Category Archives: Uncategorized

Final Reflection

Leave a reply

Over the course of this class I have realized that I have been mostly concerned with the future of new media. Although it has been interesting to study specific elements of new media such as terms, memes and how the YouTube partner program works…I can never stop myself from thinking about future possibilities and consequences. I have adopted a cynical view of society ever since I first became exposed to classes that analyzed technology and new media. This class however, helped me to focus my attention on the present use of new media, even if just for a moment.

My favorite topic of the semester was Google because I learned a shocking amount of information. It is sad that I was previously unaware Google owned YouTube. I still remember the point that has resonated with me the most over the semester as it of course pertained to the future of Google. We, as a society, need to openly discuss new media in a critical space. When I interviewed Sut Jhally for our project, one thing he said was, “People think there is entertainment/media and reality. The two are separate things. However, there is no way to actually separate the two as the shape and create each other.”

If anything this class merely supported theories and ideas that I have been thinking over since I stepped on to this campus. Now that I am about to graduate, I am hoping I will keep a critical eye on the media, the internet and that damn Google Giant! I will be a socially conscious producer AND consumer of the internets. I will question the media I interact with, and I will probably discover a few important key terms on my own.

In conclusion, I am glad that I had the opportunity of meeting in a collective space and talking about relevant issues that seem to escape public airways. Hopefully, academia will keep on this path and increase new media and technological studies as the internet has become a shared global nation. The information provided by this class in combination with the Media Justice lecture I attended, pushed me to realizes that stopping unfair Net Neutrality laws and getting people to understand that the Time Warner/Comcast merger CANNOT HAPPEN is what is truly important to me.

Individual Digital Reflection

Leave a reply

The main thing I am taking away from this class is a deeper understanding of new media, and the ability to analyze media in a way I never have before.  Prior to this class, I took new media at face value.  I considered the internet, laptops, tablets and smart phones to be new media, and never really took into consideration even the content that these devices make available.  Even when I would look at content on the internet, I would take it at face value, and never delve into the deeper meanings that content can have.  Now I know that many aspects of new media showcase problems that are prevalent throughout our society.  Certain types of new media have given people an outlet to express feelings and thoughts that would often remain unspoken if they were saying them face to face to a group of people.  Although sometimes this can be good, and help people work through emotions, like crisis memes allowing people to work through their feelings about tragedies, often they can be dark and show a deeper problem within our society.  The racist and sexist comments of some gamers is a prime example of this.  Because these people see themselves as anonymous, they say disgusting things that they would most likely never say to a person face to face.  New media has given us a way to express good feelings and reach out and help others, but it also showcases the deeper problems in our society as a whole.  People who claim that racism and sexism no longer exist should simply browse the comments on a Youtube video to see exactly how prevalent these issues still are.

My group project on Google and the academy has also taught me a lot throughout this course.  I have never really thought to question Google before, it was always there, always a useful tool.  I never had reason to believe that we should see it as anything but a useful tool before now.  While I do not think that Google is going to become an evil dictator and take over the world, I think it is important to understand the issues surrounding Google, and the possibility for corruption, even if it has yet to occur.  I also think that the fact that so few people are informed about Google and their issues like data mining and their control on knowledge is a little scary, and we should work to keep informed and keep others informed about Google and other companies like it, to keep them from possibly abusing their power in the future.

Overall, this class has opened my eyes to a new media culture that I am a part of, but had never really considered before.  I took for granted a lot of the new media that I use, and never bothered to look at any deeper issues within new media.  I think now, with the knowledge I have gained, I will be able to be informed about new media and how it effects me and those around me.

Digital Reflection

Leave a reply

        Over the course of this semester I have developed a better sense of what constitutes new media and how it influences our culture. New media including parodies, and memes allow for easier and more personal interaction with our peers. Such interaction forms social networks where people collaborate, share, and analyze content that is deemed culturally significant. Often these communities are confined to their respective websites, in some cases however, viral content can converge over existing communities. Whether this content is either meme, or YouTube video, communities use such media in part because of its expressive nature.

            The YouTube playlist assignment was an exciting project not only because I could write about my history with YouTube, but also because I could see how others used YouTube. I learned that many of my peers use YouTube to listen to music, some listened to country while some listened to live performances. Some used YouTube solely for the viral videos, and some used YouTube for its educational content. With scores of people cutting the cord, YouTube has become home to content creators who fill niches and provide frequent, quality updates. The final project had our group examining YouTube and its importance within new media. As a part of our project, we interviewed YouTube personalities including, The ArchFiend and NikkiPhillippi. We sought to find out if YouTube was a viable job, how they were introduced to YouTube, and whether they believe there exists any race or gender discrimination. YouTube is just one alternative; streaming sites like Netflix, and Hulu have granted unprecedented access to a catalogue of movies and TV shows. Netflix has even gone as far to produce its own show, House of Cards, to much acclaim. Amazon Prime meanwhile agreed to a deal with HBO. With online content providers offering so much, is it any mystery so many are making the switch?

We also talked in length about how race and gender influence New Media. The first day of class, a viral video entitled Princess Peach and Daisy Vs. Michael Jackson reinforced and froze several stereotypical traits attributed to women. After their children are stolen, Peach and Daisy take up arms and go after Michael Jackson. Mario however saves the children and a cheeky messages displays “Looks like Mario isn’t getting lucky tonight ;)” As a part of class we also watched web-series including Awkward Black Girl and The Couple. These web-series, which are part of the black ‘webtopia’ explore the ordinary black, often typified in television.

            Whether discussing Google and their policies, or memes and their controversial meaning, this semester has taught me that this technology is still very much in its infancy. Smart phones, tablets, and streaming services did not exist ten years ago and it is anyone’s guess where we may be in another ten.

I Do Not Liek Mudkips

3 Replies

When I first moved on to campus at UMass, I found that everyone else seemed to converse with the assumption that everyone understood certain references to the internet.  I had never heard of almost anything they mentioned.  I did not know why it was so important that everything be over nine thousand as opposed to simply ten thousand.  I had no idea why it made someone the most interesting man in the world just to drink a certain beer.  I wrote to my best friend from high school, begging her to educate me in the ways of the internet.  She replied with a crash course in the memes of the time, including a ten minute long YouTube edit of two pokemon repeatedly saying the word “mudkip.”  In an undeniable sign that I was new to this game, I thought I was supposed to watch all ten minutes, which I in fact did.

Searching for what I actually wanted to watch, rather than something I was told I needed to watch to understand pop culture, led to videos with more than one word in their dialogue.  Eventually I started finding media formerly only available as dispensed from the company that owned it, which often meant that it was not available at all.

For example, though Disney owns the Muppets and therefore the entire archives of the Muppet Show, they have stubbornly refused to release the fourth and fifth (perhaps the best) seasons of the Muppet Show on disc, nor do they currently broadcast them.  This means that they are not in any way profiting from their ownership of the Muppet Show, and presumably that there is no way to properly sate a Muppet addiction.  Muppet lovers found this to be an unacceptable condition, and turned to YouTube to rectify it.  Despite the fact that they have no source of income coming from these particular episodes, as they will not release them legally, Disney frequently demands that particular clips be taken down from the internet on principle of the matter—but fights ineffectively, choosing one segment at a time (episodes are almost always posted in multiple parts).  The communalism and common goals of people who wish to watch the Muppets make this a ridiculously losing battle for Disney—there are three different accounts run by separate people, all of which upload the same clips, so if any segment of an episode is ever missing from one account, it will be accessible from either of the other two until the user attacked by Disney can re-upload.

Yet as much as Disney and other copyright-holding corporations fight the promulgation of their work on free sites, it functions as advertisement for the things that can be legally purchased.  The ability to stream classic (superior) Muppet sketches increases interest in the mew Muppet movies of two years ago and next month.  Similarly the multitudes of people scrambling for any clip of the new movie Frozen that there is to be had are only increasing their appetite for when the full movie can be bought.  There has even been a resurgence of those unfortunate videos repeating a single word or phrase over and over again, though now it’s Kermit’s flailing “YAAAAY!!” or Princess Anna speaking the word “balls.”

 

 

MyTube: My Personal YouTube Playlist

6 Replies

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVMXi597-j_sT8IrCAIP2MmYqffyjdpo4[/youtube]

Along with ESPN and Reddit, YouTube is among my most visited websites. Although I don’t follow any particular channels extensively, YouTube allows me to view music videos, feature-length films, trailers and gameplay for upcoming games, as well as an assortment of other content. Often I find myself stuck in a “YouTube Loop,” watching an endless chain of ridiculous 30 second clips. The video Going To The Store can be described as one of these short, ridiculous videos. The first YouTuber I remember watching consistently was “Ronald Jenkees.” Ronald is a musician who is known for his energetic keyboard performances; he has produced three albums with a fourth set to debut in 2014. YouTube musicians including Ronald Jenkees, Madeon, and Funtwo have found success in large part because of their vocal fans; Madeon being invited to play Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Electric Daisy. While using YouTube to follow amateur YouTube musicians, I also use YouTube to listen to my favorite artists; including artists like the Foo Fighters, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and A Tribe Called Quest.

While I do have a channel, I neither upload my own videos nor post comments; my channel instead allows me to stay up to date with content creators whom I have subscribed to. Whether I’m feeling nostalgic and want to watch Spongebob Squarepants or Drake & Josh, YouTube offers ‘best of’ lists, mashups, and sometimes even full episodes. Often I find myself revisiting TV shows from my childhood, laughing hysterically at the same dumb jokes.The majority of the time the videos I view are linked through other sites including Reddit, SlashFilm, and Yahoo! These videos may be anything from breaking news, to ‘epic fails.’

YouTube is also an amazing source of information providing cooking and music lessons, math tutors, documentaries, and even live coverage of events including the 2012 Presidential Election. Sometimes I would find myself referring to YouTube when stuck in a particularly hard part of a video game. The video Four Days In October documents the historic comeback of the 2004 Red Sox to beat the Yankees in the ALCS. Since I was only a toddler at the time, I also added the iconic player entrances for the Michael Jordan era Chicago Bulls. During the Arab Spring, I would often check YouTube for updates on the protest.

YouTube allows me the opportunity to revisit the past, laughing alongside Richard Pryor or sitting next to Johnny Carson. Being able to ‘like’ or comment on someones post allows YouTube users to form connections. While the YouTube community has been known to foster hostility, finding others who share similar interests can be comforting; sometimes this can simply be someone commenting positively on your favorite song. My top 15 also included a Linkin Park and Psy mashup, an especially bad rendition of the national anthem, a deleted scene from Borat, and a bit from Patton Oswalt’s standup special Werewolves and Lollipops. YouTube allows me to try before I buy; whether that is listening to a certain song or watching gameplay of a recently released game.

What to The Surfer is YouTube

10 Replies

When I first heard that we would be required to curate a playlist of YouTube videos that we felt best represented our relationship with the prolific website, I was excited. Also a little relieved, as students often are encountering an assignment that sounds easy, painless and fun. “Fifteen videos!” I said to myself, “That’s nothing. That’ll be a breeze.” Unsurprisingly I had a fair bit of trouble finding fifteen videos that: a.) I felt so strongly about that I thought they ‘represented’ me and my constantly evolving relationship with the popular video service and b.) didn’t horrendously embarrass me. I’m still not sure I succeeded with the latter.

More than any other website, YouTube lives up the pop-culture hype of the internet changing our relationship to information. While the internet has provided unprecedented redistribution of who has access to information in the form of news, articles and other forms of media, it simply cannot be denied that, on the internet, the video is king. If we measured the ‘viral’ success of the most shared and read article of 2013, it wouldn’t hold a candle to whatever Beyonce video was the most watched of the first month of 2014. The sheer magnitude of that sort of reach is staggering and has become so ubiquitous that YouTube has become a fixture in our culture that I think goes beyond gimmicky “Word of the Year” awards. YouTube appears on our prime time new media outlets. Our president shares State of the Union addresses through YouTube.

What does that mean for me, as an individual user of the internet? Well, I often find myself commenting, with surprise, that YouTube was only founded in 2006. It has changed my relationship with media, the casual approach I have to gaining access to almost any visual piece of media, so drastically that it’s hard to imagine it didn’t exist a mere 8 (!! I’m getting old though) years ago. I use YouTube pretty much every day at least once. Usually I’m watching something silly or funny that happened recently. But often I’m looking for pretty specific intellectually engaging material. The miracle of YouTube is not just that you can find things that people put on the internet, but that video from before either of my parents were born exists on there as well. If a researcher from the 1950’s was brought to our time and shown YouTube, they shit bricks. Maybe literally. (James Baldwin’s famous debate and Toni Morrison’s talk are two examples of this.)

YouTube has also supplied a platform for entertainment that would never be allowed to flourish in more tightly controlled outlets like cable television. It’s naive of course to pretend that the same power structures that restrict media in ‘old media’ is completely absent in newer platforms like YouTube, but there’s a simpler logic at play here. If you can find your audience, your videos will flourish. And many, many small producers of video material that might be considered less safe for conventional distributors have found their audience.

Also, I’m not gonna lie and say that I don’t sometimes look at videos of really good twerking videos or guys kissing when I need some feelings in my life.

-Hasani

Scalability

Leave a reply

According to Manovich, scalability is one of the most basic cases of the variability principle in which different versions of the same media object can be generated at various sizes or levels of detail. The best way to think of scalability is by thinking of an icon that is used to show an image file saved onto your computer. If it is not designated as something else, the computer automatically creates a small image (to scale) of the larger image that was saved. If you look at the icon it will look like a smaller but exact representation of the larger image. Sacalability not only includes software, but also hardware. When hardware is considered to be “scalable” that means it is capable of running newer software than what was originally made for the technology. This serves the purpose of not having to buy new hardware every time new software is released for a particular piece of hardware.

scalability

 

Works Cited:

Manovich, Lev. “Principles of New Media.” The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2002. 63. Web.

What YouTube Means to Me

5 Replies

This is a very, very short compilation of all of the types of videos (and some of my favorites) that I love to watch while on YouTube. I absolutely love YouTube and started using it right away as a young teenager when it first came out. I remember how amazing it was that you could post your own videos and watch other people share their own as well. As a side note, a few years before YouTube even came out my mother was still working for IBM (International Business Machine). She worked on a project that would allow users to go online to a website and be able to share videos just the same as we do now with YouTube. However her team’s project got canned because her boss didn’t believe that anyone would want to share videos as a way to express themselves. Too bad he didn’t follow through with the idea because YouTube has millions and millions of individuals browsing videos every second of every day. I am definitely one of those people.

For the most part I love using YouTube for everything that I can possibly think of that would have a video to go along with a name or an idea. I also enjoy listening to music on YouTube and sometimes I’ll even make party playlists to have running in the background while I have guests over. Everything about YouTube is convenient for me and anyone I talk to. YouTube is one of my all-time favorite websites.

Although I do occasionally listen to music on YouTube that is not the majority of the time I spend on the website. For the most part when I’m on YouTube, I’m either watching something because I want to free up time before I have to do something else, or I’m trying to see what’s new with the society and culture that surrounds me every day. YouTube, in my opinion, is a way to escape the burdens of society while also jumping into the heart and culture of what we express to society as what is important to us as the individual. Although that may seem counter-intuitive, it’s anything but a lie.

As you can see from my playlist I’m the kind of guy who loves silly humor, especially from internet videos. A lot of these videos are from at least 6 or 7 years ago and all were really popular at the time they came out. Many of them are newer as well, but still carry on that Idea of humor through memes. I also threw in a couple of videos from some of the more relevant channels that I now watch. One of the videos is from a ‘lets play’ by Youtuber Markiplier playing Octodad (the best game in the world). Another video is from a channel called Dotacinema which is relevant to myself because I am highly addicted to the game Dota 2.

Other than that YouTube is just another place that I can set my mind at ease for a few hours if I’m really stressed out and need a break. It shows me that no matter how upset I am, or no matter how stressed I am, there are always people out there making funny videos that can really change my outlook on life and what is really important to me.

 

Here is my YouTube Playlist:

My Top 15

YouTube: My Personal Time Capsule

5 Replies

When given this assignment, I did not believe I used YouTube very often for things other than music. Usually, I have one or two tabs open for lyric videos. In fact, my main use for YouTube is just that. When I find music I like on the internet, I search for it on YouTube. More often than not, the music does not have an “official” music video but YouTube has it with one still-picture in the background or the lyrics to the video. For this purpose, YouTube allows me to share the music I find with my friends on other networks like Facebook.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/MXPJf7iZwVU[/youtube]

I do not usually watch official music videos unless they are music videos from my teenage years or childhood. For this purpose, YouTube serves as a sort of time capsule from my past. I enjoy watching music videos by The Killers, like Mr. Brightside, because it transports me back to the stressless and blissful world of my early teenage years.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/gGdGFtwCNBE[/youtube]

The nostalgia leads to watching even older movies from my childhood. The older the movie, the more likely one is to find it on YouTube. The only problem here is that I have to watch the movie in parts rather than the whole in one sitting. For example, Susie Q came out in 1996 when I was five years old.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/LT6zpWd5R_I[/youtube]

I get so wrapped up in my music use on YouTube that I do forget I use it for more practical reasons. From learning how to properly cook salmon to how to attempt a new hairstyle, YouTube becomes a virtual guide for many everyday life tips. When I first moved into an apartment two years ago, I forgot how to properly cook sunny side up eggs. I searched on YouTube how to properly cook this type of egg and (Boom!) the eggs were cooked to perfection. From that moment on, all of my cooking questions were searched on YouTube.

Reflecting on it, YouTube helps me with most of my “How To” questions and “Do It Yourself” projects. I really enjoy learning how to do different things with my hair and makeup but sometimes that does not work out well when I try to do these things myself unknowingly. Therefore, YouTube helps to educate me on how to properly try new techniques or styles. For example, the “sock bun” is a recent phenomenon for women’s hairstyles. A YouTube tutorial taught me how to properly weave the sock in my hair, creating a ballerina bun.

My most important use of YouTube is for research or motivational purposes. I am studying to be a middle school teacher and I am constantly doing research on education and teaching. YouTube is a useful tool to see theories I have read, executed in videos on YouTube. It is always helpful to see theories on paper carried out into practice. Motivational speeches, such as TED Talks, become a tangent of my educational research. YouTube has a TED Talks channel I have subscribed to and it has been a wonderful doorway to more educational research on a global scale.

I feel that YouTube appeals to any type of internet user. Naturally, we are all curious creatures who are inquisitive about the world. YouTube can help answer many questions we may have about anything.

Whether it be music or education, I am a daily visitor to YouTube. YouTube, on the surface, functions to satisfy my musical and nostalgic cravings. However, it helps to educate me on simple everyday tasks for beauty, health, and home. It serves to feed my passion for teaching and educational research, helping me gain knowledge for my ultimate dream of being an educator.

My Top 15

 

What YouTube Means to Me

2 Replies

YouTube, for me, is a place where I can indulge all of my needs as a fan, a critic and a victim of the post-modern attention deficit that drives us all to expect instant gratification at the click of a button.  Its accessibility and endless supply of content demands that it be visited several times a day, and often I find myself abandoning the paper that’s due tomorrow mid-sentence just to get my fix of mash-ups, music videos and reviews.

My interaction with YouTube is mostly as a fandom member.  I feel a connection to other fans when I watch a fan-made mash-up of clips from a movie or a television show which is only humorous to the cognoscenti of that particular fandom.  It is even better when these fandoms intersect, as in the video below.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxfo24D1bpA[/youtube]

The use of an audio rip of the iconic Mean Girls trailer set to clips from another pop culture franchise is a popular meme on YouTube, but this example is particularly thrilling because of the possibility that the tropes and arcs in a show like Game of Thrones – in which medieval warfare, political turmoil and the gruesome deaths of beloved characters are standard fare – could be mapped onto comparatively mundane affair of high school drama.

Then there are fan creations which are so irreverent of the source material (and of societal mores in general) that they border on (and likely are) offensive.  I included Todrick Hall’s Mean Girls parody, which places the story of the movie in a stereotypically “black” school setting, in my playlist because it raises a lot of questions.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCMmt3pm-bk[/youtube]

Is it acceptable to laugh at this video which features offensive and historically pernicious ideas about race?  Is it so outrageous and self-aware that it can be read as a critique of the exploitation of such stereotypes?  Does it matter?

Additionally, there are videos which are created for entertainment but have a more obvious didactic intention.  These often fall under the category of YouTube celebrities, people who find a level of fame by marketing their personalities online.  An example of such a celebrity in my playlist is Tyler Oakley.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6K26g6FTUM[/youtube]

Such figures often walk a fine line between self-expression and vanity, but such is the nature of a platform whose very purpose is to democratize the exchange of ideas and give voice to the otherwise average citizen.  This democratization is, however, a double-edged sword.  In the past I have enjoyed having my own channel for the purpose of saving my favourite videos for further viewing and discussion.  I have found that the YouTube community is rife with keyboard warriors; individuals who their online voices to verbally attack others or otherwise abuse the comments section to create a negative experience for those who intend to use it for harmless discussion.  Overall I believe that YouTube has an important role in society in that it in some measure gives users the freedom to engage in discourse about that which is important to us as individuals.

My YouTube Playlist

YouTube is a Special Place

6 Replies

What can I say about YouTube that hasn’t already been said by another, slightly more original cynic? It’s a fun place for people to share videos that make you laugh, make you cry, make you vomit, and make you record a reaction video of you vomiting so that you can post it on YouTube.

My YouTube playlist can be broadly classified as things that are funny or interesting or both. In the funny corner are videos from Roosterteeth, Zero Punctuation, Tomska, and Five Second Films. In the interesting corner are music videos and etc. by DJ Earworm, OK GO, and Pigpen Theatre Company. Everything else is… everything else.

 

Why I Chose These:

 

Roosterteeth

 

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BAM9fgV-ts&index=4&list=PLuzwfXa0FpV22NCzpyRLsRYPKDr3jiF-P[/youtube]

 

I’ve been following rooster teeth almost since the beginning. I remember back in elementary school (I went to a K-8 school so maybe I mean to say middle school) my friends and I would watch Red Vs. Blue. Once it migrated over to YouTube, we began watching it there and the rest is history. Now, since I’ve found less interest in Red Vs. Blue, I’ve been watching a lot of the Achievement Hunter Let’s Plays, one of which is on the playlist. I don’t usually watch Let’s Plays, but I’ve always enjoyed theirs. They were the reason I found YouTube and I suppose I’m kind of grateful for that.

 

Five Second Films

 

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpHlKLMgNYA&index=5&list=PLuzwfXa0FpV22NCzpyRLsRYPKDr3jiF-P[/youtube]

 

Five Second Films has been one of the most strangely consistent (in my opinion) comedy websites I’ve ever seen. They have always stuck to their formula. Even when, as in this instance, they want to do some more jokes on a similar theme, they still structure each joke as a five second film. They have been doing this for years now and they don’t really show signs of stopping.

 

OK GO

 

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w&list=PLuzwfXa0FpV22NCzpyRLsRYPKDr3jiF-P&index=8[/youtube]

 

I love OK GO as a band, and it makes sense that I would love their videos. Interestingly, for a long time they had more views of their music video for “This Too Shall Pass” than they did actual listens of the song on iTunes and Spotify. This is one of two versions of the music video done. I also adore the marching band video because… well… trombonists in ghillie suits.

 

Egoraptor

 

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FpigqfcvlM&list=PLuzwfXa0FpV22NCzpyRLsRYPKDr3jiF-P&index=10[/youtube]

 

Egoraptor is usually a surrealistic or shock humor comedian, but his Sequelitis series (three video is a series? I’d like to believe he’s making more) is a sometimes comedic, mostly educational series on game design. It’s about the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a true close reading of a video game. He goes very deep into aspects of the game design, from color palettes to the use of non-tutorial teaching mechanics. It’s a really neat video that looks past the usual descriptions of a video game and shows a true love of the art form.

SNL Wes Anderson Parody

 

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSEzGDzZ1dY&index=11&list=PLuzwfXa0FpV22NCzpyRLsRYPKDr3jiF-P[/youtube]

 

I like Wes Anderson movies and this makes fun of them in a loving way. I would also gladly pay to see The Midnight Coterie of Sinister Intruders.

 

Thoughts on YouTube as a Whole:

 

I’ve always avoided the comments section of YouTube for a few reasons, as detailed here:

  1. You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.
  2. I feel myself getting stupider the farther down I go.
  3. One time somebody called me a bad name and I got scared.

I don’t know what it is about YouTube that creates such a terrible environment for discussion but it usually boils down to the following comments:

There is a 1% margin of error

I’m fairly sure that I only frequent areas with these kinds of people, though. The best I can say is that YouTube is a special place, for better or for worse.

Anyway, here’s a bunch of videos.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLuzwfXa0FpV22NCzpyRLsRYPKDr3jiF-P[/youtube]

 

My Life as Defined By YouTube

5 Replies

My YouTube Playlist
Basically my entire existence summarized by 17 videos… I couldn’t limit myself to just 15.
My first memory of life on YouTube is of one of the most classic viral videos of all time, “Shoes” by Liam Kyle Sullivan. This video was uploaded 7 years ago and has accumulated a mind boggling 52,493,699 views (probably 100 of those coming from me alone.) Liam Sullivan actually went to my high school, King Philip, and even sports a KP Varsity Track jacket in the first scene of the video. But this alumni-themed reason alone is not why I was hooked on YouTube the second the catchy beats of the “Shoes” song entered my eardrums. It’s hilarious! It’s addictive! It’s only the beginning! After watching “Shoes” obsessively, I browsed the rest of the videos Liam had already uploaded at the time. This included the timelessly quotable “Muffins” video which I included in my playlist as well. From here, I traveled around the YouTube space via channels Liam subscribes to and that is where my journey into the world of YouTube comedy began (see also: “Ball Champions” by Kyle.)

Shoes
Muffins
Ball Champions

My exploration of YouTube via “Shoes” as a starting point emphasizes the unique community space that YouTube creates on the web. No other form of new media has been able to produce such a close-knit community of shared creativity, and that is why YouTube is so popular. If you find one video on the web that you enjoy, you can easily locate MILLIONS more of similar taste and theme via automated recommendations, similar channels, playlists, subscriptions, etc. — and thus, the YouTube community is born. One of the most special aspects of YouTube culture, in my opinion, is the way it digitizes ordinary aspects of life. In the pre-YouTube era (how horrific!), one could concoct a delicious cake recipe, serve it to friends, and provide a written transcription of the recipe to those who requested it. In contemporary times, that same recipe is now made accessible to billions of people instead of just close peers. Furthermore, not only is it available to billions, but it has been completely digitized. There could now be a step-by-step video SHOWING (instead of telling) you exactly how to follow the recipe to make that delicious cake. Without YouTube, this would not be possible. It’s crazy to think how simple life activities have been transformed into tangible information for people across the globe, connecting communities of people with shared interests that would never be able to engage or interact without this site. Amazing.


Clearly, I really recognize appreciate how YouTube has changed the web. I use it every single day, and my YouTube playlist basically summarizes my personality and life. I value humor as the top quality trait in a person, as displayed by my obsession for funny YouTube videos and channels. I love music of course, but I’m particularly fascinated by innovative covers and mashups such as DJ Earworm’s yearly mashup of Top 40 songs. I am an animal lover; I could watch videos of baby animals doing quirky things literally all day long — are you kidding me with Christian the Lion?! Most tearjerking video ever! Speaking of tearjerking videos, I’m a huge sucker for them. I love a good emotional cry via a cute viral video such as the military surprise compilation. And, I’m a novice cook just entering the culinary world. I basically have to resort to YouTube instructional videos every time I want to cook a meal. As you can see, YouTube has improved nearly every aspect of my life. It makes content of every kind from each corner of the globe accessible to me right at the click of my fingertips. I’d be lost without it. 

Christian the Lion
Military Surprise Compilation