So many different targets get blamed for degrading the quality of life – oil companies, Al Qaeda, gay marriage proponents. This all misses the boat. Of all the influences at work in the world today, YouTube is the most pernicious, loathsome, disturbing...
Alright, maybe even YouTube has a long way to go to catch up to the oil companies. Still, we believe the online video site has come to infiltrate and cheapen so many aspects of daily life that we had to sit down and codify it with a list of how YouTube has indeed ruined things for good.
Here's our Top 10:
10)Forget Hi-Def, Try 'Focus'
Poor quality videos at 320x240 resolution. YouTube keeps telling us that improvements are on the way, but they can't come soon enough.
9)The Sincerest Form of Flattery
The proliferation of YouTube imitators can make your head spin and waste yet more time cross-checking different sites' video inventory.
7)Ladies and Gentleman: Chris Crocker
YouTube’s given a gigantic stage and needless encouragement to whiners, hacks, and other talentless exhibitionists.
6)Copyright or Copywrong?
YouTube is on its way to re-defining the laws of copyright, not to mention re-calculating the royalties equation for artists around the world.
5)Palme D’Or Stuff, Dude
Anyone with a phone-, Web- or digital-cam is suddenly an auteur.
We can already hear the grousing and grumbling about our list. "More sniffing from cultural elitists," critics might respond. "Not everyone wants to watch Masterpiece Theater."
But that misses the larger point that prompted this article. YouTube is insidiously divisive. As the newlywed bride in Barefoot in the Park says, "There are two kinds of people in this world – watchers and doers. The watchers watch, while the doers do."
Film director John Waters put it even more succinctly. "Exhibitionists need voyeurs."
Yes, and yes. But aren't we really more complex than that? Unfortunately on YouTube, there's no such gray area. And the service exploits exactly this We/They dynamic.
And whether you're a graffiti "artist," social critic, or exotic dancer, YouTube encourages and rewards some blending of self-promotion, vanity, and compulsion to be seen/heard – the ancestral territory of telemarketing companies and infomercial makers. Yes, YouTube clips are an exercise in freedom of expression and should be protected speech (even as odious as that content may be). And in this modern world of media saturation, people are hardly bereft of places to go to be seen and heard: blogs, MySpace pages, personal Websites, letters to the editor, karaoke night at the local tavern.
So here's to shaking off the torpor of too much watching and not enough doing, and returning YouTube to its sideshow status rather than the three-ring online circus it's become. Less time spent watching (or creating content for) YouTube doesn't necessarily move us closer to world peace or a cancer cure. But it just might move us closer to each other in a way that doesn't require shouting, a cam, or an audience.
— Contributing to this report were Nicole Ferraro, Site Editor, and James Johnson, ThinkerNet Editor, Internet Evolution.
Since it's related to
YouTube's impacts (bad or good), I just want to share a thought that's probably in favor of
Youtube. anyway here goes:
Even a picture speaks a thousand words; imagine how many more words can a video speak... perhaps beyond words? With the social networking feature a long with user-generated content, Youtube gives users (anyone & everyone) a platform to express and communicate creativity in a way that has never been seen before. Of course, there are a lot (A LOT!) of 'bad' videos out there, but we occasionally see some really good and creative clips (either really funny, inspiring, or educational, etc) that have been watched by thousands or even millions of people. Indeed, Youtube has transformed the way we communicate online, a new way of creativity communication.
P.S: World peace - all it takes is to just dance with your heart and a big smile on your face, and you'll realize we're not so different after all wherever we are on this planet.
There seems to be a lot of YouTube fans here in this message board (I think I'm one of them...). So will the next IE big report by any chance be the top 10 ways YouTube has won the heart and mind of millions of users...? This report is quite interesting and well-written, but seriously, has YouTube really ever ruined life for good? I know it hasn't ruined mine. Having said that, I do think there needs to be some sort of regulations for content on YouTube and all other similar sites (like those for TV programs or movies); perhaps a rating system, e.g. PG, M, R etc, might be a good start.
Ha! Thanks, Joe... first your scathing dissection of our report, now this!
Glad to know you get the spirit of how we approached this critique of YT. And next time we go casting about for a media critic, we won't look any further than the customer service desk at Server Beach. Nothing like firsthand, on-the-ground experience!
10)Forget Hi-Def, Try 'Focus'
Poor quality videos at 320x240 resolution. YouTube keeps telling us that improvements are on the way, but they can't come soon enough.
And when they do, will the 4gig cap Verizon and other Internet Conection Providers are advocating become an issue? Are't a lotof those videos aken with cell phones hat have limited resolution anyway? And - Isn't the price (free) reasonable?
9)The Sincerest Form of Flattery
The proliferation of YouTube imitators can make your head spin and waste yet more time cross-checking different sites' video inventory.
Let search engines show you the way out of your torrent of information... that's what they are there for....
Baby boomers aren't dead yet. I personally like Columbo reruns... and songs where I could understand the lyrics.... and the Rat Pack.... what's the problem with that? Remember: If it weren't for Campari, Sinatra and Dean Martin we might not have made many of you Gen-x'ers....
7)Ladies and Gentleman: Chris Crocker
YouTube’s given a gigantic stage and needless encouragement to whiners, hacks, and other talentless exhibitionists.
Is this editorial a complaint about that or an example of it????
6)Copyright or Copywrong?
YouTube is on its way to re-defining the laws of copyright, not to mention re-calculating the royalties equation for artists around the world.
And I quote:
Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo, touched upon this in his interview with Internet Evolution, saying that technologists today feel that if they can "technically" do something, it is their right to do it, adding mockingly, "Oh it's not my fault on YouTube people are stealing content. I built the building, I made the technology, I'm making money off of it. But it's not my fault if people use it for something for bad."
(1) Actually I think that is the essence of the Safe Harbor provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act isn't it?
(2) Are you advocating a class action suit against the airlines and the jet manufacturer's with respect to 911 as well, following this logic?
(3) Ironic, you quote Mahalo's founder when you consider what Natives of Hawaii think about the sacred nature of the word Mahalo....
"Be careful to use them ONLY if you truly feel mahalo or aloha within. Do not exploit these words for personal gain, and neither cheapen, nor trivialize their use by verbalizing them carelessly or without sincerity."
5)Palme D’Or Stuff, Dude
Anyone with a phone-, Web- or digital-cam is suddenly an auteur.
.... sometimes people like plain ole simple fun. I know cat owners that dangle thread fo hours, doesn't make them idiots. Not everyone is mezmerized by Britney going sans undergarments.... you folks whine about pornography, you whine about simple playful animal antics.... is THIS REALLY the future of the Internet?
3)Spray Paint This
YouTube encourages petty criminals to document their malfeasance, under the guise of “art.”
.... I think grafitti was a well established form of expression well before the Internet... somewhere right now there is an archeologist trying to decypher some Neolithic text where one caveman is bitching that those cave walls looked perfectly fine without paint on them....
2)Don't Be Hatin'
The site hosts clips that incite hatred, and by some critics' measure, aid and abet racism, anti-semitism, misogyny, and homphobia.
You can't deal with it until you get it out in the open.... better we are able to hear what the world's divisive issues are and deal with them than to constantly repress them and have the anger build to the point someone goes WMD on us.....
Let's see now (a) No pornography, (b) No innocent playful animal videos (c) No old TV reruns (d) no contentious speech.... that basically leaves this type of unigenerational blather...
If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem. Quit whinng about it and come up with something better. When you do AWSTATS will be the judge and the Internet Traffic will come pouring thru YOUR server....isn't that about as truly democratic as it gets?
If YOU run them underground should YOU be prosecuted under the Patriot Act? Do you actually think you catch Roaches by shining a flashlight directly on them?
If you think that YouTube is ruining your life, don't use IT or just propose something better and we will call you genuis. YouTube creators have set journalism free and they are making valuable contents accessible to the mass. Of course not everything on YouTube is perfect as you said but with time they will learn from their mistakes. I think they will be working on some content filter technology that could help "separate the wheat from the chaff". The best solution won't be to throw everything they are doing away, but rather make suggestion for improvement.
Indeed, perhaps we are only as good as we are, but I think YouTube's editorial policy is a bit slanted.
Frankly, I do not recognize a guy who wants to kill me as an 'alternate point of view'. He has taken quid-pro-quo rational off the table with his call to Jihad. Rather than richness and diversity, I would like a good fight, and I would not play 'fair'.
I for one, will write a letter ion support of Lieberman.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
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