Is there a one amongst us who doesn’t love Youtube, (not necessarily the site itself, but rather the concept and delivery of ‘tube’ style user-posted videos), or anyone who would argue that it hasn’t brought the world a little bit closer? I sometimes have a hard time recalling what the internet was like before I was able to access unlimited audio/visual content with a few simple clicks and search queries. Allow me to list just a few of my favorite affordances bestowed upon us by youtube:
- The pipeline was unclogged! Pre-youtube one would really have to dig deep (often into their pockets) to find anything other than ‘fit for print’ content. Let’s say you love 80s rockers ‘The Radiators’, and you’d like to watch their music (the one about how to eat shrimp properly). What next? Sit in front of your TV all day watching Much Music or its spinoffs, hoping to get what you want? Maybe you would contact the band members or their manager directly, and plead for them to send you a VHS copy of their videos? Sure, you might stumble upon it someplace or another, but the odds of access and retrieval were slim to none. So instead of relying on Moses Znaimer and his team to provide access, Bill Buckshot in Oklahoma, by publishing his copy to the web, is your new supplier.
- Checking the pulse of popular culture. Justin Bieber has 10 million hits in three weeks? That might just indicate certain preferences among users. An upcoming movie posts a trailer for its summer release, but barely makes 200,000 hits? If not many people are willing to invest 90 seconds and $0 to watch a preview, how many people will invest 90 minutes and $10 to watch the whole thing? This takes market research to a whole new level, and if box office betting ever takes off, check youtube before placing your wagers.
- Making you a star! ‘You-tube sensation’ has blurred the boundaries of ‘celebrity’ status. You don’t have Hollywood good-looks? That’s OK, just be willing to dance like a monkey in your underwear and you’ll surely be a hit.
- Feedback on the fly. After you watch a program, it’s nice to feel re-enforced by the published thoughts of others who have watched the same program. Conversely, what better opportunity to dissent from the popular opinion, than in the comfort of anonymity?
- It’s global! Fans of Korean drama, Persian sitcoms or Ugandan socially-conscious rap videos are no longer distanced from their favorites.
These are just a few of my favorite elements of youtube and online video-sharing. There are certainly a few drawbacks, things that youtube doesn’t do well (or at least not yet).
- Copyright infringement.
- Enables slander
- Capable of making anyone a celebrity, especially for the wrong reasons…
- Mis-leading titles
- Duplication of content = waste of bandwidth
- Sketchy video quality (at times)
- Potential for exploitation. Does John Smith know what his 15 year-old daughter is doing/saying online? Does he know that 3 million people saw it?
- Addictive
I won’t go into too much detail about the negatives, as much has already been said on the issue elsewhere.
Bottom-line, youtube has changed the face of popular culture, business/marketing and scholarly research – purely by taking a pre-existing concept (the video) and making it a social media for all to partake in. Sounds like a 1.65 billion dollar idea to me.