YouTube is a staple in my life that allows me to navigate the Internet daily in a way that is conducive to what I look for in my searches. It is not always the most reliable site in regards to quality and accuracy, or if you are trying to watch a video as quickly as possible, but for what it is, I can appreciate the opportunities that YouTube offers as a video sharing site. My personal interests are mostly music-based. Music is the most important thing in my life, and YouTube is a grounds for which I can extend my constant music search, as well as bring back older songs that someone may not have downloaded into their personal music library. This is also especially helpful in terms of learning the lyrics of songs, and, in my case, following a few specific indie music blogs. That being said, though I have my own channel, I do not use it to create playlists or upload videos. I do, however, constantly share with my friends the videos of new music that I find every single day (at least one song a day) by copying and pasting the YouTube link and sharing it through Facebook wall posts. YouTube may not always be the platform through which I find the music, but aside from using Soundcloud, YouTube comes as a close second. In terms of my contributions to the site as a YouTube user, I might “like” a comment, subscribe to an artist or some other channel, and, if I feel as though I have something important to say, I post the occasional comment. It is difficult to ignore the amount of “hate comments” the are prevalent within the YouTube universe. For that reason, I try to avoid reading other users’ comments so that it does not affect my own personal reaction to the video I’m watching or the song I’m listening to. Music is not the only thing that I enjoy searching for on YouTube, though. I like to find videos that will make me laugh, and that are also tied in with my interests (i.e. – Harry Potter). My friends and I have an odd sense of humor, so most of the time the videos I find entertaining have some vulgar or racist language. This obviously does not reflect on my personal views, but more for my enjoyment of the irony in the comedy itself (i.e. – GI Joe PSA video, Sickanimation, Llamas With Hats). YouTube is also what I use in order to watch interviews, news, speeches, or documentaries that I find interesting or funny. Most of the time they are videos that make me feel good about myself and the world around me, and I put them in my pocket for a rainy day when I feel like a good video will pick me up. All in all, YouTube is extremely prevalent in my every day life, and if I suddenly did not have access to it, then my Internet experience wouldn’t be half as entertaining.
Playlist: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRbcZ-PbmLLe6HBAZ0CvLmV_wqkHAG_3J
“Caaaaaarrrrlllll! That KILLS people!” Man, good times…
That video gets stuck in my head almost as often as any piece of music would. Interesting how everyone keeps saying music is such a big part of YouTube. What do record companies think of that?
Zach, I love how you mention the reliability of YouTube. It’s interesting, even with music, because say, you look up a video to a song to see what the lyrics are, sometimes the lyrics posted (mostly unofficially by fans) are completely incorrect. Moreover, YouTube’s reliability is skewed for just that reason–anyone can post about anything.
I like that you mentioned some of the negatives of YouTube since it seems that most of these post, my own included, just go over the seemingly endless positives that YouTube provides. When browsing the site for a specific thing, you have to be pretty sure of what you’re looking for. For instance, if you’re looking for a particular song and think you’ve found it you have to keep in mind that the pitch may have been tampered with in order to avoid copyright infringement (which is another huge negative aspect of YouTube entirely.).
I do the same thing where I send videos from Youtube to my friends through Facebook. Sometimes it’s crazy how integrated all of these different websites can become. It really is a great way to share funny or meaningful videos with friends.
Donnie Darko is crazy good! It is awesome YouTube offers the occasional full length movie.
It’s so great to be able to find music that people are making independently. Youtube is such a great way for people to present themselves without having to sign with a record label.