The video addresses the web phenomena (numa numa, soulja boy, charlie bit me ect.) and the power of the little webcam that allows normal people to connect with other normal people in ways that transcend time and space. He gives his own personal example of uploading the web hit Web 2.0. Within a few days, his basement recorded clip had more hits and more diggs than many of the super bowl commercials that boasted of million dollar budgets that were aired during the same time span.
I find this interesting because it seems that the web hasn't so much infiltrated our lives; rather it has created an entirely new subculture of people that come from extremely different lifestyles and backgrounds. The YouTube community interacts with one another much like a physical culture of peoples. The Internet isn't controlling us, it's helping us create an entirely new and exciting subculture.
It's interesting to think that the very first video uploaded on YouTube consisted a guy talking about the elephants at the San Diego Zoo. Now, the community has expanded in such a way that we can get our daily news, gossip, laugh, or cry out of the YouTube collection.
I agree, youtube is becoming a huge phenomena. There is such a wide variety of things on there that you can view, I think the possibilities are endless. Especially when you have an account. When you have an account you can watch more things, and post things that you want others to see. The only problem I see with postings things, is that little kids post things they shouldn't. Such as Doglover. Don't get me wrong this young girl is hilarious, but she doesn't mean to be. She thinks the way she is dancing and lip singing to the songs is good. But people comment on them and are really mean, and this is only one example. If you post yourself singing and people don't like it, they won't hesitate to say it. Things they say are probably really hurtful to people. Other then that, I am a huge fan of youtube and I think it will be around forever because people keep posting new exciting, funny things to entertain people.
ReplyDeleteThis is a bit delayed on my part, but I've been meaning to say "great post Becca". I appreciate you pointing the class in the direction of a wonderful resource i.e. An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube. The creation of a "new" subculture of youtube'ers seems to directly relate to Jenkins' work on the power of popular culture in our mediated world; an example of participatory media culture in action!
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