[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwkCXoboqGc&list=PLIbjEaW1XjkxAOcz75XtQk7HGRDdwwoIY[/youtube]
YouTube means more to me than the majority of websites on the internet. For starters its reach is wide as it connects you to videos you would normally never come across. Videos are not just moving pictures, but expressions of the soul and the collective human consciousness. Or Scarlet taking a tumble. I use YouTube almost everyday, but always for different reasons which I think draws attention to how special it is. It helps me hack boredom to pieces as I can find entertaining comedic videos. First and foremost I use YouTube to discover new music and keep my friends dancing late into the night.
The site is easily accessible and simple to use, which allows a broad range of people to use it. My mother who cannot send a text message understands how to send me a video of a bobcat using a toilet. Finding new music is simple when the site caters to my likes and interests. The majority of time spent using YouTube is actually not for the visual aspects. I usually put on a full album and push the top of the computer as low as I can get it without it falling asleep. Either that or I turn the screen brightness off. This is for a few reasons as I normally don’t like to see the music video because it defines how you initially feel about the song. I try to imagine a visual narrative in my head.
I also use YouTube to be inspired by some of my favorite thinkers and non conforming crazy individuals such as Joe Rogan, Alan Watts and Tyler the Creator. I enjoy a wide range of people because no one picks just one thing from a free all you can eat buffet. Satirical videos involving someone making fun of Bill O’ Reilly get me every time. I enjoy even more when he is being shamed at the hands (or mouth) of a genius like Stephen Colbert. YouTube reminds me what I like about the world, and also what I hate.
I have been angry with the images I see and words I hear, but just as the screen tells me tales of evil I have access to beauty. Videos of people saving lives and helping one another. There is magic in the tool that is a free video streaming collection such as YouTube. However, like every tool it can be used to help or destroy. I do not watch videos that I know will increase the number of hits, making a horrible video more popular. This goes from street fighting to Katy Perry attempting to call herself an artist.
With YouTube I can do research and engage with people. I can watch Pink Floyd serenade the souls of the dead at Pompeii and immediately after catch Miley Cyrus embarrassing herself for whoever holds her contract. There is this exploitation of counterculture. A hijacking of sorts that breeds a bandwagon of technology haters. I think sometimes they don’t realize they’re holding the axe at the wrong end.