Video Breeding Ground

Some websites on the internet have a specific audience who they are aiming their site towards. For scientific papers, only scientists in the same field would understand the paper thus that is their audience. Performer’s sites aim for their fans, and a college website speaks to students, teachers, and alumni. All have a way of talking, a jargon that only people interested in the topic would know. These sites, however, are not universal. They speak to only a select group. While these sites are needed www.youtube.com fits another mold entirely.

Like My Space and even search engines in general, You Tube is a site for people in all cultures, backgrounds and nationalities, as long as they speak English. It relates to the young, middle aged, and older generations. You Tube in for anyone who likes to see videos of all kinds, and all who enjoy making them as well. I have found music videos of Patsy Cline, Roger Whitaker, and other older singers that my mom loves, and she is in her fifties. My boss at Riverside Mortgage uses You Tube to keep in contact with other colleagues she works with. So this site is not just for those having fun, but for the business world as well.

Those in business don’t necessarily have to be in a 9:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. job, however. Plenty of people who display videos on You Tube are trying to showcase their talents for the minute possibility of being discovered and hired for a job. Looking through some of the videos myself, I have seen young children playing musical instruments and numerous wannabe singers. Some have actually been noticed, whether they are extremely good or extremely bad. What matters is if they can stand out. Some who stand out are actually serious about making it in the movie industry. I have heard of a few success stories, people receiving contracts. This is no surprise since the numbers of videos presently on You Tube are probably in the hundred thousands or more.

These videos are currently being produced and watched all over the world and in all time zones. Many people have events, pastimes, and lives which they want to share with the world for some odd reason, and those who have the means i.e. cameras, computer software, knowledge to so this, will. I am part of the other crowd who enjoys watching the videos but do not feel so inclined to share or spend time making them. I can’t say that it is a particular good use of my time, but for others it can be required and educational, depending on what you choose to watch.

Whatever people watch or include in the videos this site is meant to bring all kinds of people together, give opportunities, and perhaps create some change in the creator’s pockets. As so many videos exist on You Tube, it would be very hard to miss the message. People can interpret this site in any way they want as there are no particular guidelines on how to use it. It is a site for lovers of many forms of media and subjects and contains a vast amount of treasures and junk alike. I personally think some of the most viewed videos are worst, but that is for you to decide.

Form Equals Function

The internet has fostered a world wide community of people via a monitor screen. From blogs and chat rooms, to daily news and celebrity updates, a whole life can be spent at the computer. To begin a mock day in a novelist’s life, he wakes up and accesses his email to receive any updates before work. Since he works at home, he researches a topic. His internet research takes a minimal half hour because the conventions of the websites he visits have become second nature to him. He know exactly how the sites display the information he needs and where to go for the next step. The internet may be unfathomably large but it has a generic web format and a new writing style that stabalizes the system.

Every website on the internet has a similar format and conventions with each other. The popular website www.youtube.com, for example, contains the expected title and home page icon on the tip left corner of the site. What this site also has in common with other sites are a search bar to type in a topic to look up, and tabs for searching by different classifications. Like other websites, a personal account can be established where a username and password must be provided. All members or prospective members can get help for their account or on the site by the links on the top right of the screen. The message or purpose of the site is usually very obvious and grabs the onlooker’s attention. In this particular website, You Tube introduces itself by displaying a product of the site, member’s personal videos. Most websites have pictures, and You Tube is no exception. However, its pictures are especially useful since they are just still photographs of the videos. These videos can be accessed by one of the most common conventions of websites, the blue, underlined hyperlink. No unconventional items exist on this website which makes it easy to navigate and similar to other website’s formats, yet it has an inviting quality.

The internet form of writing also leads to less formal writing. Having someone’s writing published into a book or magazine requires a lot of work, talent and connections. Even when the work is published it is possible not many will read it. But with the internet, anyone can publish their writing no matter how bad it is, and possibly have a lot of people read it. This can be done in the form of a blog. Any thought, feeling, note or announcement can be posted for friends, family, and total strangers to see. This even differs from other websites in that websites generally have one theme and blogs can be totally random. Game scores and poetry could be on the same post. This structured writing format has morphed into informal, unpredictable blogs by way of the internet.

Millions around the world have attached themselves to these new styles of communication whether by websites, blogs or even just email. It has given humans a way of contacting others who were impossible before the internet. The way websites and writing have been tools to broaden people’s minds. But as to making life easier, that could be questioned, unless you want to spend a whole day in front of a screen.