Playlist

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLs98jVIvB8hl-_78S9kJurnuSqODtLhMz[/youtube]

If you have already glanced at my playlist, you’ll have noticed that it’s essentially a mixtape. However, I swear it’s not the self-flattering kind designed to showcase my superior tastes, or cultivate a sense of eccentric distinction. (And if you have seen the list already, you’ll know that I’m telling the truth). Instead, it’s my best attempt at a faithful chronological record of my engagement with YouTube over about the last decade. It begins with my lightbulb moment, my first glimpse of its potential usefulness, and continues over the years until the present, where I continue to realize more or less that same tiny fraction of potential. As this last sentence might suggest, I am perennially behind the technological curve, at least in my peer group, but I will elaborate on that in a moment. For now, about that light bulb…

…It flickered on, I think, sometime in the year 2005, straddling my Freshman and Sophomore years of high school.[1] I was sitting at my family’s desktop computer, contemplating the online purchase of a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert DVD, when it occurred to me that perhaps on the internet, the footage I sought was already available, instantly, for free. So I Googled YouTube. Now up to that point, I was only dimly aware that YouTube existed. I knew it by the buzz that had been surrounding it in school for the past several months, but from that I’d gathered only a vague association to videos. As brilliant as YouTube’s concept sounds now, hearing the idea back then made almost no impression on me. It wasn’t until I had a specific, urgent need, to see and hear my favorite band play live, that I ventured tentatively to its homepage.

My playlist tells the rest of the story. The first video of RHCP performing “Otherside”, while not exactly the same video, likely contains the same footage as the one I first watched on YouTube that day. Since then, YouTube has been by far and away my primary platform for music. Maybe in another few years I’ll come around to Spotify, but until then, YouTube will continue to be the source of my daily music fix, especially for live music. The first two thirds of my playlist are all examples of this. I tried to pick not just the songs but the actual videos which stick out most prominently in my memory. I’ve tried to keep an interval of one or two videos per year since 2005.

Within this bunch of songs, you’ll notice one exception. “Salad Fingers 1 – Spoons”, is the first viral video I ever saw. I watched about thirty seconds of it peering over a bunch of shoulders in somebody’s basement back in high school. As I compiled this playlist, all I remembered was something about spoons. Amazingly, I searched YouTube for “spoons”, and this video is like the third result. I still haven’t watched the whole thing, but I’m including it for the record, and also for diversity’s sake.

Speaking of which, the final third of my playlist are all various ways in which I’ve begun to expand my YouTube horizons: watching movies, video game walkthroughs, guitar lessons, cute videos, and sports highlights. The deeper I delve, the more I kick myself for being late to the game, especially now that I see YouTube more broadly as a tool for self-education. Too that end, I am definitely going to check out the Idea Channel, which I discovered in my teammate John’s playlist.

The last video on playlist is actually the last YouTube video I’ve watched before submitting this playlist. My girlfriend just sent to me on Facebook two minutes ago. It’s pretty cute.  And not only does it complete the list chronologically, it represents one of the ways YouTube has become a way to connect with people in my life.

In summary, I now sense better than ever before that there’s a wealth of exciting educational and creative content on YouTube, surrounded by a vibrant, dedicated community. It’s completely accessible to me, I just have to start doing it, and I will make that one of my goals for this semester.