Hey michael, vsauce here

In the end, is the net effect of popscience actually damaging or helping (real) science?

Damaging. Needs more math. Normies think science is shit you discuss between bong hits.

...

Helping. A lot of redditors think they 'just totally get it, man' and go study math or physics to then only pay the big bucks a couple of the first semestees (the ones that are cheapest for the uni to keep but cost just as much as the future semesters for the students) and give money to our programs and then they just leave, giving our departments huge profit margins that they can use to fund us.

At my uni the stop students get paid a monthly salary funded right from brainlet pockets.

I think the net effect is good. Young adults and children see things they find interesting, and are more likely to delve deeper into the subject than they would be if they were shown a research paper or textbook that they couldn't yet understand. Who cares what normies think or say? Sure it's annoying to have people act this way but as long as there is something getting more kids, teenagers, and young adults into math and science, it is a good thing.

I want a vsauce for math.
"What's up internet, today we're teaching you derivatives!"
"Now, when you ask most people what a derivative is, they'll either tell you it's super hard high level math, or start in about how this is derived from that. . ."
"What if I told you how to do derivatives in a way that raises your iq just for knowing it?"

Then he just teaches the general populace how to math a little bit and makes people think math makes you naturally smarter.
People would believe him and there would arise social pressures to learn math in fear of being considered stupid or dumb for not knowing math.

This. Some people will be all I FUCKIN LUV SCIENCE but some people will get a genuine interest and seek to study it. You only see the I FUCKIN LUV SCIENCE people on social media so they have more of a presence.

Numberphile?

it doesn't do anything. research is funded by government granting agencies with no input on funding decisions from the public. literally nothing would change if popsci went away

Eh, interest is interest. Besides, that's not entirely false, just phenomenally lazy and not likely to provide any useful, quantitative results. Anyone who is going to make a real career out of a scientific discipline gas better sources anyway. The average guy or even enthusiast doesn't really need to do any number crunching, though it'd be cool if they'd include some guides, where relevant, if you wanted to try.