First Annual Anniversary Indulgence: Youtube Nation

I'll admit, it's a little difficult to get nostalgic about a feature that's only been around for half the time the site's been up. Still, it wasn't until just this moment that I realized I've been writing about Youtube for six whole months now. It's been a lot more difficult to wade through the world's most popular video site to find the strange and amusing than it has been to scour craigslist for absurd posts. It's a greater investment of time and overall patience to watch so much content. Also, I've been sparing myself out of what I can only assume is cowardice, given that any pretense to good sense went out the window a long time. In the coming year, I suppose I should dig into more vloggers and would-be comedians, and I don't mean in some pansy-ass sampler way, either. No, I mean going elbow-deep on this business like that disgusting scene in Jurassic Park when Laura Dern examines the triceratops leavings. Because honestly, that's what a lot of Youtube videos are, in the metaphorical sense.

Though as much as I complain, I can recognize that a significant portion of the Youtube videos I've featured for this column have been good in one way or another. The pages of Youtube Nation have been graced by some genuinely talented musicians (even if they were accompanied by embarrassing hacks) and even clever video artists who use the technology of short video uploads as a medium in itself. This is something of a leap in video art, especially considering that the term used to be the exclusive domain of insufferable pop artists and actively weird underground types.

However much I mock it, I've come to appreciate Youtube for being a (potential) source of unique expression. I don't think a democratized public video space will ever match more traditional media in overall quality, especially when it comes to scripted content, but I do think that Youtube has access to a side of reality that television and film just can't or won't indulge. When people capture candid moments from their own lives or unusual events in the otherwise everyday, they allow Youtube to be something special.

Maybe it just comes down the breadth of choice Youtube provides. If I went over to an acquaintance's house and they pulled out their home movies, I'd look for the nearest electrical outlet into which I could plunge my fork. But what is Youtube if not an ever-expanding depository of home movies? Given the chance to voyeuristically browse the low-res footage of a million boring lives, I indulge, and greatly. I suppose that's why I have such a limited tolerance for vloggers. Most of them try to do what TV does better and they're competing with all-access peeks into the private experiences of more genuine subjects. The latter is the first attempt at turning Internet video into a means of human connection, the former is just bored kids rambling into a webcam.

My faith in the potential of Youtube may be misplaced. There's a good chance it will never mature beyond the grating vloggers and videos of morbidly obese men dancing to girly-pop that takes up so much of its real estate. Should the day come that Youtube fades from relevancy and becomes little more than a pop culture punchline, I'll at least be able to say that I saw it when it could have been something greater. Until that day or some more favorable evolution comes, I'll be here to prod the beast for all its horror and majesty.