[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhC0AQToJaV8ZxgzPjiLKHl2q56oz_uDa[/youtube]
Over the years YouTube has been my source of entertainment, motivation, sports, and music. It has helped me learn new skills, find new role models, and discover new hobbies. As you may have noticed, many of my videos are sports related (specifically football). For me it is a great way to relieve stress and challenge myself mentally and physically. When I play football I am able to get away from everything that is bothering me and simply compete. I watch highlight videos to study the habits and moves that professional players to improve my own game. When I feel like skipping the gym, I watch pump up videos and convince myself to go.
In addition to highlight videos, I watch interviews and documentaries about people that I admire. They all come from different backgrounds and inspire me in different ways. Youtube is the medium for me to interact with some of the players I look up to. Despite their fortune and fame, few are able to remain down to earth and be the same person they’ve always been. Through their interviews, I pick up on the traits that I admire and try to emulate them myself. Different channels allow me to adopt different “identities”. One of my favorite channels is Munchies which is a channel by Vice that combines cooking and food with hipsters and drugs. I have a very deep appreciation of food because its a universal language; everyone can relate and enjoy it no matter where they’re from. Each chef has a their own style of cooking and its fun to see their creative interpretations on traditional dishes. Munchies is much more raw than most cooking channels because the people they interview are much more candid and have little to no filter with what they say. They swear, smoke, drink, etc. and I love it. I think it gives the show much more of a personality because you really get a better sense of what kind of people they really are. They are not the generic professionals that read off of scripts and that pretend to be someone that they’re not.
I have noticed that many of the videos in my playlist are very mainstream. (mainstream being measured by its number of views). After our discussion in class about how popularity is power, I started to notice that the popularity of the video does have an impact in the way that I perceive it. The new ranking system (likes/dislikes) on YouTube affects my decision on whether or not to share a video. I am more likely to share a video with my friends if it has high ratings. Sometimes when I see that the video has a large number of views but many dislikes, I won’t even bother finishing it. This bothers me in a way because its as if I don’t even judge for myself whether I like it or not anymore. I let other people do it for me. Its also sad because when I read the ignorant, racist comments, a part of me wants to give up on humanity (I can’t tell if these people are serious or just trolling). Yet I entrust these people to tell me if a video is worth watching all the way through or not.
The first two videos are simply songs that I can’t stop listening to at the moment. I have this unfortunate habit of listening to songs and repeat until I can’t stand them anymore. The Alex Honnold video is about one of the most talented rock climbers in the world who solo climbs (no harness or anything) and lives his life travelling from place to place living out of his minivan. I’m drawn to this video because its just about a guy who does what he loves. He lives a very minimalist lifestyle and seems very happy travelling around the world. He participates in an extremely dangerous sport in which less than 1% of the population can sustain for more than a few years yet he isn’t afraid to die because he genuinely enjoys what he does. I hope that one day I discover a passion that I can pursue that relentlessly.