Belarusian video blogger Valentin Konon is famous for his artistic videos in which he tells the truth about GMOs, smoking, drugs, IVF and other highly controversial issues. Valentin himself calls himself a popularizer of science.
Valentine Konon: biography
The blogger was born in Minsk, Belarus. Now she is studying at the Belarusian State Pedagogical University named after Tank as a teacher of biology and geography. He also has a higher engineering education. Enjoys painting, design and art in general.
Interest in pop-science (popular science video) appeared about five years ago. At the same time, the Trash Smash channel was created and the first video about telegony was shot. The main channel of Valentin Konon has almost forty videos of various topics and content.
The main direction of his work is enlightenment and education. Each video of the video blogger is supported by links to ongoing research, evidence and articles in scientific books and journals. According to Valentin himself, it takes him more than a month to prepare one video. During this time, he works on the theme, writes the script, creates costumes, shoots and edits. The number of subscribers on his main channel is 268 thousand people.
In addition to the artistic presentation, the distinguishing feature of his commercials is the duration. Some of his recent works are about one hour long. Editing and processing of one such video takes from 50 to 80 hours.
Alternative channel
Besides Trash Smash's main science and education channel, Valentine has a second one he calls a video diary. More personal information appears here, behind-the-scenes stories of the creation of videos, answers to questions that are not directly related to science, but are also of interest to the blogger. The number of videos on this channel has already exceeded forty. Updates appear here a little more often. The number of subscribers on this channel is 238 thousand people.
Videos on this channel are lighter in content and usually last about 15-30 minutes. Videos with answers to questions from subscribers also appear here,
Video topics
In his videos, Valentin tries to tell people the truth about many controversial topics that are actively exploited by various media. For example, one of his videos talks about the real dangers of drugs and smoking, the other about the dangers of drinking and abusing alcohol. The most significant video can be called a story about the real danger of products created by genetic engineering.
The video blogger's latest works are shot in such an artistic form that they resemble films. In these videos, Valentin Konon himself appears as various characters from computer games, books andfilms. By this, he, most likely, is trying to attract more attention of young people and children of senior and secondary school age. It is this part of the population that most needs educational and enlightening videos.
In addition, in his videos, he refutes false theories about the effectiveness of dietary supplements, telegony, astrology, homeopathy and the paranormal abilities of people. Often, such videos cause a fairly large wave of indignation.
Public Opinion
Not everyone is good at what he does. Someone does not like just too "theatrical" form of presentation, which, in their opinion, discredits the importance of the content of his commercials. Others disagree with what he says. Even the arguments that he cites, fully proven by science, do not seem convincing to people. The works of Valentin Konon, like any educational activity, do not meet with a 100% positive response.
Especially a lot of criticism is received by his videos on the topic of sexual orientation and issues of religion. Both of these areas are too personal for people. Some find the content of such videos offensive, although in no video of Valentin you can find obscene language, insults, and even direct condemnation. Opponents of Valentine's opinion, on the contrary, very often use insults and become personal, which in fact only confirms the significance and relevance of the problems he raises, as well as the lack of enlightenment of the majority of people in such topics.
Activities outside of Youtube
Besides two channels on the Internet, Valentin Konon takes an increasingly active part in various popular science events. He comes to Russia for some of them.
Valentin Konon collaborates with other video bloggers involved in the popularization of science: Mikhail Lidin, Boris Tsatsoulin, Alexander Panchin. He was a guest at the Moscow Harry Houdini Prize (a prize of 1 million rubles for the demonstration and scientific proof of a person's paranormal abilities). His speeches on the limits of perception and the dependence of language on thinking can also be found on the popular science video channel Sci-One.
