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His videos do well but none have more than 1,000 views, something that becomes increasingly frustrating for him, and chasing the numbers takes an emotional toll. "It starts impacting your self worth," he admits. "If you don't get the views, you start thinking you're doing something wrong and people don't like you." Finally, a video gets more than 10,000 views but Alun doesn't feel the elation he thought he would. "I was actively looking for more views and I lost my academic integrity. I crossed a boundary and oversimplified some information and I feel a bit dirty now." At the two-month mark, Alun is posting on TikTok every other day but has recently found himself on the receiving end of cruel and spiteful comments about his lack of hair and eyebrows due to alopecia. "I'm finding it harder to deal with those comments than I might have thought," he admits. "It's made me more conscious of my appearance." He decides to confront the trolls and makes a video explaining his condition. At the same time, the university, where he lectures, starts sharing his videos as promotional material to prospective students which turbo-charges his reach. "I've had 350,000 views in total and in comparison, my academic articles are read a couple of hundred times a year," he says. Creating content won't replace his career but it certainly amplifies it and Alun is sure he will continue posting online.
