By Jessica Anstice
With negativity constantly blasted across social media, John Nichols has made it his mission to help spread joy and positivity throughout the community.
About two years ago, the Youtuber, Aussie Gamer 17, created a channel to showcase his video game strategies and achievements.
However, his thriving channel, with more than 8000 subscribers, has recently made a turn by way of its content.
Mr Nichols has created a new series of videos called Making Lives Better, in a bid to make a difference in the world.
“This is something completely different to what I normally do,” he said.
“I started it because I wanted to help people and the point is just to do that and to make people smile.”
Since childhood, he wanted to join the police force and come adulthood, he did just that.
After 10 years as a police officer, his dreams were crushed when he was diagnosed with a weak bone condition called osteopenia.
At the time of his diagnosis, Mr Nichols was forced to give up football and other activities he enjoyed doing.
“I fell into depression and anxiety after that – lost my way quite a bit,” he recalled.
“I broke quite a few bones too so I started my YouTube channel to give myself something to do while I was stuck at home recovering.
“Then I started to get better mentally but I missed helping people the way I could when I was a cop.”
As a way to help others, he came up with the idea of inventing a video series.
The first episode of the series is titled ‘Giving People Money’, where Mr Nichols knocks on strangers’ doors, conducts a fake survey about the coronavirus pandemic and offers participants free cash.
“I did think about just doing it without filming it though but then I had the idea of making videos out of it because then hopefully I’m making the people who watch smile too and spreading some positivity,” he added.
“At the start I just thought that if I could make one person’s day a bit better or a bit brighter then it’s worth a shot.
“My normal target audience is just ‘gamers’ but with this I’m hoping to branch out a bit more and reach as many people as possible.”
After posting his first video of the series, he was overwhelmed with positive feedback.
One person wrote, “This is exactly the reason why I and so many other people love you.
“Like I am speechless. The world is so full of darkness and having people like you in it to do things like this light all kinds of little candles. This is so exciting.”
As for his next video of the series, Mr Nichols plans on tipping food delivery drivers.
Check out his latest video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_q6LE5Y-Lo
