Seeing Youtube Differently!

Hello Everyone, I saw the video, An Anthropological Introduction to Youtube. WOW!!!

I have to say that I have been using Youtube for several years, but I never thought of it the way Michael Wesch set it up in his video... He stated that most of the videos were New and Original, New Forms of Identity, A Celebration of New Forms of Empowerment and Community and Global Connections.

Its so true... Its all about creating a persona, an identity. Michael Wesch stated that we want Individuality and Independence. And that is exactly what Youtube is... A Place where you can create yourself anyway you want and have the independence/liberty to pretty much do and say what you want. Michael Wesch also stated that we value community and relationships, and that is what is created when broadcasting oneself on the Internet/Youtube.

For Example, LonelyGirl15 had her own identity that people were intrigued by... She Blogged her life online, and soon thereafter was found to be a fraud. The creators of her false identity stated that "We are our own producer, Producing ourselves"... Kind of Scary if you really take a moment and think about it!! You really don't know who is real or not on the Internet.

In Michael Wesch's video it was very interesting to see and hear about the topic of Blogging. In the past, when I heard the word Blogging, I always thought of a thought, idea or comment being typed into the Internet and published. I never thought of it as being made into a video and broadcasted. And there was LonelyGirl15 making history with Blogging her life online.

What I also found to be incredible was what I read about Blogging in Chapter 3 of the New Literacies Book, wherein it states that the number of Active Blogs estimated at 28 million by Technorati.com in mid-February 2006 and that was two years ago, imagine now?! This comes to show how we are Participating Observers... By posting a Blog we are participating with the Interenet's Population which just keeps growing everyday!