Family's Ski Accident Video Shows Why 'YouTube Culture Is Broken'

(Newser) – With their globe-trotting—or, in pandemic times, US-trotting—lifestyle, the “Bucket List Family” has gained more than 2.6 million followers on Instagram, but Stephanie McNeal as BuzzFeed feels they have now gone too far in the search for clicks. Some of the influencers’ followers were alienated by the way they handled mother Jessica Gee’s recent skiing accident in Utah, she writes. The traveling family’s May 2 YouTube video, promoted with an Instagram Story Slide saying it contains “some sad and heart breaking footage,” had the “clickbait” title “Mom is Emergency Lifted by Helicopter to the Hospital. Heli Ski Accident in Utah,” she notes. It ended with the words “to be continued”—but the family then “went dark” on social media for days, alarming fans who pleaded for more information. Some said they were so worried they couldn’t sleep. After fans started complaining about “emotional manipulation,” father Garrett Gee confirmed that Jessica had undergone surgery for a knee injury—and said “hurtful comments” had made her cry. McNeal says it’s no surprise fans were upset by the way the accident was presented as a cliffhanger. She notes that the video shows Garrett’s “first instinct” when he reached his injured wife was to keep…
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