I never thought that I would spend a whole class talking about YouTube. Yet, discussing the influence that YouTube has had on my generation is fascinating. I think we often forget how different websites have infiltrated our society and our daily life. Many conversations today are focused around YouTube videos and many nights are spent around a computer with friends looking at the new viral videos. It was interesting to think about what makes these videos viral. Yet, beyond simply becoming viral, what do those videos mean to society? Are they representations of the society or does the society use the videos to associate with each other? Why is YouTube so popular? Is it associated with some sort of strange intimacy felt when someone is viewing your personal life?

One of the most interesting topics of discussion on Wednesday was about lonelygirl. The fact that her entire stream of videos were fake shows that it is impossible to know whether these strangers are actually being honest. Yet, even though they could be lying, aren’t they still expressing themselves? And isn’t true expression honest?

YouTube definitely brings up a lot of interesting questions concerning today’s society. I think it will be interesting to see how long YouTube will be a vital part of our society. Do you think it will ever fade out?

In the YouTube Genres page I created a genre called “re-dubbed.” This category includes all videos where the maker has taken a scene from one movie and re-dubbed it with a voice over from another movie or song. I chose to put a video that is not yet viral but I believe has all the qualities of a viral video. I laughed until I cried when I saw this the first time: