Slowly going a bit YouTube mad…
Over this past week or so I have been gradually watching more and more of the wonders that are found on YouTube.
“So what, nothing new!” You may cry. I mean, who hasn’t sat a watched some daft clip of a fat guy trying to dance, or the amazing array of cute – or scary – cat videos that are on this internet video site. For the most part, that is what I had thought YouTube was all about. The random clips of silly people doing something stupid/awesome, to amaze the wider internet-surfing public. These videos never seemed to interest me. I’d watch it if, say my nephew – who is a massive fan at finding random, funny and weird crap on the net – brought it to my attention. But I would never go looking for it my self. I have more important things that I am doing – watching the latest Doctor Who episode, reading my new Star Trek book, or just generally playing MMORPG’s for a few hours in the afternoon. That is, of course, what I have done lately, while I haven’t got a job; before then I’d be trying help run a 3* luxury hotel – which may not have worked out so well as the said hotel had to close (but through no fault of my own, I can, sort of, assure you)!
But now I have found out there is something called ‘Vlogging’, video-logs, if you will, and YouTube has a rich and varied vein of ‘Vloggers’ posting ‘vlogs’ throughout its channels. Quite surprisingly, this new phenomenon – OK, it’s been going on for 5 years now, give a guy a break, I was working really hard for the last few years – but this phenomenon has a strong British presence. There seems there is something appealing about expressing oneself in the form of a video-log that the young British guys and girls have taken to their collective hearts. I know that you can find American vloggers, or people from all over the world vlogging on a daily basis, but by far an away you will normally find that the videos from across-the-pond are either of parodies, pranks, or cute animal/children. (Well that is what I’ve managed to note from the exhaustive and intense research quick trolling around YouTube I did before writing this blog). But the largest genre of video clips I have been able to find for the British audience is a large collective of young people who each week upload videos discussing the most random and funny topics – either in the form of comedy skits, or in most cases, just talking to the camera.
And these guys are good, I mean very good. There is only so much annoying clips of babies laughing, animals being daft, or near death accidents a person can watch in a day before you become jaded and cynical. But then you stumble upon a clip of either Marcus Butler and Alfie Deyes goofing around to a 1D song, answering viewers questions, doing World Record Challenges or shopping (these guys like to shop, and shop a lot), or Jack and his identical twin Finn – who I must say is the better looking of the two – telling you about the wonders of university life and being twins, and your heart melts. Then there is brother and sister combo Zoella and Thatcher Joe, such a lovely sibling act. Or even you spot one of these vloggers appearing on other vloggers channels doing guest spots, or even getting creative with the wonderful, and talented guys from SortedFood.com.
Stumbling upon these videos has really made me wholeheartedly change my mind on what YouTube, and the idea of ‘Broadcasting Yourself’ really means. so much so that, even though I’m in my mid thirties and a bit late to the party, I’m going to try my hand at recording some little musings. So watch this space as hopefully before Christmas I’ll have my big fat face popping up on here to better express some random and silly mild musing I have that I want to get off my chest.
Related articles
- Becoming YouTube (michelleteohziyan.wordpress.com)
- Free topic post. “My favorite vlogger: Charlie McDonnell” (litteramedia.wordpress.com)
- Hi Guys! YouTube Beauty Bloggers Have Lots to Say (bellasugar.com)
- The Virality of YouTube (geekybrains.blogspot.com)
