|
As an outlet for creative product I think it is great.
However, I also think it is a further blurring of the line between the public and private spheres that I generally abhor. But since I only go to YouTube when pointed to it by someone else (I wouldn't have a clue how to track down my own "you must see this" posts) that half isn't really in my sphere of consciousness.
As a consumer of popular culture I am very much in favor of filters and passivity. In a couple very narrow areas I'm willing to do the work to find the quality things that are good fits for me, but otherwise I like to know that there have been several filters before a movie hits the theaters, or a TV show gets on air, or (more theoretical for me) a song gets on the radio.
A case could be made that it is also an extension of the decline of our attention span (though this is more perceived by me than having any evidence). I recently had a coworker say she liked watching YouTube videos because they're funny and TV shows are too long. She literally just watches YouTube **** whenever she has time. This means that for the most part she has cut herself off from narrative entertainment, hell even from entertainment with a context. The only actual contact with news she's probaby had recently is the video with the Krispy Kreme suck dick graphic.
But she is, I'm sure (and I really hope), and extreme outlier and I don't know if this would make YouTube bad.
But put in the context of an extensively "socialized," decontextualized and isolating online culture I can see it becoming a brick in a wall that is a bad thing for many people.
On the otherhand, as a tool for illegally recoving the electronic ephemera of our past, it is great. Except for the illegal part.
|