In an average day, I probably get linked to YouTube, at least five to eight times by as many different people, and it brought to mind a talking point that came up in class a few weeks back. The idea that YouTube as an entity and as an archive is exerting a tremendous influence on society is one that everyone seems to acknowledge, but no one ever talks about. However, it wasn’t until I began looking for YouTube stats that I actually began to understand just how powerful that sway is.
The primary recipient of the service’s effects has been the cultural memory of society. Showing over two billion videos worldwide a day, the site allows anyone with a computer and an internet connection the opportunity to upload or view any number of segments and is reaching an incredible number of people worldwide. As the planet becomes more and more digitalized, studies are beginning to emerge examining the effects of technology on time; especially how having access to information is affecting our perception of time between an object and the present.
In his article “The Internet’s Extended Cultural Memory – Is it Sapping our Creativity?” David Crotty writes the following:
“Here’s a thought that will fester for all of you folks out there slowly aging as you read this: recently a friend noted that if Universal green lit and released a remake of Back to the Future today and Marty McFly traveled back the same amount of time as in the original, he would land smack dab in the middle of 1980. Let that sink in for a moment.”
I don’t think anyone would agree that Back to the Future is considered an “old movie” and is a perfect example of the effects of technology on our timeline. On a calendar, the film itself is over twenty years old and yet is still broadcast on television channels throughout the world and will likely continue to do so well into the future. But how does YouTube factor in to this longevity?
A search for “Back to the Future” on YouTube brings up roughly 80,000 entries. If you factor in that the average age of a user is around 27 years old, these are people who were potentially exposed to the movie within the last ten-twelve years and clearly enjoyed the film enough to bring its presence to the web. Now having archived portions of it, these clips will no doubt continue to propagate the cycle, as newer creations continue to reference it, sending people searching for explanations and exposing potential viewers and creating new fans and revitalizing the property.
Cultural memory is also benefitting from the fact that even fairly obscure moments exist in YouTube’s ever-expanding archive. I was about 80% sure that there was no way I would find a video of Bjork’s performance of “I’ve Seen It All” from the Oscars in 2001 where she wore the infamous swan dress, but sure enough, there are a number of videos of the entire performance available for viewing.
Like all things however, if there is a way to make money out of something, someone will find it, and what we are seeing is audiences targeted by marketing, especially for movies and television shows. Trailers and teasers have been shown before films in theaters for as long as I can remember, but as technology improves and computer monitors get crisper and clearer, it is simple for companies to release these clips to the public virally. Through ad-spots and submissions through YouTube audiences are being reached in larger numbers than before and in the age of Twitter and Facebook, where it is easy for someone to pass the link on, thousands of dollars are being saved through the convenience of word of mouth. Someone who has yet to see a preview, but has heard that a particular movie is coming out, is now able to view a trailer at any time, helping to build hype for a movie that could still be months away, but is circulating through the Internet nonetheless.
With over 20 hours of video being uploaded every minute it is guaranteed that YouTube’s “memory” has surpassed any one person’s and will be a staple of our society for generations to come. It has become one of the ultimate databases, free to use, constantly available and only limited by your own recollection. The potential long term effects are still fairly unknown, but it is certain that they will be felt by all Internet using peoples.
References:
Bjork. (2001, March) Performance of I’ve Seen It All. Uploaded by “Renkho.” Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iwx6oOhrKes
Clark, Elizabeth. (2008, Fall). What Good is the ‘You’ in YouTube? Cyberspecatacle and Subjectivity. The Gnovis Journal. Retrieved from: http://gnovisjournal.org/journal/what-good-you-youtube-cyberspectacle-and-subjectivity
Crotty, David. (2010, February). The Internet’s Extended Cultural Memory – Is It Sapping Our Creativity? The Scholarly Kitchen. Retrieved from: http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2010/02/25/the-internets-extended-cultural-memory-is-it-sapping-our-creativity/
Junee, Ryan. (2009, May). Zoinks! 20 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute! The YouTube Blog. Retrieved from: http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/05/zoinks-20-hours-of-video-uploaded-every_20.html
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It is a strange thought: sifting through today's UTube videos 100 years from now. For me, the allure of UTube is it's perceived "real-time" value. Seems like every citizen-reporter with a video camera posts their news to UTube.
ReplyDeleteThe content on this post is made even more interesting with the quote and video (from UTube, of course). The text is a little dense and might benefit from some variety such as links, subheads, or variety in sentence length. That might just pickiness on my part. I have the attention of a gnat, so I pull out every device I can think of to keep my own attention. Overall, very interesting.