A YouTuber Went Viral Just for Staring at his Screen for Two Hours

The internet is a weird place.

In late July, an Indonesian man with a YouTube channel called “Sobat Miskin Official” (Broke People Club Official) uploaded a video of himself sitting still and staring blankly into his camera for over two hours.

While the incredibly tedious activity doesn’t sound like the recipe for success on YouTube, the video has since amassed over 2.8 million views.

The description of the video explains its simple premise. "Just like the title says, I did nothing for two hours straight,” the man wrote.

The uploader explained that Indonesian netizens had asked him to produce more “educational” content and this is what he came up with.

“You all can decide for yourself whether this video is useful or not. Have fun watching!" he joked.

Two months before, a different man filmed himself doing something similar.

In the earlier video, posted on May 5, a man stares at the camera while holding a clock. The video was posted alongside the hashtag #cringe and goes on for just over two hours.

It’s unclear what the video’s intention was, but it’s possible he was counting down the time before he could break his fast, as the video was uploaded during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. While not as successful as his successor, the video has still garnered over 32,000 views.

It appears to be part of a trend that's catching on in Indonesia. Another video from April 22 shows a man sitting in near-total silence for three hours.

The strange video has garnered over 377,000 views.

Another video from late July shows a man staring at his computer screen for over three hours.

Despite the latest flooding of silent staredown videos, it appears this trend didn’t start in Indonesia.

Back in 2013, a man with YouTube called “Rens Cools” sat on his sofa for eight hours and immersed himself in deep thought.

In May, a YouTuber named Benjamin Bennett uploaded a video of himself sitting still and smiling for four hours. He has uploaded these kinds of videos over 300 times, and each video has collected thousands of views.

Seeing this type of content trending on YouTube begs the question of whether we will be seeing more videos like this in the future. There are already tons of rainy day videos on loop for hours and people seem to like them a lot. So nothing’s impossible, right?