Mo Michael...YouTube Analysis

I am totally amazed at the popularity of YouTube and how so many people use it and rely on it. No one in a million years would ever have imagined that in 2005 when YouTube was first launched. What really blew me away is that Wesch’s video took the #1 spot, even over all the Super Bowl commercials. That is HUGE! It cracks me up when an Anthropologist in Kansas or a teenager from NJ can create a #1 video for free whereas people or companies spend a ton of money producing TV shows, movies, and commercials. In some ways the YouTube phenomenon is great like when the guy at the end of the video used it as a form of therapy after he lost his baby. On the other hand, if someone doesn’t like something you do and they have it on camera they could show the whole world and humiliate you. I’ve seen students do this to teachers, passengers do this to airline employees, kids do this to other kids, etc…Even still, what I love about YouTube is that it is real for the most part except for the fake people like actors who are pretending to be real and fool everyone. I love how you can get on there any be totally anonymous and just be yourself. However, one thing that scares me personally is that someone could get a hold of the video and twist it like they did to McCain.

Everyone watches YouTube it seems like. People go to it for information and entertainment. Heck, even major news websites have YouTube videos embedded on their websites. People upload family videos to stay connected. People upload videos of themselves to vent, rave, share their story, make us laugh, make us cry, make us dance…It is a revolution and I will be very curious to see how it affects TV viewing in the future and most of all how it will continue to affects our culture. It is a universal phenomenon and it would be interesting to see how it affects us all collectively and how it affects one particular culture versus another.

I would love to see more participation in YouTube in this class. One idea is for us to create a vlog ourselves. We could choose a theme related to our field or our interests or we could just be ourselves in the video and create whatever just like when we created the class introduction video. Talk about raw, unedited, and embarrassing but I figured the only ones who would be watching it would be classmates anyway. Then we could keep track of the views and comments, how to improve our ratings, analyze what we are doing is popular or not, target audience if possible, etc...It would be interesting to just be yourself and create a series of videos and see what happens…After watching Wesch’s video, it has made me want to experiment with YouTube just to see what happens…

This reminds me, I need to go sign up for Digg now. He mentioned it so much in the video that’s another Web 2.0 tool I need to check out.