Loading ...Spotting Trends Long After They Have Taken Effect: YouTube Diaries
By Evan ~ September 11th, 2007. Filed under: rant.
What the hell is with people? They’re constructing video diaries (diaries, more like diarrheas! Thanks, I’ll be here until I die or give up writing) on websites like YouTube, sharing all their innermost secrets with thousands of viewers. Isn’t that sort of hypocritical? I mean, shit. When I was young I was under the impression that a diary was a daily record of events, a place for self-reflection, and a safe haven for personal information. A diary was kept under lock and key. Boys didn’t keep diaries, nor were they allowed to read them. Yet, somehow this ancient custom transformed with the times. Computers enabled people to maintain type-written diaries. They could be password protected or encrypted. It ushered in a new era of privacy for the diary keepers. Then something unfathomable happened. People started dismissing the locks, the password protection and encryption. They became starved for attention and solipsistic.
The first I heard about people keeping video journals was from Matt, who would link me to webcam diaries posted on YouTube by a fifteen year old “lonely” girl. He saw right through the whole charade to its nonsensical core. He told me it was a rapidly growing trend; people make webcam videos and post them for all the world to see. Although he first shrugged off the girl and figured it would never catch on, he vastly underestimated the stupidity of Americans, and somehow that girl became famous. I think she was even on The Tonight Show. In her wake, the amount of personal blogs or video journals on YouTube continues to grow. Everyone is a director, utilizing different cinematic techniques, crafting elaborate sets, and scripting their actions to inject perfect levels of emotion and depth to what, really, amount to awful missives. Now we have people like the “Leave Britney Alone” guy; idiots who pour their hearts out about the most banal fucking things like they’re George C. Scott in Patton.
Of course the awkwardly personal “v-blogs” about people’s feelings are hilarious, but I am most fascinated by the really passionate personalities. They’re so disturbing to watch. The number of diarists who cry and bemoan societal issues is as embarrassing as it is retarded. And still people post responses, and create communities full of even more insane folks who go back and forth communicating with one another about a bunch of drivel. Jesus Christ people, crying isn’t going to make anybody listen to what you have to say. To make a point you have to look composed and express yourself thoughtfully, not cry into your iSight and look like a fucking lunatic. You wind up looking like this kid, who is sure to grow up to be a real winner, or this girl, whose tears are soaking that pretty t-shirt she’s wearing, which was probably made by a Chinese child-laborer working 20 hours a day in an unlit warehouse for pennies. But who cares about that — save the dolphins!
I’m planning on making my own video responses for all of the above mentioned videos. I’ll post links to them when they are completed.
When I broached the subject with Ilya last night, he made mention of this page being a place where I “post thoughts to millions of people every day,” and I had to remind him that it is not a diary, it is culture/news criticism and music journalism. I don’t think it’s even remotely relatable to chicks bawling their eyes out, or weird mongoloids looking a bit too intensely into the camera. I don’t want attention, I want to provide people with information and insight. Because, as Matt so eloquently put it, “I’m off over here in crazy land where I actually like things that aren’t completely retarded.”
