Sunday, September 5, 2010

Alas! I Return for Yet Another Critique!

It's been sometime, and I have even gone on the record for saying that I would pursue to create my own website as opposed to reverting to this mere blog. Yet such a task still has not been completed.

So I come to you, loyal fans, with a brief critique: YouTube. It is home to countless morons, hedons, and downright less-than-scrupulous people. With usernames including symbolistic digits such as, "420", or "69", the comments on the video sharing website are inevitably and unavoidably negative. Always claiming one music artist is superior to another, or divulging into irrelevant and uncalled for political, societal, and racist debate and commentary, YouTube commentors are a violent breed.

As is true with all forms of art, there is absolutely no way to please all potential consumers of a given art form, other than to not bother with creating the art in the first place, and letting people get on with their needlessly and perpetually busy lifestyles. So in short, there is no ubiquitous pleasing of the entire volatile YouTube community. We know for certain that there will always be people there to tell you that you suck, you "fail", you "fail at life", or to more shamelessly, to go "kill yourself". I feel YouTube embodies a virtual space for anonymous public commentary.

Early in the world wide web's infancy, there were charming, little forums in which nearly every member would take the time to explain a detail or a solution to a problem in ostensibly any given hobby's respective message board. Back then, web users never heard of "griefing", or the act of making another user's experience less than ideal, whether that means it takes place in the form of negative comments, "thumbs" down, poor reviews, or other types of internet user-to-user sabotage. Today, whether you're aware of it or not, this is an unfortunate reality of the average person's anonymous internet behavior. It's nigh impossible to join a web forum today without at least at some point encountering a jerk, never receiving a negative comment review, or a "thumbs down" in one form or another.

So, this begs the question, why do people behave this way? Simply put, it's the sense of anonymity the average internet user feels when he or she leaves a comment. Theoretically, a user can leave the deepest, most scarring insult on a contributor's YouTube video, and forget that he or she even did so. When we make verbal mistakes in person, though, even slight name mess-ups, we remember them for weeks afterward. It's clear people perceive the internet as a netherland, a virtual place where nothing so much matters, because anything can happen. Hypothetically, Google, Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Yahoo, and any other major website could all crash by the skill of a single hacker, and the quickness of his or her mouse. Anything can happen on this internet, and for the most part, the unexpected happens.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why would you say it is unexpected?

Look at our history. Examine the tendencies and urges we have. Now think about a world where you could appease all your urges without any repercussions.

Of course this is how it has turned out. We live in a society where competition is what drives the majority forward. More importantly, we live in a culture where comparatives and superlatives are essential in our way of thinking.

And just like in the real world, there are people who aren't condescending on the internet. It just happens that often times in order to find them you need to reduce the size of the community you are functioning within. In doing this you have to ask yourself though, "Am I working against one of the biggest advantages of the internet -- it does connect the individual to all of humanity after all".

FlammBlog said...

You just missed the newest post, Patrick!

FlammBlog said...

It's about you!

Anonymous said...

I'm not Patrick...

And why so derogatory? I don't think that what I wrote is anymore pretentious (and I say that in the most positive connotation possible) than what you write.

I'm sorry if you are so trigger happy to prove your ideas true, but I was only trying to start some friendly dialogue...

Anonymous said...

I never intended to come as rude or unfriendly. Please excuse me for any such perceived behavior.

Now you have me wondering as to your identity...

- Flammen, in the flesh, going ghost

Anonymous said...

You don't know me actually. Maybe you have seen me before -- but I doubt it.

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