me understand it better. I changed my name to FTW Tech in December 2020 in what was probably the hardest decision I’ve made on YouTube. I would later realize that I still loved my old content, so I made a second channel to go back to my roots, and I of course named it ThaGangstaFTW.
That leads me to now. I miss a lot of my old Fortnite and Rocket League fun. I’ve been out of touch with most of my closest PS4 friends for over a year, with only the closest ones (Jackson and Jacob) remaining. However, I’m happy with the rhythm I’ve fallen into. I enjoy PC tech. I have an amazing PC gaming setup and recording set in my basement. I’m getting more average views per video than I did playing Fortnite. And I have you guys. My community, who I’ve always colloquially called the Gangsta Gang, makes me want to continue making videos.
I want to conclude with a message for you all. Learn from your mistakes. If you are an aspiring YouTuber, please don’t let your missteps get to you. Don’t quit. I haven’t stopped making YouTube videos for 11 years, and I’ve never made a penny. Please ask me questions. I will answer pretty much any question you may have. It doesn’t have to be a question for my upcoming Q&A. I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I did. So that’s my story. I’ve been struggling since 2015 to find my identity as a content creator and I’m still not sure if I’ve found it. But I’ve made a lot of amazing friends and fun content along the way that I will cherish for the rest of my life.
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