An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube

0:00 - Introduction, YouTube’s Big Numbers
Stephen Weiswasser (of ABC) said “You aren’t going to turn passive consumers into active trollers on the Internet”.. BUT in 948 ABC became the 3rd major network or broadcasting with over 6million viewrs but youtube has produced more than that in just 6months without any producers help, just by US the consumers.

youtube has 9232 hours of video uploaded per day, 385 always on T.V channels, 200, 000 3 minute videos and 88% of this content is new and origional.

2:00 - Numa Numa and the Celebration of Webcams
The numa numa audio track was mimed on webcam by a boy called gary. He could be known as the guy who "launched" the ideas of webcam and made it so popular throughout the world by doing something as simple as enjoying himself with his webcam miming lyrics to a song. At this time youtube was just created and still in the process of being produced. Before youtube was created it was very difficult for people to upload thier own videos onto the internet but since the numa numa video by gary, over 58,000 people posted up new videos.

5:53 - The Machine is Us/ing Us and the New Mediascape
Michael Wesch first came up with the idea of moving normal text onto a digital format. His video is about socially connecting people through new ways which keeps changing every 6 months.
user generated content alows more and more people to view peoples videos or audio clips. When peoples things have been bookmarked or blogged then it alows even more people to view these self made videos. Micheal Wesch sugested we now live in a very intergrated mediascape and that we are at the centre of the mediascape that isnt just a form of communication but it changes the relatiionship between people (mediates human relationships).

12:16 - Introducing our Research Team
in the last 2 years, 10 graduate students, every spring do a study of youtube. They analize the videos posted on youtube and find out the different age ranges that use youtube, what is on youtube, etc.

13:25 - What’s on YouTube? Charlie Bit My Finger, Soulja Boy .etc
the videos posted on youtube are usualy home made videos such as "charlie bit my finger". this video was remixed 2,000 times and viewed by over 30million people. "soulja boy" made himself so popular that he actualy got a record deal from a label due to how popular his song became and the huge amount of people who remixed his song into their own video.

17:04 - 5% of vids are personal vlogs addressed to the YouTube community, Why?
when woman joined the workforce there was suddenly less free time.
"moving from place to place to person to person connectivity".. says bary wellmon and "network individulism". He thinks that the more individual you become the more you long for communitity. Meeting people over the net is not the same as meeting them face to face so thats why in order to feel more social over the net people usualy post up thier stuff on youtube community.

18:41 - Cultural Inversion: individualism and community
people are becoming more increasingly individual but have strong sense of value stil and a big desire of community and this makes us long for relationships.

19:15 - Understanding new forms of community through Participant Observation
Micheal wesch and his students participated in the community because he thinks that you actualy have to experience the phenomenon to fully understand it. This method is called participant observation.

21:18 - YouTube as a medium for community
The students came up with a idea that when media changes, human relatioship changes with it. They used a media platform of self made webcam videos to make a community on youtube.

23:00 - Our first vlogs
Making vlogs for the first time is difficult because the people making the video is not sure how they may be precieved by the people who view their video is being watched. Also you dont know who is actualy goin to veiw ur vlog or who may reply back to it along with the fact of knowing that ur video could be remixed by some-one else. This is called context collapse, where u dont know whats actualy going on. First vlogs seem very aukward at first because you dont know what to talk about or what to do and the fact that ur talking to a camera is weird at first because it gives back no expression to what your actualy saying. first vlogs are often taken many times and obvious that they are actualy first vlogs because of the aukwardness of the person talking in it and the way the are reacting to the idea of talking to a piece of technology still.

25:00 - The webcam: Everybody is watching where nobody is (“context collapse”)
There begins to be alot of self-reflection in youtube vlogs. Micheal wesch says that its like looking through a looking glass and seeing ones reflection of what others percieve them as. The thought of everybody watching you on youtube is strange because when your actualy making the video nobody is realy there which becomes complicated when you try to mediate your life in a webcam.

26:05 - Re-cognition and new forms of self-awareness (McLuhan)
In the future you could view ur previous vlogs and see or judge how others may. McLuhan says that re-cognition and self awareness are and it offers a deeper level of awareness from the first time youve made your flog to the last time since it alows you to judge yourself which then allows you to become more self aware of the way people percieve you compared to the way you percieve yourself.

27:58 - The Anonymity of Watching YouTube: Haters and Lovers
vlogs alow people to have the freedom to experience humanity without fear or social anxiety. This is because it alows you to watch other people without making them feel uncomfortable since they cant see you or even know that youve checked thier vlog. It also allows you to make comments or use certain diagologue without having to face great consequence which encourages in some way for people to be more themselves and say what they feel.

29:53 - Aesthetic Arrest
People can sometimes be overwhelmed by the "beauty" of the human being infront of them and through youtube they begin to have a deeper connection with someone because know they can stare and no matter what, not make people feel uncomfortable so and experience them as a human being.

30:25 - Connection without Constraint
Youtube allows us to have a connection with people without actualy having to ever come face to face with these people so we dont have that sense of social responsibilty to look to so the connection somehow becomes more deeper. Youtube connects people in a different way and this is an example of it.

32:35 - Free Hugs: A hero for our mediated culture
Juan Mann walked around with a sign that said free hugs and from then it turned into a video on youtube which bought over 30million viewers together just through a gesture. This has become a worldwide and becomes an icon on youtube which is important because it tries to reconnect humanity in an odd way.

34:02 - YouTube Drama: Striving for popularity
For people to view ur vlog, your vlog has to be the most popular in youtbe for it to be placed in the front page. It is common for people to always be competing to be one of youtubes "stars".

34:55 - An early star: emokid21ohio
he made a vlog in which a girl had viewed and which then escalated into a love story which made alot of people keep viewing there vlogs to eachother. One day emokid21ohio was then proved to be a fake and a liar about that he does not live in ohio but in the uk among with other things as someone had found his real myspace profile.

36:55 - YouTube’s Authenticity Crisis: the story of LonelyGirl15
People thought she was also lieing about herself and was being fake when actualy she was a soap opera created by 3 writers. The writers said the she was supposed to be a reflection of everyone. This then rose into a bigger issue about whether youtube was realy authentic in the content in which it first uploaded onto.

39:50 - Reflections on Authenticity
we are the producers of youtube so this means we can play with our own identities, re-take videos and edit our own history. What is real or fake on youtube is very hard to distinguish now. Remixing has now become illegal.

41:54 - Gaming the system/Exposing the system
People often put porn thumbnails in order for their video to get more views when realy they have no sexual content in thier video. User generated members should be allowed to get the video exposure they deserve ratehr than having obscene contect uploaded onto it.

43:37 - Seriously Playful Participatory Media Culture
These days there could be a camera anywhere so you never know what can be uploaded onto youtube about you. Things you do or say can be remixed easily now so this has now become illegal. This is another example of content collapse where people may use images or videos about you and you dont know whats going on.

47:32 - Networked Production: The Collab. MadV's “The Message” and the message of YouTube
The most responded to video is the MadV platform where people write small statements on their hands and then posted on to youtube.

49:29 - Poem: The Little Glass Dot, The Eyes of the World
This poem was created by wesch and its about how the webcam is the eyes of the world. He mentions in this poem that the webcam can be used for many things such as fame and glory or just a way of connecting with people. He says that the little glass dot is not what you make of it but what WE make of it.

51:15 - Conclusion by bnessel1973
in conclusion, youtube has been a sense of therapy and allowed people to act how they wanted to. He also thinks it was created to change the world into a better place and help him live in it.