My YouTube Video (Summation Post)

When I first began this project, I didn't have much hope for getting a lot of views. I had never posted anything on YouTube before and despite reading up on how to get a lot of views, I was still unsure that I was going to get a lot of views or a lot of comments. By the end of this process, I guess my worries were correct. As of 4:15 today, I had 225 views of my video. To be completely honest, I was impressed with this number. I actually expected it to be far lower than it was, and when I saw that number I was really excited. I posted the link to my video on my Facebook page and had it up as a status for few days. I was hoping that people would see that and go on and view the video, which from what I can tell I believe they did.

Unfortunately the only comments I managed to get were from my friends. Of course I'm not going to complain about getting comments, but I would have loved to have seen some random comments from people I don't know on YouTube telling me how awful the video was or how much they liked it. For me, negative criticism from someone who I don't know a thing about is far more useful to me because that type of criticism isn't censored and really tells you what you can change and improve upon.

In terms of YouTube, I don't think I've ever used it as much as I have over these last few weeks. When this whole process started I only used YouTube when people sent me a link. But since posting my video I've been on YouTube checking how many views my video has had and while doing that I found myself viewing videos on YouTube's homepage and enjoying what I've found. I even found a program that allows me to take YouTube videos from online and save them to my computer and iPod for later viewing. Relating back to the comments on YouTube, I thought it was really cool that you could directly respond to comments rather than just throw one out there and have the viewers have no idea who your comment was to.

This YouTube assignment has been a really good experience for me in terms of seeing just how important a resource YouTube really is. I never really thought much about it before, but now that I've been on there quite a lot it seems like a very interesting platform as multimedia news reporting surpasses traditional print forms.

My Feelings on Yelp

I had never been on Yelp before and before this class had never actually heard of it. I signed up for it last night and since then have read a few reviews that have popped up on my homepage. They seem to be very useful. I'm not a huge restaurant person but if I'm ever looking for a good night out with my friends or a nice candlelight dinner with my girlfriend, it's good to know there's an easy-to-use website to go to find the best places.

I like that Yelp provides a variety of topics to view reviews about. Clearly restaurants would be the main thing I would use the website for, but it's make the site highly more valuable by providing reviews of other services. One of the things I really liked about the site was the profiles that are attached to every person's review. It was interesting to see where the people are from and what sorts of things they enjoy writing reviews about.

I wrote two reviews for this assignment about Bagel World and the Hangar Pub and Grill. Bagel World is one of my favorite fast food places back home and the Hangar is just without a doubt the best food I've ever eaten. I've never written a review about anything before, so I pretty much just wrote exactly how I feel about each place. I didn't sugar-coat anything and wrote the reviews citing exactly what I liked and disliked about each place. It was a different experience writing a review. It wasn't very difficult and it only took about five minutes and hopefully will be helpful for anyone who views them in the future.

My Feelings on Digg

Usually I hate websites that involve random people posting random articles about things that really don't matter to me. However, Digg has completely changed my feelings on this topic. I started using Digg last Saturday and since then I'm hooked on it. I love the articles that people post, and I especially love the option to rename the article to what the poster feels it should be called. Digg has totally changed the way I feel about the potential of online culture. Now that I've used it I feel like there is hope yet that the internet won't be dominated by porn sites or sites about celebrity gossip…which occasionally become porn sites.

Immediately upon starting an account I began poking around and looking through all the various articles that Digg had to offer. I really liked that it had a variety of categories to narrow your search depending on the types of articles one wants to read. Personally, I like to keep the Digg page set so it shows all articles, stories, or pictures that show up. Most of the time when I'm on the internet I'm spending my time on Boston.com, ESPN.com, Facebook, or MSN, and it is on these four sites that I attain most of my news. Most of this news is either sports related or things that pertain to the Boston area, and Facebook just keeps me updated on what's happening with my friends. MSN really isn't good for anything other than e-mail. It just kinda sucks.

What's really nice about Digg is it oddly enough gives me a well-rounded sense of what the hot topics are on the Internet. I'm very programmed to just open Internet Explorer and check my e-mail, Facebook, fantasy baseball, and local news. But Digg allows me the opportunity to find out what thousands and thousands of people outside my comfort zone are talking about. I think it's cool that Digg has articles about technology and other things that I don't normally read about on a consistent basis. I've read a ton of articles about the new iPad and the Android which I really knew nothing about, and thanks to Digg I can now hold a conversation about the two items and I feel very informed.

As I mentioned earlier, one of the best things I find out about Digg is the ability to re-name the article you publish. I think this is one of the best ideas on any website that I have ever seen. I love anything comical, and it's good to see that the people who use Digg can be as cynical as I am. For example, I "dugg" and article called Big Surprise: Irish Teens Have Highest Rate of Drunkenness. I love this sort of crass comedy. It shows that these people aren't just dorks finding these pages and posting them because they have no lives. The people using these websites have personalities and do this because they enjoy it, not because it kills time.

I will definitely recommend Digg to all my friends and I've already linked it to my Facebook account. This website is a true winner.

My YouTube Video

So I completely forgot to post this last week, so here it is finally, my YouTube video It's nothing special, but hey as of right now 92 views. I'll take that.

Review of "YouTube"

YouTube written by Jean Burgess and Joshua Green is a really well-written, informative book on the inner workings of YouTube. The book examines how YouTube has become so popular and how it has become so pivotal in the new media environment we now live in. One of the best things this book does is to explain how YouTube is being used by a wide variety of people, ranging from professionals down to the amateurs who simply just want to put a video up on the internet.

What is great about this book as well is that Burgess and Green make a direct connection between changes in society and the ever-changing media market. They make it very clear that the new media reflects a change in the media world that isn’t about to change anytime soon. Journalists these days need to be savvy in both print media and online media, and sites like YouTube are on the forefront of this movement.

The information in the book was great for any aspiring journalists or anyone involved in the major media industry. I’m not the biggest fan of YouTube, but reading this book helped me to realize that YouTube is an excellent poster-child for what direction the media industry is heading in. The book itself was very well-written and very easy to follow. Burgess and Green write in a style that connects with the reader and all the sections in it touch on the necessary topics to explain (in detail) how YouTube operates and why it’s so relevant in the media world today.

Favorite YouTube Video

I'm not an avid used of YouTube. To be honest most of the videos I've ever seen on YouTube have been linked to me or shown to me by my friends. And to be blatantly honest most of the videos I've ever been shown have been absolute garbage. However one video, despite its absolute ridiculousness, has always stuck with me: Charlie the Unicorn 2. This was shown to me by one of my best friends from back home. It is the second in a series of Charlie the Unicorn short films that are some of the most ridiculous things I've ever watched.

I honestly could not tell you why I love this video so much. I think because it is so random and so dumbly funny that I'm attracted to it. Every video in the series (which is up on YouTube) is hilarious, and it was hard to choose the one that was my favorite, but this is the one that I quote the most. If you've never seen Charlie the Unicorn, enjoy the link.

Comments on the Design of YouTube

The design and functionality of YouTube makes it unlike any other social networking site on the web. The ability to share video and leave comments makes YouTube unique from nearly any other site on the internet and is what is at the center of its popularity. The ability to see the person making the video and hear their voice allows people to have a sort of closeness with the architect of the video and see exactly who is the behind the creativeness and originality.

YouTube’s easy search capabilities make it perfect for anyone searching for a specific video or videos in a specific category. Simply type in a word like “baseball” and millions of clips show up pertaining to baseball. Of course there are some that are slightly off-topic, but many of them are relevant to the search criteria.

However unlike other social networking sites, people do not know the background information about those posting the videos. Sites like MySpace and Facebook allow people the option of providing personal information to those who view their pages. If YouTube was to somehow incorporate this sort of thing into its workings, I feel like it’s popularity might grow even larger than it already is.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am not a huge fan of YouTube. However, I cannot deny that at its core is one of the greatest ideas on the internet. Its popularity speaks, and it speaks loudly.