Michael Wesch expresses his thoughts about the YouTube community and the pros and cons of the rising of technologically based human connection in his speech An Anthropological Introduction to YouTube (2008). Wesch uses his own YouTube video Web 2.0... the Machine is Using Us (2007) as an example of how a video gains popularity, how it reaches so many, and how it spreads viral throughout the world wide web.
Wesch explains how YouTube is changing our sense of community, its changing the meaning of community all together. "It's not just about information, its about linking people in ways never before. In ways we can't predict, and in ways that are always changing."
He gives some possible examples of why we are moving towards the technology based community. Wesch understands that our actual community has been lost. We don't get together anymore for town meetings or Saturday night dinners or city functions. And if we do, its rarely, and not for the reasons of getting together as a community, but for our own entertainment purposes. Now, in order to fill that void we replace the old community ways with technology. Our only connection to each other anymore is through travel, phones and computers. YouTube allows us to be with someone without having to actually be with someone.
Now more than ever we are experiencing a tighter cultural tension - through YouTube we are racing to the finish line of who can be more unique, original, individualized. But with these actions of who can be the most creative and outstanding, we are feeling more bonded than ever before. We have likes, dislikes, comment feeds, and recreations of the videos - either seriously or through parody and satire. We are all attempting to be celebrities, if we all reach celebrity status in one way or another, than we aren't so different after all.
Wesch talks about getting used to vlogging and how awkward of a situation this causes. One knows he is privately in his own surroundings talking to no one at all, when in fact he knows he will eventually be talking to someone (after he has already said what he has to say, no less) but he doesn't know to whom he will be talking. Strangers, no doubt, but where, when, how and why will these strangers be listening to him. This is a disconnect that is at first is created until the vlogger receives some time of feedback and begins to create a relationship with is "fans".
This new type of community creates a hyper self awareness linked to the concept of The Looking Glass Self from sociological research. Recording ourselves we see ourselves as we see ourselves, but now we publish it for the world to analyze, through their reactions (reflections) we understand how other view us, how they think of us. This is vulnerable and intense and at times scary.
As within any community or society, drama is created in our newly found technology neighborhood. However, because we feel safe within our "private" surroundings, behind our computer screen and keyboard, we are bound to act more bold than we actually are. This in turn heightens the drama as we may say or do things that we know won't contract any more of a consequence than a typed witty comeback.
Furthermore, the safety net creates a "Authenticity Crisis". We act in ways we know we usually don't, we say and do thinks we usually wouldn't, and we are people we know we aren't typically. Its left others wondering "who is this person, is this real or is this disingenuous?" Even if it is the real us, people will be skeptical.
The safety we feel interacting in a technological community plus the authenticity crisis can create bad reputation and publicity for us, from the normal teenager to the political celebrity. One misinterpreted comment, one slip up, one unnatural behaviour and it is recorded forever and it goes viral - for the entire world to see... over and over again.
excellent post!
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