One of the rising youtubers, Shane Dawson, who is 30 years old, is know for his conspiracy theory videos. On January 30, 2019, he released part one of his newest conspiracy theory video that left his fans shocked. The tone of the title and the length of the video, which is a hour and a half long, are a complete 180 degrees from his older conspiracy videos.  

One of the conspiracies that he talked about was how iPhones are always “listening” to their users. This theory would have been pretty impact, but he never got any proof of this event actually taking place. This theory was split in 4 parts during the video. The first part covered how a person is able to hear the feed on the other end of a phone call before the other person picks up, connecting the idea that the iPhone could be listening in on conversations. Another idea was regarding when an individual takes a live photo the camera takes the picture 3 seconds ahead; Apple has stated that the camera goes 3 seconds ahead but Shane thinks there is more time that is recorded.

He talks about a free new software called “deep fakes,” which will allow people to put a face on someone while they are talking. For example, Paul Walker in the movie Fast and Furious passed away before the movie was finished getting filmed, but his brother finished the movie for him. However, viewers couldn’t tell that it wasn’t him or that it didn’t sound like him. Dawson explains that this could be dangerous; someone could use the President’s face and “announce” anything, which could spread chaos all over the world.  

Dawson talks about childhood cartoons as well, such as the shows Looney Tunes and Spongebob, where suicide references can be found often. He believes these are put in the children’s mind to brainwash them. In the show Looney Tunes, suicide is referenced by being “finally free”. Dawson believes these references are made to show kids from a very young age that suicide is an option and that if you aren’t rich or thriving in life, that its a good option.  

Dawson’s last, but most convincing theory is about the recent California fires. California has had 2 major fires in the year 2019. Throughout the video, Dawson talks about how the government might be behind the cause of them. He talks about the new laser technology the government has been building recently, which he believes was used to start the fires. The houses that burned down would leave only ash, but there would also be a tree standing and then a couple houses down, the other houses are completely fine. Also he shows a video of another youtuber who looked on a map and believed the fire went in a straight line. While this fire was going on, there was a fire that was happening where the celebrities of California live. As soon as this fire started, the other was forgotten about, yet the first fire was bigger and more dangerous. He believes the second fire was a cover up for the first one.    

I thought the video was very well thought out and planned. Dawson went over some sensitive topics, but he was very good at bringing up how real the problems were and the seriousness of them. I loved the video, due to it not being too far fetched. I had never thought of a couple of topics before now, but he brought them up and showed supporting evidence. He delivered the topics in such a way that I automatically believed him. It was evident that he also believed in what he was talking about, which in turn helped me believe most of the things he was saying. I would give this video a 8/10, as he talked about Apple and iPhone’s but he didn’t have evidence to back up some of the things he was saying.