You're sitting in a movie theater just after a film - one that was especially poignant and impactful to you - has ended. People are getting up, putting on jackets, finishing popcorn, and the group you're with is wondering why you haven't moved yet. You can't. Your mind is processing everything you just saw. That's how I feel in my living room this morning. A little stunned.. slightly disturbed.. strangely touched.. This is what YouTube is about?
The fourth viewed site on the Web was just a place I went to see Human Tetris, Mac vs. PC commercials, and to gather Miss Teen clips for my PowerPoint. I had no idea that hidden underneath there existed a community of invisible legions - not invisible to each other, certainly - but I never knew. Who else doesn't know? It's scares me a little bit...exploitation, identity, and trouble can't be far behind something like this. I love that we have the freedom, and not we as Americans, but we as a human race, that we have the freedom to express like this, that from the privacy of a home with nothing more than a camera and computer, we can connect on such profound issues and emotions. While the arguments about being us/ed by the Machine are heavy to consider, I see YouTube as a counter argument to rather, us/ing the Machine. As long as we stay on top, that is, though it seems like a very slippery thing to hold... As for me, I'm still sitting in the theater. The dimmed lights are up, but I can't move.
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2 comments:
Something keeps itching at me, though, that perhaps too much freedom can do more ill than good by way of human nature.
Yes, YouTube or blogs are mediums where imagination does not have borders and freedom of our voices is unstoppable. The impacts on language are positive and negative. It create new vocabulary and the “old” one become forgotten.
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