The air is tense as the moment of truth arrives. Finding the correct parts, installing all of the individual pieces, plugging in the multitude of tedious wires has all led up to this moment. The moment the computer turns on and all the work from the last few hours pays off.

“I’ve really liked technology since seventh grade; it’s literally the future,” senior Christian Hogan said. “The world is going into the future of technology. Everything is going to be technologized in one way or another.”

Christian builds computers with anywhere from 12 to 25 parts and can range up to 600 dollars worth of equipment, so he takes extra care when creating one for someone else.

“The biggest thing about prebuilt computers is that most of the time it’s not good quality because it’s not theirs, they’re not worried about it,” Hogan said. “When I build a computer for somebody else, I usually worry about, this isn’t mine, they have to like it ”
In middle school, Hogan and his friend, senior Everett Latimer, started their own YouTube channels. 

“I met him back in middle school,” Latimer said. “We both thought it would be cool to form our own YouTube channels and then record videos, so we did that together for a little bit.”

Even after Latimer lost interest, Hogan continued to record videos. Hogan’s channel includes videos of him playing video games like “Minecraft”, “Fortnite” and “Grand Theft Auto”.

“I’m subscribed to him on his channel and support him,” senior Eyzic Rumery said. “If he wants some help or needs someone to join him in one of his videos, I’ll join him.”

By watching other YouTube channels, Hogan came up with the inspiration to start his channel; Hogan Playz.

“I watched a lot of YouTube and was like ‘that’s dope, I want to do that’ and so I did it,” Hogan said. “You can just sit there in your own little world; you do whatever you want. It’s your video. You make it how you like it; it’s going on your channel.”

One of Hogan’s biggest motivators, when starting his YouTube channel, was YouTuber ProHenis. 

“The reason I watched him was because I was trying to recreate him,” Hogan said. “When you do YouTube, you usually don’t know what persona you are. Everyone is a completely different person on YouTube.”

Every video Christian creates takes two to four hours to edit.

“Whether it’s the game I play, or I edit or the community that watches it, there’s always something different,” Christian said. “With the different transitions and key frames, there’s always going to be something different, so it’s always something new and exciting to do.”

Hogan does not have the amount of subscribers that ProHenis has, but he has a lot of appreciation for the people that have subscribed to his channel.

 “I have a very small audience,” Christian said. “It’s like five people, but all of them are always there on my channel. I don’t think I’ve ever done a stream where I haven’t had at least three of those people. It’s nice to have a small community who wants to sit there and watch you for hours on end.”

One of the people Christian is closest with is his twin brother, senior Kohl Hogan. 

“We do YouTube together,” Kohl said. “He’s teaching me how to edit and how to build my own PCs, so I’m learning a lot from him. I teach him about random stuff like how to fish.”

Whenever Christian and his dad Gabriel Hogan have a chance to catch up, they always have something new to talk about.

“Christian has many good ideas and is great at breaking them down into steps,” Christian’s dad Gabriel said.  “I always feel like I have a better grasp on the status of technology in today’s ever-changing world. It’s really a good feeling to be able to have a conversation with your son and have it feel like you’re just chatting with an old friend.”