Sometimes it’s good to be well behind the technology curve. Take webcasting for instance. I haven’t paid much attention to YouTube for about a year. In that time it evolved from a website where you could find a bunch of funny or interesting video clips into a mind numbing soap opera. You have all of these people that make various videos and most are nothing more than video journals. This leads to someone responding to their video, which YouTube encourages by having the equivalent of blog trackbacks on the videos page. The response is typically devoid of anything other than insults. The inevitable result is someone will respond to the response and the drama is born.

It gets worse though. Some of these people really start to believe that they are celebrities. This is best demonstrated by a special idiot that put out a video 9 months ago begging everyone to leave Britney Spears alone. The video was pretty funny actually in a pathetic kind of way. It’s amazing that anyone would get so emotional defending Britney. Apparently this kid doesn’t understand that Britney’s current situation is a product of her own choices. She has plenty of money. If she actually cared about herself and her kids the media wouldn’t have much of a story. She can pay people to ensure her kids are well taken care of. She can pay someone to driver her around. She can hire professionals to help her deal with her drug problems. She can stop putting on a show for the media. The simple truth is she wants to be in the spotlight. I have no doubt that she places her entire self worth on the amount of media attention she gets, positive or negative. This kid has the same problem. Since the video was funny, a lot of people watched it and shared it with others. This kid did not understand that watching the video doesn’t mean they support the message or relate to the messenger. Since the crying video the kid has put out many other videos talking about internet fame, which means pretty much nothing. Being famous on the internet usually means most everyone in the real world has never heard about you and neither has 99% of the people on the internet. You’re the distraction of the moment. The world has ADD and everyone will be clicking to the next webpage in a few seconds. The world is moving at a faster pace. You used to get 15 minutes of fame. You now have 15 seconds. I squandered mine on Junior Mints.

It gets worse still. Some of these video drama queens have figured about that people are stupid. So how do you exploit stupid people? You take their money. Normally this involves an elaborate or ingenious scam. These jokers weren’t smart enough for that. They’re simply begging for money. That’s right. Someone that has enough resources to record a video and put it on the internet is begging. If it was something they truly needed, then perhaps they should cancel their internet subscription for awhile or sell their camera. They could even sell their computer. They could also get a part-time job, assuming they have at least one marketable skill. At a bare minimum they could sell plasma. Of course they aren’t begging for anything they really need. One guy is begging for others to pay for his trip to go see his family. Another wants to buy a new camera. The most pathetic guy is an idiot that feels he is entitled to some compensation for entertaining people for such a long time and he needs money to impress a girl. Here’s a hint, if you want to get paid for your creative works, don’t post it on a website that is specifically designed to provide free entertainment to users.

I wish I could concentrate really hard and send myself back in time. I’d warn myself and I wouldn’t have wasted time watching drama videos on YouTube. You can go ahead and look on YouTube for these videos, but you’ll only waste a portion of your life like I did. I think ultimately YouTube is doomed unless they make some drastic changes. I’m sure it could continue to strive in its current form for many more years, but do they want to be the internet equivalent of daytime television? They only way to bring up the quality of content is to be more restrictive. Boundaries can hurt, but sometimes they help. I think a great example is Atom Films. I think talented artists will abandon YouTube and will migrate to more restrictive, yet more artistically innovative communities.

Post Script

Some may ask why someone that writes a blog would criticize anyone that makes a video journal.  First of all, because I can and I felt like it.  Also I feel that a video journal is pretentious and  a waste of bandwidth and other resources.  I believe that people tend to think more about an idea if they write it down.  If you watch the journals on YouTube you can tell that they are saying whatever comes to mind.  If you want to put your ideas out to the world, write them down and post them on the internet.  If your ideas suck, then you’ve wasted only a small amount of bandwidth.

From an artistic point of view I don’t like the “walking and talking” gimmick that some of the videos employ.  Are you so important that you couldn’t sit down and had to film your video while you were walking somewhere?  If the surroundings had something to do with the commentary, then I’d let it slide.  If you’re just ranting about what some other YouTube user said about you or one of your online buddies, then just sit down on your couch like you normally do and stare into your camera.  Then again, it’s doubtful that more than a fraction of a percent of the YouTube users have any film skills or knowledge.