That's right. I did not miss American food or sensible American accents or even hot showers so much as I missed YouTube. I realized that sharing with my friends the queer snippets of Scrubs or a particularly poignant song or the time-wasting, mind-boggling antics of a dancing banana had become an important social activity for me... it is a way to relate to others, a way to share part of myself, and a way to collectively mock and learn about the society around me.
TechCrunch's Mark Hendrickson says YouTube has become the generic verb for video sharing. I think he's right. It's not about the brand name "YouTube," which started in 2005 and was bought by Google for $1.65 billion a year and a half later. People will often use competing video sharing sites--but it is the idea of broadcasting yourself. In fact, I'd go farther than using YouTube as a verb. I think it is an ideal - as if one could be a broadcaster with his or her own channel, with hand-picked, hand-produced content--commercials and revenue and censors be damned!
What more can be said about YouTube? Either you know and love the world of video sharing, or you don't own a computer.
My friend Erica Jolley-Meers, a media consultant for the California Newspapers Publishers Association, said YouTube can be considered an art medium, because there is content produced specifically for and only distributed via YouTube, such as the Lonelygirl15 weblog series.
Aside from the original content created by YouTube users, it also spreads existing content that carries with it that special internet joke flavor. (As great as Saturday Night Live is, I doubt "Dick in a Box" would have spread like wildfire via traditional TV broadcasts. The song has just the right flavor for the Internet attention span.) For more examples of the Internet joke flavor, you should watch the music video Internet People, and visit the Internet People Rundown if you don't recognize all those YouTube references.I know only two people who have been on YouTube personally, and one of them is a dog. So the joy of YouTube can't really be, for me, about seeing people I know and love in video. It has to be about sharing my media.
I'm not sure why I am not content to simply view my amusing snippets online. Something drives me to share them with others, so that we can laugh together, be awed together, or waste time together. And I realized while in Scotland that I felt there were many YouTube videos relevant to our family's discussions. The conversations felt incomplete somehow--un-enhanced, maybe--without the shared context of a snippet of relevant, quirky media.
My friends and I keep a log of our favorite videos. The count is up to 40 links now. They run the gambit from just plain silly to highly educational and interesting. What about you? What are your favorite videos about? Would you care to share them? Come YouTube with me, and revel in the ideal of free media.
1 comment:
Very interesting - and effective -way to get into the column.
Personal travel experience, and a very interesting one at that, and what's missed by the writer? YouTube.
Let the travel agents know that internet access isn't just about email, it's about connecting via this video technology.
Good use of quotes and data gathered about the video service's beginnings - and ultimately its purchasing price.
(I said it in response to another column, but why didn't I buy some Google stock? It's the IBM of the 21st century.)
The writer also did nice job of including plenty of links - including one to Lonelygirl15, who was referenced in another column but whose cultural significance escaped me when I read it. (Pre-Alzheimer's kicks in every once in awhile.)
Where was I?
Oh yes, by putting in the link to Lonelygirl15, my memory snapped right back.
Well-done column.
Post a Comment