I'm not going to act like i know when they first started appearing, but in my experience they got
big around mlp, and in recent history especially they started to react to vine videos or top 10 lists.
I am a big fan of these videos but i can see why there's hate for them, people spend alot of time
making these videos and all you have to do as a reacter is set up a facecam (sometimes not
even that) and do commentary. The reason people dislike them (besides the lack of effort to
get equal or more views than the video they are watching) is how some barely say anything,
a user name jinx is definitely in this list for saying very little and currently has 1,393,027 subs
for just his brief giggles and skipped over outro speeches.

I do however feel some do more for entertainment, say more, do more and in some cases raise
awareness to videos people may not have seen before. I always saw react videos as more of a laugh
track, or similar to the Mystery Science Theater 5000 commentary sketch. Let's be fair and admit that
most who view Game Grumps are there for the commentary and not the gameplay, some state
that it would be better if they did regular podcasts which i fully agree on. I would say they should also
do react videos but there is too many out there already. I think that the reason Mlp is so popular (or was
popular for these videos) was because, as i said in my previous journal, men (and maybe some women)
feel awkward watching the show alone, either because you're an adult watching a kids show or just a guy
thing.

A laugh track in sitcoms was not there to direct you on when you should laugh, it was there to comfort you,
especially if a joke or skit might be too risque or dark to laugh about, it gives you a sense of sameness
when you're not the only one giggling immaturely or inappropriately. It may not invalidate those jokes to
be dark or immature but in the end what's important is being comfortable in laughing at what attacks your
funny bone without feeling like an outcast with a weird sense of humor. Reacting to scary videos helps
your confidence, reacting to mlp is similar to holding your hand when you feel you should close the tab and
reacting to tv shows is more a of a friendly hangout (which is sorta sad given they aren't actually beside you).

As long as they are interesting people that aim to keep you entertained and give you food for thought, i think
these videos have as much right to be online as any other. An example of an alright reacter is raritydash and someone who i find hilarious is BlastphamousHD, especially in ghost videos.

(i use the word especially alot, ugh, my write block is showing)