YouTube
We all know YouTube is great and wonderful. My post will be focusing on an hour-long video I recently watched (on YouTube of course). It is titled “An anthropological introduction to YouTube.” I highly recommend checking it out—it will probably show you a different, interesting perspective on the site.
The creator of this video, Michael Wesch, is a professor at Kansas State University. Wesch made one video, “Web 2.0” that became extremely popular, it’s less than five minutes, and it’s fun to watch. Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
He teaches anthropology (the study of cultures/societies/development stuff like that). He has a class that focuses specially on YouTube, and it’s community. He worked with his students to prepare this 55-minute presentation (An anthropological introduction to YouTube), which he presented at the Library of Congress on June 23rd of 2008.
Here is an awesome statistic about the site. In 1948 ABC became the 3rd large network to start broadcasting. That was 60 years ago. Imagine these network have broadcasting 24/7 for every day of the year. That would be 3 (networks) x 60 (years) x 365 (days) x 24 (hours/day) = 1,576,800. This is over 1.5 million hours of programming! But… YouTube produced more than that in the past 6 months. Crazy. YouTube gets around 9232 hours uploaded per day. Most of these hours are in the form of 3-minute videos. You’re probably thinking this isn’t original work—but in reality 88% of the videos are new and original content (better than the networks do. A large percentage of the videos are meant for about a hundred or less people to view.
That whole above paragraph is basically directly taken from the first few minutes of the video that you all should check out. Wesch then goes into what kinds of videos are on youtube, like the Numa dance and other things like that. Then there are 5% of the videos that are personal vlogs addressed to the youtube community. He discusses a possible reason is the loss of community over time. Which is the way our world is headed. We now are in massive disconnected communities, suburbia. We are now much more individualistic and isolating (for example, televisions are isolating). So we find new ways, like cell phones. We now have a networked individualism (more person to person, not place to place). Then he talks about cultural inversion. The more individual we become, the more we long for community. The more independent we are, the more we want relationships, etc. This is where a youtube community comes in. To study the community the class participated in, making vlogs themselves.
After this Wesch talks about the webcam: everybody is watching where nobody is. This is basically about how you are talking to this webcam, and you have no idea who will see it. Everyone, no one, and even yourself could see it sometime in the future. This leads to a re-cognition and new form of self-awareness. This video does a great job of explaining this, so if I’m confusing you, go look at it about 25 minutes in. Generally when people are making these vlogs, there are in very self-reflexive kind of mood. There is also the idea that the watchers of these videos are anonymous. Here is a quote about the subject from some from time magazine, “Some of the comments on YouTube make you week for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.”
With this physical distance, anonymity, and rare and ephemeral dialogue we get the freedom to experience humanity without fear or anxiety. You can stare at people, and see them for who they are, without feeling socially awkward for gazing directly at someone’s face for a long time. You don’t make someone uncomfortable by just looking at him or her.
He also discusses youtube stars, striving for views and popularity, youtube dramas (lonelygirl15—big controversy and outrage over her when people found out she wasn’t a real person, but rather a made up identity), and other awesome things.
It’s a sweet video. check it out. “An anthropological introduction to YouTube”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU
All credit on this post goes to Wesch and his class.
I think it would be kind of fun to share how many videos we’ve watching on youtube. Not everyone can do this, but those of us that have an account that you automatically log into, it should tell you how many videos you’ve watched on youtube. I’m a bit of an addict—I’ve watched around 3,614 videos.
10 Responses to 'YouTube'
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
I typically watch videos to hear the music. Lately I’ve been watching Jem, Dido, and Frou Frou videos to hear their music. I’m not all that interested in original works.
That clip is really amazing…I’m tempted to watch the hour long version. Maybe we could do that for a movie screening?
How much of our lives are/will be transformed by the emergence of technology? Already it appears we can’t survive without facebook…or myspace. For those among us who can’t handle interpersonal relations well…there’s eharmony or other dating websites. Conducting research is much easier and we have access to more through technological methods.
Dan commented with a hyperlink of the guy who committed suicide while on a webcam in a different post. How does the emergence of such cases impact how we view society as a whole?
Lihy E.
27 Nov 08 at 5:10 pm
“We now have a networked individualism (more person to person, not place to place). Then he talks about cultural inversion. The more individual we become, the more we long for community. The more independent we are, the more we want relationships, etc.”
I like this, and I think it is fun to consider how relationships are changing, because we are no longer bound by location.
Cases such as the guy committing suicide on webcam do not make me feel more pessimistic towards humanity, nor do the Youtube comments mentioned in the quote in Brad’s post. Just because people are now more likely to say horrible things does not mean they were not thinking them before we had a more socially acceptable outlet. Also, many people say kind things on youtube too, leaving complimentary comments on videos of people they don’t know, which gets overlooked in the midst of all of the insults.
Katherine Anderson
1 Dec 08 at 4:09 pm
I’ve watched 239 videos.
I agree with Kat on how someone committing suicide on a webcam doesn’t make me more pessimistic towards humanity. Technology opens the world up to how some people really are. I’ve seen so many videos of people doing something and there will be numerous comments ridiculing the video. Someone would have never said this stuff if they were face to face, but through youtube we can see the true nature of whoever is commenting. When someone is anonymous on the internet they are fearless.
Dan Pierson
1 Dec 08 at 11:36 pm
Thank you Dan for saying how many videos you’ve watched. you’re cool.
This post hasn’t sparked much debate, and that’s probably mostly my fault, so I want to throw some more questions out there that you can feel free to talk about.
How has youtube affected you? Changed you or your way of life? For some of you more than others I’m sure. Maybe to some it is just a place to waste time, whereas for others it might be wonderful because it is a great place to look up your favorite songs or clips.
What about the fact that youtube is so versatile? It can be used for vlogs, funny videos, inspiring ideas, start phenomenons (soulja boy, numa numa, etc.), artist expressions, a new community, used as a teaching Aid (like in this class for example) and many other things.
What do you think about youtube as a form of entertainment, that is not controlled by the users, not by any corporations.
Feel free to touch on any of these or anything else that is youtube inspired.
Brad Thompson
3 Dec 08 at 1:52 am
Youtube hasn’t directly effected me much. I watch music videos occasionally, and every once in a while people send me funny clips, but a very small percentage of the time i spend online i spend on youtube, and if the entire website came down, i would definitely hear about it from other people before i discovered for myself (when it comes to facebook, however, i would be the one spreading the news).
That’s why i didn’t say how many videos i’ve watched. no account. sorry, brad.
Katherine Anderson
3 Dec 08 at 9:22 pm
I have watched 4078 videos. YouTube, anthropologically, could be viewed as a cultural portrait; one could identify at least a few things about a culture by learning what is popular within it, and YouTube, since it is not controlled externally, simplifies that process.
Personally, YouTube is a resource for opinions that I think are worthwhile and a place where I can find something quick and funny if I need to kill some time. Its versatility is important to its appeal, as it means that I can watch a documentary about string theory while my sisters can watch the Harry Potter Puppet Pals. YouTube appeals to every audience.
Luke Kaiser
3 Dec 08 at 11:01 pm
What does this take away from society though. Does it make us less personal because we can avoid the face to face contact with people. We can potentially reach a billion people off youtube and never leave your little apartment where you’ve been for six straight months playing World of Warcraft. I think that it can be used as a great tool no doubt, but the lack of actual interaction that people could use it for is a cheap way out. Not to mention the idiotic comments that people seem to rattle off on every video even if it is something that should win an Oscar.
Austin Maske
4 Dec 08 at 11:11 am
Is youtube more about the hold technology has on us, the fascination we have with technology, or the fascination we have with ourselves? Because the way I see it, the schlumps on youtube are more interested in seeing themselves in pretty moving pictures than they are with “cool” effects and creating something “artistic,” via technology. Granted, the technology allows a youtube video-maker to reach millions (potentially, but not probably) of people, but is that central to its appeal, considering that no one is going to be watching your lame video? Is it just the possibility that is enticing?
Calli Leventis
4 Dec 08 at 1:37 pm
“Is it just the possibility that is enticing?”
Yes. Everyone, at some point, has probably had a thought that they believed was worth sharing with the world. Now, through YouTube, they have a method of doing so. Popularity aside, their video is just as available to everyone on the site; I imagine at least one of the people who posts videos regularly derives some sort of happiness from that.
Luke Kaiser
4 Dec 08 at 1:53 pm
A lot music that I am into happened before video recording was widely available. So, there isn’t much live footage of these musicians and the little bit that exists on DVD or video cassette is really hard to find. When youtube came around people uploaded tons of great footage of videos that are extremely rare. I use Youtube as more of an educational tool than anything else. If it wasn’t for Youtube I probably would never get to see live footage of someone like Art Tatum.
Dan Pierson
4 Dec 08 at 5:21 pm