I just took down all my videos on YouTube this week because they were making everything feel a bit unhappy and dirty. So this topical for me. Maybe it's about giving, not about receiving. With a blog, you're giving - but with YT and Myspace, you're giving to get something in return.
This is just my own personal take on it, but I think Flickr is very different in tone and feel from YouTube and Myspace. (Apart from the fact that it does the job of showing and sharing albums of pictures really easily, in a way that is accessible to non-tech friends and family.) Something about the way YouTube makes it compulsory to show star ratings and number of views (and makes those things central) turns it into a competitive exercise that I don't like. It's not why I'm publishing videos (though I'm not sure I could say why I am). It's also doubtless what makes YouTube such a big hit, and why millions put videos online that way. These things encourage you to think about dumbing down your videos or making Mass Appeal films to get more viewers. I also think it seriously affects the mindset and spirit of the people who watch and comment - encourages attention deficit, carelessness and all those haters you see everywhere. The whole highschoolish popularity competition thing drives the new web, just as it drives so much in the real world, but it's not for me. I hated it even at school. Supposedly people have feeds and favourites on YouTube - but again, it all feels tempered by who's cool, who's hot, who's popular, and how we can all be more like them. I like having a videoblog (and having videos on Blip) because my videos are just there - take them or leave them. I don't have to be judged openly and disproportionately by somebody who doesn't get something I've posted, or appear worthless because I have so few viewers compared to the popular kids. And I don't have to fall prey to those moments of doubt, with a comment or a bad rating prompting me to wonder why I'm bothering if I'm not as 'successful' as everybody else. On my blog, i put a video out there and hope it makes someone somewhere smile a little, or react in whatever way. Occasionally someone will get in touch and say that they liked it. MySpace, again, feels like a cross between high school cliques and businessmen swapping cards - and doesn't really provide anything else that I want that I can't get from email, IM, groups, real world introductions, etc - and from having a blog. But Flickr's focus is different. In the end, the connections I've made with people through my blog, and occasionally through this forum, feel a thousand times more satisfying than any I've made in YT, Myspace, etc. And when I have a view via my site, or my feed, it feels more substantial and personal than just another thrill-seeking YouTuber clicking past a video and then clicking on to somewhere else in YouTube. Rupert http://www.fatgirlinohio.org http://feeds.feedburner.com/fatgirlinohio/ On 5 Mar 2007, at 00:55, Peter Van Dijck wrote: I've always been interested in why young people prefer to post on youtube & myspace versus on their own (video)blog (for the comments of course!) - in this group we seem to think having your own vlog is much superior. But today I realized: my photos are on flickr, instead of having my own instance of some opensource script like Gallery - for the community aspect (and the superior functionality), so isn't that the same? Just a thought. P -- Find 10000s of videoblogs and podcasts at http://mefeedia.com my blog: http://poorbuthappy.com/ease/ my job: http://petervandijck.net [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
