Conclusion
This study highlights the potential of science communication on social media to have a lasting, positive impact on viewers, beyond just immediate education. The findings emphasize the importance of simplicity, quality, and consistency in science content, as well as the ethical responsibility to consider its long-term influence. By focusing on the broader effects over time, science communicators can aim to create meaningful change rather than simply reaching wide audiences quickly.
This study demonstrates not only how science communication could be communicated effectively via a social media platform, but also the significant role of the lasting impact of science communication on its audience. Through Kurzgesagt's confessional video, the comments make clear that science communication has the potential to not just inform and educate viewers on one topic on one occasion, science communicators have the potential to influence a subset of viewers longer term. This work supports the need for simplicity, high production quality, and channel consistency in science communication. However, the results also emphasize the importance of considering the long-term impact of the content we produce in science communication. Doing so will help us think about the messages we make and our potential roles in changing the lives of those around us. These findings are a stepping stone for more research, requiring more exploration into the presence of "long tailers" in other science communication channels. This profile is clearly present in relation to Kurzgesagt channel, but the question is when or where others might be equally exposed and inspired by science communication.
When focused on the long tail, this moves beyond metrics and sharing through which YouTube channels or videos tend to be solely evaluated. Thinking about the long tail on YouTube also becomes an alternative orientation to the how-to notions of science communication, requiring, as an ethical exercise, that we can think about our long-term impacts rather than getting this message out as quickly and broadly as possible. As Fabien Medvecky and Joan Leach (2019) remind us, "In the case of communication ethics, the concern is not simply 'how do we do (morally) good communication' but also, how do we use communication to create more good in the world" (p. 10). If we can change lives, we are doing a part to create more good in the world, a good that extends beyond a more limited, single-serve, viewer and subscriber count end for science communication.