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Lauren Briggs-What YouTube Means To Me

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9cbde6RUmAFDASl_By4A4EH0rUBF_gpi[/youtube]

My Top 15 playlist demonstrates a selection of videos that I not only enjoy watching, but also that represent what I use YouTube for. While I don’t post videos on YouTube myself, I do enjoy watching videos that other people have posted, and I have found that sometimes a connection can be generated just by watching the videos.

Generally, my use of YouTube is to find humor or something to distract me from schoolwork. This is represented in eight of the videos I included, which range from clips from Saturday Night Live to a parody video made by a user named Chris Fleming. My videos also include compilations, such as selected clips from the television show The Office, and news bloopers that happened to reporters and anchors from many different locations. The variety in these types of comedy clips reflects what I look for in YouTube videos; some days, I will prefer to watch a longer, compilation video that features many short, funny clips, while other days I will be more invested in watching longer comedy sketches or parodies.

Outside of looking for laughs, another category that I discovered in my YouTube playlist is that of videos that are based around celebrities. While they don’t make up a huge portion of the YouTube videos I watch, I do enjoy viewing celebrity interviews and lip synch competitions, which are some of the videos I included in my playlist. Though I enjoy insights into the lives of famous actors and actresses, I also generally find that after a few of these videos, they begin to blend together. There is typically some sort of comedic aspect to keep me interested, but I definitely watch fewer of these celebrity-based videos than I do comedic ones, simply because after a certain point, they all can seem the same.

In addition, I included several videos centered around music in my playlist. I find that some of the most common ways I listen to music in general is through YouTube. When I am doing work and need background noise, it is very easy to put together a playlist of some of my favorite instrumental music to help me to study. Specifically in my playlist, I also included some covers of famous songs done by a group of sisters. I have been watching their videos for several years now, and I find their videos and music to be interesting ways to connect with them. Though I have never met these sisters in person, I enjoy listening to both their covers and their original songs, and I feel that I have gotten a unique way to connect with them through their vlogs as well.

Lastly, I included a workout video in my playlist. I only included one workout video, since that it fairly proportionate to my viewing of workout videos on YouTube in general. While I don’t watch or use many videos when I workout, I do find them useful as free and easily accessible ways to switch up my workout routine. Overall, that is what YouTube is really all about for me: a free and accessible way to be entertained, informed, and hopefully made a little happier.

YouTube and Me

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[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ&list=PL-EkEJJgT5kDF4uKhkZ09FC8KkZpqAf4Q&index=1[/youtube]

YouTube is a fragmented platform, and intentionally so, for any user-generated content platform mirrors the fragmented nature of an individual and their identity. Content on YouTube varies from the obscene to the obscure, from the “Why haven’t I seen this before” to the “Why does that exist”. And it is good that it does so, for that is why it thrives. YouTube is fundamentally a user-uploaded content-driven platform, therefore a user-driven platform, and making it a postmodern paradise of subjectively, and socially, defined, replicated, and reproduced meaning.  

So also is my playlist fragmented. I do not use YouTube for any one thing in particular, but for many things in general. The freedom of the form allows for content free of most restrictions, and that is what I seek. I seek self-expression on a platform that lacks privacy and traditional means of asserting the self. I seek selves made social and bodies made communal through replication and division. I seek prose made parody and parody made prose. Sometimes I don’t seek anything at all, but rather am led through rabbit holes and (alternatively) clever advertising to what I knew I wanted or what I never knew I needed.

YouTube is (for the most part) deserving of its name, for it is a video content platform driven by you, the user. However, it is important to acknowledge the problematic parts of it. Namely the fact that YouTube is a corporation, whose incentive is profit. This incentives alters how YouTube is presented and experienced, so even though YouTube is an incredibly freeing platform, capitalism’s claws still dig into it.

In terms of specific content, I seek out and enjoy certain kinds of content.

Memes abound on YouTube, and I would be amiss if I did not mention them. I began on YouTube with memes, and I would be honored to end on the same note. The shareability and hypertextual nature of YouTube is incredibly conducive to meme culture (as indeed the internet is), and some would argue (I one among them) that every YouTube video is inherently a meme (so long as it has been experienced by more than one individual).

Video games make good videos (or rather the people that play them do), so much of my time on YouTube is spent searching for pleasurable people to watch playthrough games, as well as hunting for trailers of games, interviews with developers, explorations into games and the limits of them. Like I enjoy watching a friend play a game, I enjoy watching people on YouTube play a game that I love and seeing their reaction to it, or searching for other people’s views on a game so I can sharpen my own. 

Animation abounds on YouTube, and it wonderful that it does so. I have been in turns inspired and awed by the creations of others, which spurs me on to my own creations. Art videos and videos about art have a similar effect on me. The isolation of the observer of a YouTube video (or the collective watching of a video, depending upon the context) creates an interesting space for art to work in and around. 

YouTube, like Google the term and the company, has become an ingrained aspect of the modern internet for many people, myself included, and it is one that is here to stay for the foreseeable future (not that any of the future is foreseeable).

Youtube Playlist – Laughs, Scares and Grooves

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I have been using Youtube regularly since I was 15, a freshmen in high school. I think it all started when I was trying to find new music to download, via a YouTube to MP3 site. I was particularly into an artist that goes by the stage name “Flying Lotus”. He has dozens of tracks that are not on albums or eps that you obtain through iTunes, if not hundreds. But, for some reason, they get uploaded to YouTube. I always enjoyed that about this website. Not only is it primarily user driven, it also allows for artists (or “leakers”) to release music in a different area than the regulated sites of iTunes and record label websites. It also is a great way to discover how an audience of dedicated fans will respond to your new material.

Flying-Lotus

 

Most casual listeners will not go beyond the standard methods of obtaining music. I think that, generally speaking, the die-hard fans are the ones who are ready to scour the depths of vinyl stacks and bootleg websites so that they might find that unknown gem of the artist’s library. It is a great method for artists to either test out new tracks on the fans that really matter, or to release old tracks that they enjoyed making and listening to, the ones that didn’t make it on to the ep or album due to the professional process. They can check the number of views and read the comments to gauge its popularity or lack thereof, and if it’s a hit, suddenly they have a new popular track that could go viral and increase their renown. Basically, YouTube is the new “B-Sides” album of every modern artist that is willing to provide their music for free. I say this because it extends far beyond Flying Lotus. I have found countless tracks from many artists that aren’t on iTunes, BitTorrent, or vinyl. It seems to be most popular amongst electronic musicians to use this internet based release form, but it also extends to other genres, especially if someone has a recording of a song that the said band only plays live, or something of the like. Digging through YouTube has yielded many treasures in my time exploring.

My other favorite aspect of YouTube are the “Web Series”. These are usually short, episodic videos that are uploaded by either individuals or corporations, whether they are previously popular or not. The first web series I really got into was “MarbleHornets”, when I was a sophomore in college. For those of you who don’t know, MarbleHornets was originally created by a couple of film school students with a 500$ budget, which they used to shoot the first 26 episodes. I thought I knew what it was like to be scared watching a movie from my experience with “The Shining” and “The Grudge”, to give some perspective. But I have realized that I, in fact, did not know shit. Marble Hornets would release, each week, a video simply titled “Entry #..” with the appropriate number following it. These videos, usually no more than nine minutes, would scare the living hell out of me, especially alone in my dorm room with a bowl of far too hot ramen ready to spill on my lap. They essentially did the same thing as “The Blair Witch Project”, with their “recovered footage” sort of premise, which makes it feel all too real. But they also use methods of both sound and film manipulation to accentuate the horror. Every time “The Operator” (notoriously known as Slenderman from the Something Awful forums), we see a brief image of the horrifying figure, followed by the camera going haywire and emitting awful high pitched frequencies, only to snap back to normal footage once the being had left the frame. Scary stuff, let me tell you.

slenderman-11

So I guess what YouTube means to me is that it can provide for a very intimate experience, almost person to person, or perhaps even more importantly, stranger to stranger. When I download that hidden track, I feel closer to the artist. When I share it, I feel like I’m letting someone in on a wonderful secret. When I watch a webseries episode, especially one made from a KickerStarter fund or with a very small budget, I feel like I’m seeing a truly personal and artistic creation that hasn’t yet been contaminated by media. Yes, there are ads, but these support the uploaders. I’m a huge fan of YouTube, and I think it allows for a new and excellent means of connecting people across the globe, who otherwise would never know that the other existed.

Here are my top 15 (beware, the first five are Marble Hornets!):

MyTube: My Personal YouTube Playlist

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[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

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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

YouTube Playlist Assignment

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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

 

What YouTube Means to Me

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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

My Decade in YouTube

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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.

Ted

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.

rockabilly-guitar-lesson

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.

 

[1] In case you were wondering I’m 23, and very much a super senior.

YouTube: My Personal Time Capsule

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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

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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

My Youtube Playlist

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Playlist Link

My Youtube playlist is just like the rest of my life; full of music.  I’ve never really been into web series, and aside from the occasional funny clip I see linked on Facebook or Twitter, the extent of my Youtube use is music.  I use Youtube to preview any song I might be thinking of buying, to discover new music and artists and different versions of songs I already love.  On my playlist I included some of my new favorites as well as some of my long time favorites, ranging from live performances to music videos to mashups.  I use Youtube probably about three or four times a week to listen to music.  When a new album comes out by an artist I like, I’ll go to Youtube and listen to the full versions of all the songs.  When I have friends over, we’ll search our favorite songs on Youtube as an easy way to give everyone a chance to pick songs from their favorite genre or artist.  I know that there is a lot more to discover on Youtube, but other than music, I’ve never been very interested in searching further.

Personally, I love Youtube.  You always hear those success stories about people who were “discovered” on Youtube.  Ellen Degeneres is known for finding cute kids with talent all over Youtube and bringing them onto her show, and I think that’s awesome.  Although I know there are many dangers with Youtube, such as children uploading videos without their parents permission, I think when it is used correctly it is a great site for everyone.  My younger cousins use Youtube to find help on video game levels that they’re struggling with.  I remember when I was younger we would have to go buy the game guide at the store if we couldn’t figure out a level.

I’m not entirely sure the definition of a Youtube channel, but I have an account through my g-mail and I enjoy having it.  It recommends things I may like, which is incredibly helpful when I’m trying to find new music or artists to listen to.  I can understand that some people might not want to be tracked in this way, but personally, I see it as a benefit.  Youtube finds songs or artists that are similar to the ones I already listen to and recommends new ones so I’m never at a loss for new music.

I don’t know much about the culture of Youtube.  I make it a point not to read comments on Youtube videos because I know the majority of them are trolling.  Other than that, I only vaguely know of some Youtube users that make money by creating celebrity gossip videos or make up tutorials, but other than that, I don’t really know the Youtube culture.  Overall, I think Youtube offers a lot of value to everyone, whether they be someone like me who just casually goes on to listen, someone like my cousins who use it for assistance, or a Youtube entrepreneur who uses it to become famous or make money, I think it’s overall more good than bad.

 

What YouTube Means To Me

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[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.