An anthropological introduction to YouTube

Youtube Numbers:
There are 9232 hours uploaded on Youtube daily. Almost 400 are always tv channels, 88% of content on youtube is origional.

Web cam:
Web cams allow you to record yourself, and youtubes further this and allows you to put it on the internet and communicate to others all over the world.

"The machine is using us":
This video was made, to inform us, that the internet is linking people together.

The research team:
10 under graduate student, get together every spring and study youtube. They wouldwatch a youtube video and take notes that go to a database.

Who is on Youtube?:
25% of people in youtube videos are aged 35 or over. Anohter 25% are 12-17. The most popular age group is 18-24.

What is on Youtube?:
Most of the videos on youtube are home made. Take for example to the song soldier boy was first posted on youtube, and 4 months later, the song was recognised and the boy who made the video got a contract with a record lable. There are lots of vidoes that are popular and many people watch them daily, sometimes more than once!

Youtube as a community.
*Most people dont know who they are talking to
*Youtube users start of saying "hey youtube". why?
BECAUSE community has broken, and youtube alows us to communicate.


Aesthetic Arrest:
*People can do what they want and watch videos.

Youtube - People Connecting
"Media Do Not Just Distance Us . . They Connect Us In Different Ways . . That Can Sometimes Feel Distant . . But Sometimes Distance Allows Us To Connect More Deeply Than Ever Before"

Cultural Inversion:
New forms of network community are emurging; mobiles, internet. We are all becoming inndividual and independent but still long for comunincation, and youtube is 'shaped by this.

Participent Observation:
This is the core of thier methodology. It is when you participate in something that you are observing. The research team did this with youtue, they were blogging, looking at videos to understand the new forms of comunication such as web cams.

Vlogs:
*People are talking to themselves when they up load vidoes!
*You dont know what to say and what people would think back.

"Every body is watching were nobody is"
It feels private when you are recording, because its just you, but it becomes public because so many people are able to watch you.

Recognition and new forms of self awareness:
Youtube is a good place to study yourself.
"You know others will be looking at you, but at the time nobody is there"

Watching Youtube:
You can express your views on people without making them feel awkward, and it helps people to show thier deep connection with others.

Connection without constraint
"Media Do Not Just Distance Us . . They Connect Us In Different Ways . . That Can Sometimes Feel Distant . . But Sometimes Distance Allows Us To Connect More Deeply Than Ever Before"