Cute video, right? … A little boy, singing happy birthday to Jackie … whoever she may be!

Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of YouTube I think of music videos, embarrassing moments, hilarious videos to entertain the masses, and much much more .. but i think that we may be getting a disproportionate view of what YouTube actually is.

Dr. Strangelove took me by surprise, when in a class lecture he told us, that only about 10% of YouTube videos directly address the YouTube Community. The main use of the site is actually social, for many, it is nothing more than an extension of the family video or a look into the living room.

A vast majority of the videos on YouTube, are the videos that no one really sees. This is because most videos posted are actually directed towards small groups rather than the mass audiences that we all envision. This video, for example, is nothing more than a virtual greeting card.

It is unbelievable the things that our Internet can do! Considering the fact that when it was first developed, businesses truly believed that it’s main use would be commercial.

The greeting card above tells me otherwise.

The BlackBerry was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager, and in 2002, the smartphone that we all know and love was launched. The device allows you to make mobile phone calls, receive text messages as well as e-mail messages, browse the wireless web wherever you are, and so much more.

This ability to receive and read e-mail in real-time, as well as receive updates and chat with friends wherever you are has made the BlackBerry infamously and obviously addictive, which earned it the nickname “CrackBerry” – a reference to the street name for the drug cocaine, which is “crack”. Use of the term CrackBerrybecame so widespread that in November 2006 Webster’s New World College Dictionary named “CrackBerry” the “New Word of the Year”.

It’s main appeal HAS to be it’s ability to send and receive e-mail, as well as to browse the web. I mean, how convenient is that? compared to your laptop its a breeze to carry, and you can even tell your parents that it’s main use is cellular telephone – in case of emergencies of course.

The BlackBerry might also act as proof of much more than a text messaging addiction. In class, Dr. Strangelove introduced us to the concept that our society is a highly disciplined society. We live and breathe according to our rigid schedules – our 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday work weeks, without fail. We are a society that carries time with us. Everywhere you go someone has a watch or some sort of device that can tell them the time of day, so that they are never late, and of course, never too early. We all do things at the same time, we all wake up in the morning, eat meals at three set times during the day, and go to bed at night. People in this society don’t have TIME to take a vacation.

This is where the BlackBerry fits in. This device acts as a clock as well as a portable scheduler. All your tasks and daily events fit into this tiny technology, that conveniently also acts as your cell phone and computer.

Besides these facts, the BlackBerry also allows us to do things in real time, that we previously could not do without being at our desk or in our office. Our work can be with us wherever we go. Never a worry of not being contacted about an important deadline, or missing out on an important party. The BlackBerry helps us stay disciplined.

Not to mention they look really cool.

Above, is an episode of the Philip DeFranco show – an amateur show that airs on YouTube as well as www.PhillyD.tv.

Philip DeFranco, the host/creator uses his broadcasting time to talk about current news stories, and really any issues  that currently interest him.

The above clip is an episode that was broadcasted on Tuesday, March 24th 2009. Within this 3 minute and 24 second video clip, Philip talks about many happenings in the news, including the recent Fox News “Red Eye” controversy. This story was an international one, was featured in many corporate news stories, and was also covered by many other news sources.

The point that I am trying to draw your attention to here, is that approximately 175,000 people chose the Philip DeFranco show, as their source of news for this, and other daily issues. This is part of  a new news trend.

Dr. Strangelove spoke to us in class about the new way that news tends to reach the masses in today’s media centred society.

Lately, this new news pattern is emerging. News circulates from the blogosphere (the Internet blogging world), to mainstream media and back out again. They are two very connected forces, whether we realize it or not. The Internet has become deeply integrated into the formation of public opinion – and this in turn changes where the public is obtaining their information.

The main way of informing and communicating with the public, has almost always been known as the corporate news system, but this model is under tremendous stress – which is obviously worrying many powerful members of the community. Obviously within this corporate news model, those that got their opinions printed and publicized were always the elite, the officials, the rich and the famous. They were the only ones to get quoted, and therefore the only opinions to be known.

Public opinions have therefore always been formed within a commercialized public sphere. It now seems as though there will be a rapid shift in this trend – this public opinion may now be supplemented by new media such as the Internet, and its news sources including blogs, twitter and other amateur news providers such as Philip DeFranco himself.

Liberated News. Finally.

Parody. Spoof. Lampoon.

A Parody is something created for the sole purpose of mocking, commenting on, or poking fun at an original work, its author or some other subject, by humorously, satirically, or ironically making fun of it.

The above video is a parody of Beyonce Knowles’ hit single “If I Were a Boy” (for those of you who don’t know the song, I’ll post the video at the end of this blog).

The Parody isn’t necessarily mocking Beyonce Knowles herself, but her lyrics and her song in general. These boys put a twist on the song that was not originally intended by the artist herself.

This, is the art of Parody.

Parodys of course, are not a new concept. People used to “roast” their co-workers,and wedding speeches and toasts usually have some sense of parody included, the concept has been around for a long time – it is only with the introduction of the Internet, and its amazing spreading and viewing capabilities that parodies are being found everywhere, and i do mean e-ver-y-where.

Now that their creators are aided by the speed and visibility of the Internet, these comical creations seem to be popping up everywhere. People find them funny and entertaining, and therefore they watch.

Sometimes the reputation of the parody even lasts longer than the original work. Humor sells.

Above is a video entitled “Scarlet Takes a Tumble”. There are many versions of it, and this one alone has already received 3,515,302 views.

My best guess is that Scarlet herself did not post this embarrassing video on the Internet for all to see. And now, there exist many copies of it, parodies of it, and reaction videos with people laughing hysterically at her expense. Embarrassing.

This is one of the many dangers of the Internet. Anything and everything captured on video, or by photograph, can wind up on the Internet and haunt you forever.

And once this video, or photograph, or whatever it may be is posted to the Internet, it is next to impossible to erase or remove. As long as someone wants that embarrassing video of you on the Internet, it will remain on the Internet.

It’s a terrible thing … this fascination that we all have with other people’s misery.

I for one, did not know about dog poop girl until Dr. Strangelove mentioned her in class. I later discovered even more about dog poop girl during my reading of Daniel Solove’s The Future of Reputation, in which she helps him to introduce some of the problems that we face with the Internet.

OK so, according to the information in Solove’s book, a young woman’s small dog pooped on a subway train in South Korea. Other passengers on the train asked her to pick it up and she told them to mind their own business. She did not pick the dog poop up. While this was happening, a fellow passenger had snapped her photo, and after she refused to pick up the poop, someone posted the photos of her on a popular Korean blog. Within hours, maybe minutes, this girls photo was all over the Internet, parodies were created, and she was officially known as “the dog poop girl”. Eventually the photos migrated to the mainstream media, all of South Korea knew the story, and she became national news. As a result of this public shaming, dog poop girl went as far as to drop out of university. (1) 

Now, although refusing to pick up her dog’s poop was rude, not to mention quite disgusting – did this girl deserve everything that she received?

One of  the main Internet related issues that this situation brings up is that of privacy. Did this girl deserve to have the whole world know that she did not pick up her dog’s poop?

I’m sure that I’ve done some things that could be equated with not picking up after a dog, and my faults were not publicly broadcasted for the world to see. Should those people on the subway train simply have minded their own business?

Solove believes that “the free flow of information on the Internet makes us less free. We live in an age drenched in data and the implications are both wonderful and terrifying” (2)

Many people believe that the Internet makes us more free - giving us access to more information, and more opportunities to share and participate in free speech, but dog poop girl’s situation is a perfect example of how the Internet actually traps us in this world where anyone can have control of us, and of our personal information at the touch of a button.

Solove sifted through comments posted on the Internet about dog poop girl and her actions that day. One commentator that speaks about her right to privacy said, “Do I think he had every right to post her? Yep. She was in public, and it really doesn’t matter if she was in front of 100 or 1,000,000 people, she was willing to act that way in a public sphere” (7).

Fair enough I suppose. She was willing to be “that girl who didn’t pick up her doggy’s poop” to the 20 or 30 people sitting on the subway train – therefore she won’t mind being publicly humiliated in front of the entire nation. Something seems wrong with that statement.

Solove states that “Under existing notions, privacy is often thought of in a binary way – something is either private or public. According to the general rule, if something happens in a public place, it is not private” (7).

The only difference is, had the Internet not been brought into the equation, this girl would have been a vague memory in a few onlookers’ days, and nothing more than a dinner time story. With the help of the internet though, her picture and her story were spread around, which led to public humiliation, perhaps beyond what she deserved.

Poor dog poop girl.

In class, Dr. Strangelove introduced us to a book called The Future of Reputation by Daniel Solove. The things Dr. Strangelove was saying about the book seemed interesting to me, so I decided to check it out. Without even getting past the introduction, this Generation Google concept grabbed my attention.

Of course we all know Google as the leading search engine on the Internet. Google does our work for us – combs through numerous web pages looking for any website containing the term about which we seek information.

But this facilitation of information is not the reason that Solove has deemed our generation, Generation Google. The reason he has done this is because “many of us today – especially children and teenagers – are spending more of our lives on the Internet. And the more we’re online, the more likely details about our lives will slip out into cyberspace” (9)

Because we are a generation obsessed with the Internet, and a generation who usually have no qualms about posting photos, information, credit card numbers as well as past achievements and regrets on the Internet – this information is easily found by people other than ourselves.

Solove also states that “this risk is increased because it is not just we ourselves who might leak information – data about us can be revealed by our friends or enemies, spouses or lovers, employers or employees, teachers or students … and even by strangers on the subway. We live in an age when many fragments of information about our lives are being gathered by new technologies, horded by companies in databases and scattered across the Internet. Even people who have never gone online are likely to have some personal information on the Internet” (10)

Basically, members of our generation all possess a sort of digital paper trail. Information gathered by friends and family, past and present employers and even strangers, has the potential to end up online. We are a generation defined by our online identities.

I for one decided to put this “Generation Google” theory to the test. I googled my own name – granted there are many Alyssa Pelletier’s in this world, but after a few pages – there it is, the link to my Facebook page! A few pages later, my track and field records, and a few pages further, my high school graduation roster. Great.

Generation google, nice to meet you.

Here is the video that I submitted for my midterm project in the class!

I decided to research self-disclosure on the Internet, specifically on YouTube, because it is obviously a growing phenomena, and because it interests me to know what reasons stand behind this new-found trend.

In today’s society, self-disclosure, which i define in the video as disclosing information about yourself to others that they would not normally know or discover about you, has transformed itself. With the introduction of new media such as blogs, Internet diaries, social networking sites, chat rooms and more, people are beginning to disclose very personal information about themselves, to millions of people that they have never even met.

This trend is especially becoming obvious here on YouTube – people are posting videos, or “vlogs”, and disclosing information about themselves that they normally would not share with people in their face-to-face life. In this video, I discuss this dangerously growing trend, while relating it to research that has already been conducted on the topic.

Enjoy!

This video entitled “Amazing Hairstylist”  is a Vlog, by a YouTube user under the name of fafinettex3.

Vlogging (video blogging) is obviously becoming an increasingly popular phenomena, especially with the growing fame of YouTube. People simply turn on their web-cams, and talk about whatever is on their mind - and people all over the Internet tune in to listen.  

This video is a perfect example. This girl is talking to us about her hair – for a good three minutes i might add.

Why? I personally do not care about her hair, nor do alot of the people that seem to be watching the video, but for some reason, this video received 330,028 views.

What is this obsession that our society has with other people’s lives, no matter how boring or pointless they may be? And why do those who we watch, want us to watch?

The answer to the latter question has to do with self-disclosure. It is becoming more and more obvious that self-disclosure is much easier on the Internet than it is in any face-to-face situation. Talking about your hair for example, on the Internet, is much simpler because there is no risk of rejection or humiliation. You would have no idea if someone chose to ignore your video. Whereas in a face-to-face situation, you would be very aware if someone was ignoring you.

People want their 15 minutes of fame.

Why we care to watch? …. Now that one beats me!

Now, how many kids do you know who are out looking to “hook up”?

For previous generations, Friday night was date night, the night you went on a date – to dinner, to a movie, whatever mood might strike you – with that nice boy who politely asked you to please accompany him next Friday night. For our generation, Friday night is dance club night, bar night, party night or whatever night we want it to be. The word “date” has been so phased out of our culture that it doesn’t even hold a definition anymore – just a picture of mom wearing a poodle skirt meeting up with dad at the local diner.

There is a big reason for this – it’s called “hooking up”. What exactly does hooking up mean? Nobody realistically knows anymore, we just know – it’s not a date! It has become the college and university buzz-word for most types of physical encounters. The details are left to our friends’ imaginations.

According to Laura Stepp, a reporter for the Washington Post who is conducting extensive research on the hookup culture for a book she is writing, “[the term hooking up] is intentionally ambiguous because your generation can describe anything they want under that umbrella definition”.

The appeal of hooking up is probably that it usually comes with a “no strings attached” perspective that may seem refreshing as opposed to the commitment of a relationship. The word ”dating” has taken on a different meaning for today’s generation. And for most, it means too much commitment for comfort.

Stepp notices that “A non-sexual term like dating had been replaced with a sexual term, when you say you’re dating, no one knows about a sexual relationship. Dating is way too serious. Dating is like being married, [this] generation doesn’t have a good word for between hooking up and being married.”

And it’s the truth. Almost every story i hear from friends about their drunken weekend’s events includes one or more hook-up tales. It has become so expected that if you don’t hookup something must be wrong.

Society is making this sexual revolution way too easy.