The End

Well this is it. This is the last blog post for this blog. The end. The grand finale. The closing of the curtain. The final bow. The fat lady is right about to sing her last note. It's been fun and laborious, rewarding and menial, all sorts of lessons have been learned. I hope anyone who has read my blog enjoys it and will mourn it's passing.

Passing on is taught to us from an early age as an inevitability. We all know that no one is immortal and that death is there to balance life in a constant flow. Everything fades eventually. Eventually, according to some science, everything in the universe will spread out and eventually lose heat to entropy and fade away. Instead of focusing on such a large cosmic scale, I wanna talk about my blog topic one more time, Youtube.

Will Youtube ever die? It's a tricky question. It has remained popular throughout most of the digital age and has seemed to find a foothold on the mobile app platform, an important milestone. The reason why Youtube creating a successful app is important is because eventually the "web" will be replaced by a mobile app based system that is quicker and more efficient. Youtube seems like it will be able to survive this transition. So when will Youtube dissapear? It seems to fill a purpose that will be needed through the next several generations, and dominates the market well enough that any group would have trouble surpassing it. It is hard to tell when Youtube will die, because it is mainly dependent on other websites and technologies being developed. Twitter led to the recent downfall of Facebook, and perhaps someday an app will lead to the downfall of Youtube.

Another important aspect of the question is what is meant by the word "die". Most people would consider Myspace a dead website, but you can still go to it, register for an account, and start using it. Even if no one uses a website and can still be accessed and used, such as my blog, and therefore isn't "dead". I think a better question is "When will Youtube become unpopular. A lot of it depends on the Youtubers to keep producing entertaing material and for Youtube to keep updating and redesigning.

Some institutions can stay a long time. Certain colleges have been around for centuries, some Confucian schools for millenia. I believe that Youtube has a strong and valuable enough principle that it could survive centuries if it stays on the forefront of the tech curve. However,  a Youtube four hundred years from now might be completely unrecognizable to us today.

Unfortunately all things, Youtube and otherwise, must come to an end. Even when Youtube is gone, it is my hope that there will still be online platforms for creative people to share their art. For a final time, thanks for reading.

The Voice of Broadway

As we near the end of this blog I would like to call back to the beginning of my blog. I originally started this blog for music and humor. I have always been inspired by this, and I definitely worked it into a lot of my posts on Youtube. I have always had a great reverence for the ability of music to bring people together. One man who has always inspired me is an icon on modern Broadway, Aaron Tveit.

One of the things that I love about Aaron Tveit, besides his absolutely wonderful voice, was that his background is so similar to mine. He came from a suburban background, was involved in a wide variety of activities, and through his pursuing of music he came to be one of the biggest Broadway stars in the modern age. He just continuously worked and learned and performed his way up the ladder to becoming a major star. He did a mock audition at his college with the director of Rent's national tour and ended up getting his first gig in Rent. As he moved up through several smaller pieces and national tours he eventually received his big break with his starring role in "Next to Normal". "Next to Normal" is an extremely powerful show about a dysfunctional family trying to hold it all together, and it relates really well to anyone whose family has fights sometimes, which I believe is everyone.

From there, Aaron Tveit became wildly popular on Broadway, starring in major Broadway hits such as "Wicked" and "Catch Me If You Can" and the oscar-winning movie version of "Les Miserables". His voice is absolutely mesmerizing, and manages to keep it's luster and sparkle even through the recordings, a very tough task. I listen to his music all the time now, and am grateful to the show choir for introducing me to his works. I found myself singing "Alive" from "Next To Normal" in the hallway on the way to class. Not only has he been a star, but he is now transitioning to TV acting through the show "Graceland". He was already labeled as "The next Hollywood Heartthrob". I wish Aaron Tveit all the success in the world.

Aaron's story makes me excited for what the future holds for myself. I don't see myself becoming a huge Broadway star like he was, in fact I think it is foolish to try to picture your future. However, it does make me extremely hopeful that through my work and dedication I can accomplish something amazing. I encourage everyone in the world to go out and accomplish something great so that I can write a praising blog post based on your life. Also, I hope that you listen to some of Aaron Tveit's work, it's truly wonderful.

Aaron Tveit Bio- http://aarontveit.net/aaron/biography
Les Miserables Aaron- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me7DMpMaKI0
Catch Me If You Can Soundtrack- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqCweDxaUHY&list=PLYUQXUa0t9ps6LEeUwMWQJTZxgfPskNAW
"Alive" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjpH15kuTps

Leaving

Well it's the last week of blogging and, as much as I did enjoy writing the blog, this will probably be the last few blog posts I write for this year. For anyone who has read my blog I would like to say thank you. If there is even a slight possibility of someone who religiously follows my blog posts and gets enjoyment from my posts, I want to apologize for the fact that I am discontinuing my blog. If you really feel strongly about my blogging, feel free to leave a comment and I will continue for you. However, I don't think anyone actually reads my blog anyways.

In honor of my leaving, I want to take a look at those Youtubers who retire from Youtube. It may seem weird to the average viewer that Youtubers can retire. This is due to the fact that Youtubers often are young vibrant people that enjoy what they do thoroughly and so a rare amount of Youtubers have retired. For example, NigaHiga has been doing Youtube videos ever since he was a teenager at the dawn of Youtube and it seems as though he is going to keep doing them as his career for the next decade or so. I thoroughly encourage him to continue as he is absolutely wonderful. As Youtube continues and the original Youtubers become older, the amount of farewells and retirements from Youtube will grow.

Youtubers do retire. Usually when they do it is due to either a lack of interest or some other issue that got in the way, such as another job opportunity and such. One such channel that has retired was called "Your Favorite Martian" who composed and animated original music videos. During his heyday he pulled in tens of millions of views to his music videos, and they are still being watched today. However, his channel is now called "This Project Has Been Retired" and no new videos have been added. It's a shame to lose his creativity and humor when it came to writing music videos.

Recently a Youtuber who retired was the gamer "JonTron".  John Tron and his parrot Jacques entertained millions of people with his clever reviews and vlogging. He was connected throughout the gaming community to many other channels and worked through "NormalBoots", a collection of gamers. With the widespread influence John Tron had, it is no surprise that his fellow Youtubers were wonderfully respectful and honorary of him when he decided to retire from the "JonTronShow".

One of the gaming channels he was connected to called "Game Grumps" even released a special video called "Ode to Jon" which commemorated his humble beginnings on Youtube and wished him the best in the upcoming years. It was a wonderful tribute to John.

I hope that as my blog finally dwindles away, someone was impacted enough to write an "Ode to Adam", but I think I might be aiming too high. Anyway, thanks for reading.

Ode to Jon- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNizrobWjBU
JonTronShow- https://www.youtube.com/user/JonTronShow

Working Together

The amount of traffic Youtube gets every second is ridiculous. Just to show you how ridiculous it is, please visit this link http://onesecond.designly.com/. This is a website called "Every Second on the Internet" and it shows you how much activity occurs on the internet every second such as google searches, facebook likes, or youtube views. I was genuinely surprised to find that there are more youtube videos viewed every second than google searches made. There is enormous power in that amount of people. The website also shows you how many of each item has been made since you have been on the website. I had been on the website for around 300 seconds now, or about five minutes, and more than 14 million youtube videos have been viewed. That is an insanely large amount of people, about one twentieth of all the people in the United States had watched a Youtube video in that time period.

Something in my mind connected this with another website my AP Biology teacher Mr. Horton had told me about. It was a website that researchers posted polypeptide chains to a public forum and then regular individuals such as you or me would spend the time figuring out how it folded into proteins. The scientists benefited from the large amounts of free effort and individuals benefited from feeling as though they had contributed to the forward advance of science, and they had. This kind of work is called crowdsourcing, in which a professional or a group will post work that is too large or menial to be done by professionals, and instead relies on normal citizens. Imagine it as a form of online volunteering. There are many other examples of this online such as scallop counting for scientific research, the game spore which relies on user-made creations to generate it's characters, and even a documentary titled "The American Revolution" which was created based on the contributions of individuals.

I think I made this subconscious connection in my head because I realized that the large amount of traffic on Youtube means it inherently has a great croudsourcing potential. How has there not been any sort of Youtube croudsourcing. There has been quite a bit of Youtube charities in which they simply ask their followers to donate to a charity, but I think Youtube would be more effective if they used croudsourcing. The reason why croudsourcing is more effective than charity is because people enjoy being active participants. I would call for Youtube personalities to call for people to contribute to specific croudsourcing activities as a livestream in which the Youtube personality would contribute as well for a period of time. Youtube could even implement croudsourcing through the comments section to report for scientific research or ask questions before videos. The possibility for croudsourcing is endless.

Just as a short reminder, the number of Youtube videos watched at this point on the website is 158 million.

Protein Croudsourcing - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foldit

The vast sea

In case you hadn't noticed from my previous posts, I really enjoy watching the Vsauce videos and recommend them to everyone. They cover a wide array of topics in a really interesting manner, so that everyone will find a video they enjoy, particularly if you are keen on science. Today he talked about the internet and something he said struck me deeply. Most of the terms used for online activities are related to the ocean such as "surfing the web" "pirating" "phishing" "flooding" "navigating websites" "streaming". Even what I am doing right now, blogging, came from the term captain's log or a naval recording of daily events, like a diary. Apparently this arose from the nature of the internet as the ocean, vast, connected, and hidden.

Most people don't agree with the hidden part because they see the web as a place to access things. However there is such a thing as the "Deep Web" or the "hidden web". This is information on the web that can't be accessed by the normal person due to passwords or protective software. While it may seem as if the majority of the web is accessible, we have to realize this is because of the distorted viewpoint. In actuality anywhere from 80 -96 percent of all information on the web is hidden.

Another thing that was said in the Vsauce video that really spoke to me was the calculated statistic that every website is, on average, 19 clicks away from any other website. That connectivity is something I've been talking about for a very long time on this blog, and why that makes the web special.

As these statistics flow in about the vastness of the information, the connectivity, and the sheer amount of activity online every single second of every single day one can easily see why the comparison was drawn to large bodies of water. However, I feel as if we are wasting. I feel like the internet right now is the child in the lunchroom who throws away the burger so that they can eat the fries. We have this extremely powerful engine that is powered by massive amounts of human activity and yet we waste our energy expended on trivialities. Can you imagine a world in which the information and effort on the web could be used in coordination effectively to solve world issues. We almost need yet another hierarchy inside the web to organize it. Adding another tier onto the pyramid of information to regulate and harness the massive quantities entering the system. I don't know how you would even begin to create statistical systems to comb through the entire web, but it would be invaluable. Just another conjecture from your captain. End of log

Wonderful Vsauce Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scWj1BMRHUA&list=UU6nSFpj9HTCZ5t-N3Rm3-HA

We are the Social Media Generation

When you look at the bottom of a Youtube video you will see a button that says "share". If you click on this a multitude of colorful icons appear. Some of these icons are instantly recognizable by almost everyone in the US today such as the twitter bird or the Facebook f and, yours truly, Blogger. Some of the others are a bit more underground such as digg, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, and two which had only Russian alphabet names. The variety and prevalence of social media is a phenomenon that is relatively new when compared to the internet, a baby when considering the age of technology, and almost non-existentially small when compared to the history of human innovation in communication. It is a phenomenon that is contained within our generation.

Call it generationatism or ageism or whatever you want, but people have a fierce pride in what their generations have accomplished. My parents still listen to rock & roll because their generation came up with it. Grandparents take fierce pride in the military accomplishments of their day and inventions. As our generation is a relatively new one, the one main contribution I think our generation has made so far is the advent of social media. It has already changed the face of the world and the way people connect and interact on a day-to-day basis. As a member of that tech-savvy, digital, generation I am extremely proud.

At the same time, I think most of social media is an absolute waste of time and I would never become a part of it, unless it becomes inconvenient for me NOT to be on it. It is wonderful for connecting those who we can't see on a day-to-day basis, I love Skype for my ability to keep in touch with my brother in Seattle. However, the majority of social media today is used for creating "statuses" for those who see us almost every day to see. It's lost the original purpose of connectivity, and exchanged for a hollow shell of public narcissism. That transition is something that I am absolutely not proud of when it comes to our generation.

I think there is still time to reclaim that one precious innovation that our generation has been responsible for so far. We can transform social media into a force for good, as some are already. We can make it something that will be valued and reminisced upon for centuries to come. It is up to our actions at the genesis of this trend, to make it a positive one. Let's leave our mark on history as our generation. Use social media to start a charity or connect to someone you haven't seen in years. Let's be proud of what we have created, lest we end up with some Frankenstinian nightmare.

The Fear of a Youtuber

For every great thing there is always someone trying to sabotage it. For every comedian there are hecklers, for every politician there are political enemies, for every scientist there are rivals. The main person a Youtuber has to fear is the notorious hacker. Hackers are people who use coding and programming knowledge to gain access to someone's account and either manipulate or seize it. They are unfortunately slightly common on the Internet and can cause major damage.

Hackers are such a threat to security and privacy that many governments have anti-hacking divisions. The Computer Crime Research Center reported that in 2002 the US had 162 hacker attacks on systems that included the House of Representatives, the National Park Service, and the New York Education System. Sometimes credit card companies are hacked into and valuable personal information is stolen. As the world becomes increasingly based on the computer, the hacker becomes more and more dangerous.

On a more trivial level, many famous Youtubers have had their accounts hacked into. The pinnacle of Youtube himself, yes Pewdiepie, was even hacked. His original account was Pewdie before it got hacked and he had to create a new one. Being hacked on Youtube is a nightmare for Youtubers. You lose all of your videos that you worked so hard to create. You lose all of the subscribers that you worked hard to build your fan base. It is like starting again from square one, and it is awful.

The good news is that Youtube has grown and now has larger resources to protect it's channels. The other good news is that people nowadays have a much greater awareness of the dangers of hacking and know how to maintain proper computer security. The bad news is that the amount of people to protect and the amount of hackers is growing as people obtain more knowledge on computers. Another issue is the multiplying methods of hacking.

The future of hacking is a scary one. Cracked did an article about how even nuclear power plants have been hacked before, and several other disturbing incidences that infringe heavily on national and personal privacy and security.

We must stay aware of our computer security as members of the digital age. Stay wise out there on the internet. Hopefully my blog doesn't get hacked.

CCRC- http://www.crime-research.org/news/2002/11/Mess1403.htm
Cracked- http://www.cracked.com/article_19412_8-things-you-wont-believe-can-be-hacked_p2.html

What makes things creepy?

Previously I had talked about what makes things cute, called kinderschema, and the evolutionary reason for them. Today I want to talk about the probable opposite of the cuteness, creepiness. We are all familiar with the feeling of creepiness. It's the feeling you get in the middle of the night, or when you you feel something supernatural or sinister. This may seem like just an human phenomenon that has developed alongside urban legends and scary stories but there is actually a discrete scientific and evolutionary reason for the feeling of creepiness.

When something is creepy, people say it lives in the "uncanny valley". I used to think that the "uncanny valley" was just a place that the supernatural lived. The term "uncanny valley" derives from the area between survival response and rest, or in other words, the area between fight and flight and rest.

Our body is hardwired through adrenaline responses and total physiological changes to respond to a threat with a instant reaction. The problem comes when our brain isn't sure whether there is a threat or not. This in-between area means our body isn't sure whether to respond or not to a possible threat. This creepiness caused by perceptory discrepancies is why many things are creepier at night. This causes the feeling of uneasiness and fidgeting that is characteristic of a response to being creeped out. A video on Vsauce talked about how this uncanny valley can be used in scary stories. The stories about things like ax murderers feel creepy because it convinces us that there is a threat when our minds tell us that there isn't a threat. It is this discrepancy that causes the feeling of creepiness associated with scary stories.

Another theory about creepiness is one by Masahiro Mori about human familiarity. Basically the theory is that as things become closer to resembling humans they get creepier and creepier until they reach nearly exact resemblance with a human such as a picture or a living human which stops being creepy. This is illustrated in a graph by Mori in which creepiness occurs as soon as the human brain tries to recognize the object as human. This is why stuffed animals and mannequins are not creepy as they barely have human features, while humanoid robots, ventriloquist dummies and dolls are all creepy.

There are several other theories about what makes things creepy. These theories involve the avoidance of pathogens, such as why dead things are creepy. These collection of factors provide the large scope of what is scary and creepy in our life.

One video that shows the varied aspects in person is the urban legend "Jeff The Killer". Here is his picture

So what makes him creepy? The almost humanoid features in combination with distinctly inhuman features create a feeling of unease. The smiling face in comparison to the killings in the urban legends and the unsettling surroundings create the contrasting perceptions that also create a feeling of unease. It is these combined factors from both theories that make "Jeff The Killer" creepy. These same factors will lead to the uneasiness that some people will feel at night due to seeing this picture.

Vsauce- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEikGKDVsCc
Masahiro Mori Curve- http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/humanoids/040210-who-is-afraid-of-the-uncanny-valley

What makes something cute?

When looking at Youtube it is impossible to miss the wide variety of cute animal videos. There is certain aspects of a creature that makes it cute. The cuteness is actually a built-in perception that humans have to something that they deem not to be dangerous and that we should protect.

Cuteness has it's origins in evolution. In order to protect the vulnerable young of our species we began to gain a strong affinity and protectiveness towards the features of a young child. Some of these features include large round eyes, large head in comparison too body, and a chubby nature in facial features such as cheek. Konrad Lorenz, a scientist who did some of the pioneering research on this, called these common traits kinderschema, which comes from the German root kinder for children. These features disappear during puberty as our young develop independence and require less protection.

This affinity for kinderschema is so strong and programmed so deep into the human psyche that the aspects of kinderschema can even apply to other species. This is why animals that are round, have large eyes, and small noses are cute, such as kittens and hamsters.

Kinderschema is not just some useless phenomenon. Marketing companies and other media has been using this ingrained human response to create characters that seem vulnerable, cute, and like we should protect them. One of the most famous uses of kinderschema was by the great animator Walt Disney. One of Disney's animators, Preston Blair, who animated Bambi and Pinocchio, has written a book called "Advanced Animation", which in one part showed a set of guidelines on how to make a character cute. These same basic guidelines have been used to create many of the famously cute characters we know and love. The cute guidelines are often used heavily in the Japanese animation style of anime.

People enjoy cute because it triggers a sense of protectiveness and care. Videos or pictures that have high levels of kinderschema become extremely popular. One website called "Zooborns" accesses this kinderschema through pictures of baby animals, and has become extremely popular. A recent video, that had sparked my interest in the subject of cute was of a hamster eating tiny burritos. The second video enhanced the kinderschema by personifying the hamster through using human cuisine, as well as small versions of silverware and restaurant decorations. In many ways, kinderschema is a very tangible and effective literary and visual strategy that can be used to evoke a sense of vulnerability and protectiveness or empathy.


The Science of Kinderschema- http://www.stuffyoushouldknow.com/blog/babies-cute-explained/
Preston Blair's Guidelines - http://stevenbrisson.tumblr.com/post/150100380/disneys-definition-of-the-cute-character-as
ZooBorns- http://www.zooborns.com/\
Hamster with Burrito- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOCtdw9FG-s

HeTube or SheTube

Something I recently noticed, mainly due to the discussions that we are having in class about gender discrimination in our society, is that most of the Youtuber's that I watch are male. When I think of all the people I regularly watch, a large percentage of them are male. I became really curious to find out whether this is simply because I am a male and therefore enjoy watching videos on topics that are typically addressed by males or if, on Youtube, there is a misrepresented amount of female Youtubers.

My belief that it may simply be my gender was sparked by personal interactions. I have female friends that do follow female Youtubers. I was shocked at the amount of female Youtubers that I had never heard of. I was first introduced to the ever-popular Jenna Marbles, but than came a wave of others such as Hannah Hart, Justine Ezarik and others. The reason I had not found these Youtubers before became clear when I watched their videos. They appealed to their gender. Their topics were ones that other females could relate to and therefore enjoyed watching. I didn't understand a majority of the references or jokes because I hadn't experienced them. In the opposite direction, it made me realize that some of the Youtubers that I find funny may not be funny or entertaining to the opposite gender for the exact same reasons. This entertainment gender line comes from the societal gap in the roles each gender plays. The same gap applies to male vs. female comedians.

Yet at the same time I still believe that there is a misrepresentation of female Youtubers, and that it is not merely my own view being clouded by personally experiences. The reason I have to believe this is the all-important top Youtuber's list. Only 8 of the top 50 subscribed Youtubers are female, and about half of those show up in the last 10.

Do these stats show a misrepresentation of female Youtubers or is it still just societal trends. To know this, we would have to see how many people who visit Youtube are male or female to see if male Youtubers are more popular because a majority of the people who watch videos on Youtube are male.

Even if it is simply a case of men preferring to watch videos by men because they are relatable and vice versa for women, I would encourage people to reach out across the gender lines and attempt watching a Youtuber of a different gender. Maybe it will be just another step towards the gender equality that many yearn for in our society.

Effort

If there is one thing I can respect it is effort. I believe that almost anything can be accomplished through sheer force of will. That if you work hard enough, you will eventually get there. The challenge I find is in our finite lifespans. We only have so much time. We can't perfect everything. We don't even really have time to perfect one thing. So how do we decide to spend our effort.

In my mind there are four categories of effort. Those that have a lot of effort or don't, and those that succeed or don't.

Those that have a lot of effort and succeed are the rewarding stories. Stories that uplift others and make them want to work their hardest. A wonderful example would be CorridorDigital's channel. They spend large amounts of time meticulously animating their videos, and were rightfully rewarded for their work with fame and money. A perfect and inspiring story that makes you want to spend time and effort on something.

On the other side of the spectrum is those that put in a lot of effort and yet don't succeed. These are the nightmare stories. People who put years of work into something that resulted in nothing. Sticking along the lines of animation, the one example that comes to mind is "The Thief and the Cobbler". A movie that was completely hand-animated, in which every single frame was drawn by hand. The production of the movie took 30 entire years and was intricately detailed, as well as containing twice as many frames per second than needed just to make it look smoother. Yet right before it was released, a CGI movie with a similar story stole all of it's success and many thought that "The Thief and the Cobbler" was a ripoff. What movie did they think it was a ripoff of. You may know it, Disney's "Aladdin". Please watch this video to pay tribute to the incredible amount of work that went in. A link to one of the scenes is at the bottom.

Some people post very lazily and don't succeed. They deserve it. It's not impressive or inspiring or teaches a lesson. It merely occupies space and is possibly the worst of the four categories. I don't feel like posting an example because that is encouraging the creation of more.

Then there are the lucky ones. The ones you wish you could be yet at the exact same time you hate for being so successful with so little effort. Sometimes it's the unpolished nature that makes it so good like Sir Fedora or the off-the-wall antics in NigaHiga's ADHD posts, that seem very friendly and real. Sometimes the Youtuber just somehow strikes a chord that resonates with a large amount of people for some strange reason, such as NyanCat. They are like a needle in haystack and are very hard to predict most of the times. They can be extremely enjoyable yet probably not something you should place your hopes on.

Effort is tough and taxing. It is hard to constantly expend effort, even when you love what you are doing. But it is rewarding and I encourage everyone to find something and give 110% on it.

Corridor Digital's channel- https://www.youtube.com/user/CorridorDigital
Thief and the Cobbler- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdJbo-4rg1k#t=33
Nyan Cat- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2-TGUlwu4

Power of Youtube

I just finished watching a eye-opening Youtube video by Matthew Patrick, otherwise known as MatPat, the Youtuber that runs the channel "Game Theory". His channel attempts to scientifically analyze the different aspects of video games, such as "Why do we play video games?" "Why is the faceless protagonist so common?" "Does Mario have diagnose-able psychological diseases?". His recent videos were about the success stories and the failures of the gaming industry. What causes a game system to be successful?

In general, gamers tend to like to stick to a pattern, which is why sequels are so popular. Buying a video game is now a $60 investment and so they tend to stick to games that they know will be good. The interesting thing he looked at is innovative games. He tried to examine why some innovative gaming systems flop, such as the Virtual Boy, and why other innovative gaming systems, such as the motion-controlled Wii, go on to be the most profitable and successful gaming system yet.

The basic idea is found the Diffusion of Innovations Theory. Essentially, only 2.5% of the human race are considered "innovators". They are innovators because they have become powerful and influential enough that they can take the risks associated with trying something new. Behind them are another 13.5% of the population referred to as "early adopters". They pick and choose from the innovator's ideas and spread them, which is slightly less risk than the innovator. These two groups set the trends that eventually lead to the majority appeal and viral diffusion.

Youtube contains this same system for gaming. It is no surprise that the main innovator for all of Youtube's gaming community is Pewdiepie. It's no surprise because he was named King of The Web, and has one of the largest amounts of subscribers than anyone else. Pewdiepie can innovate by playing lesser known games. If these games are successful, the other gaming channels serve as the "early adopters" and do their own videos on them. The games then reach the majority, us, who start to play these games.

One of the ways this affects things is by causing the viral gaming trends. Flappy Bird got extremely popular around the same time, January 27, that Pewdiepie posted a video of himself playing Flappy Bird. Soon after that, the "early adopter" channels posted their own videos, until the game had mass viral appeal and publicity that reached almost everyone.

In the same way that Flappy Bird exploded in popularity, games and game systems can be stifled by lack of publicity. One of the reasons that the WiiU extremely under performed is because Nintendo has a very strict copyright policy for their games that makes Youtuber's hesitative to play those games in fear of the blocking of their video due to copyright issues. This has led to a lack of support from innovators and early adopters which leads to a lack of interest in the popular majority.

This system of innovation and hierarchy of ideas shows how Youtube can have serious real-world applications. As Youtube continues to grow in size and influence this effect  becomes more obvious. When used correctly, Youtube can be the most powerful marketing tool in the world. However, a lack of publicity on Youtube can, at least for gaming systems, easily kill a product.

MatPat's video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyXcr6sDRtw&list=PL35FE5C4B157509C9

Satire is Tough

Most Youtube comedians use the form of satire as their comedy. Satire is basically pretending to support an ideal that you actually criticize by emphasizing it's flaws. This can be absolutely hilarious and extremely effective, which is why it is used by so many people. Some examples of Youtubers who use satire extensively are Ryan Higa, Jack Douglas, and Ian and Anthony from Smosh. They all pretend like they believe outdated or offensive things in order to show the ridiculousness in believing those things. These topics can range from something trivial such as varying pop culture fads or serious topics like homophobia and racism.

The dangerous part of satire is that, when it is taken out of context, performed ineffectually, or merely misunderstood, can be misconstrued that the satirist actually believes those views. For example, if Ryan Higa performed a satire on how some people are inexplicably racist towards asians by being overly offensive and satirical, it might be thought that he actually meant those offensive remarks and was himself, a racist. This might be slightly hard though as Ryan Higa himself is Asian-American.

Still, there are comedians whose careers and personal lives have been ruined by their misunderstood satire. One of the earliest satirists was Swift in his "Modest Proposal" in which, among other offensive remarks, he offered cannibalizing babies as a method to ease the economic troubles. Even today, I have still met people that upon reading Swift's "Modest Proposal" honestly believe that he was condoning and suggesting eating babies as a serious solution.

Even in modern times the misunderstanding of satire can hurt comedian's careers. One of the great comedians/satirists of our day, especially in the political field, is Stephen Colbert, who satirizes the Conservative party. In a segment in which he satirized the racial comments of the Washington Redskins owner he made a racial comment about Asian-Americans. When taken out of context, many saw Colbert's remarks as racist and Suey Park, a "hashtag activist" started the #CancelColbert hashtag. While this was merely a minor hiccup in the career of Stephen Colbert as many others vindicated his joke and showed that is was satirical and not genuine, it could have severely hurt his career if the majority of the population perceived him and his show as racist.

Two pieces of advice come out of this. One, if you are a satirist, make sure you are clear about your actual intentions so that you don't get misunderstood and accused of supporting the belief's that you are condemning. Two, if you are a viewer, try to look at the quote or segment in context before making rash judgement on whether someone is actually being offensive or satirical.

Swift's Modest Proposal - http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html
Cancel Colbert Story - http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2014/03/twitter-campaign-to-cancel-colbert-report.html

Enthusiasm

One of the most powerful forces in the world is genuine enthusiasm. It's the reason why our counselors and anyone who gives career advice will first ask you "What are your passions?" When you are enthusiastic about something you will work hard for it. There are all kinds of stories of dedicated fans going to insane lengths to create detailed replicas, homages, and collections. So when Youtubers are enthusiastic about their job they tend to succeed from all the work that they put in.

This relates back in part to my protest against companies like VEVO and highlight pages created by Youtbe being counted as "Youtubers". They don't have any enthusiasm about what they do because they don't create anything. They see it merely as a business opportunity. This trend has not only been showing up in company-run Youtube channels but also in Youtuber's channels. It is standard procedure now for every Youtuber to advocate for themselves and ask for likes, subscriptions, and other social media mention in order to compete with the other channels. In other words, notice and support from the Youtube community means making money, and making money is turning Youtube channels into businesses.

Call me nostalgic or old-fashioned, but I want a return to old Youtube. The Youtube that made the name "Youtube" famous. In which random people decided they wanted to share something with everyone, like a song or comedy skit, and people enjoyed it. There was no such thing as asking for subscriptions or likes, people just did it if they enjoyed the video.

I'm not trying to condemn the idea of likes and subscribers. They can make people who post feel absolutely amazing about themselves and give vindication for all of their work. It is like when a musician gets a compliment on their playing for the first time, or the first piece of art that an artist sells.

While on the subject of the power of enthusiasm I would like to look at the inspirational story that got me thinking about the merits and drawbacks of the "like" system. C Jackson, or as he is known on Youtube as "Sir Fedora" or "One Like Kid" was an unknown amateur vlogger. He made a video all about how one of his previous videos got a like. He was so excited and enthusiastic about the recognition. Someone posted his video of being excited about one like to Reddit. The amazing thing was that when people saw it they started liking everything he had posted. They were so enamored with his sheer enthusiasm and gratefulness for that one like that they wanted to support him too. His video about the excitement for one like now has 181,930 likes. Once I refreshed the page after a minute it had gone up another 39 likes.

Enthusiasm is powerful. Being excited about what you do will make others excited about what you do. Find your passion and work for it.

I just refreshed it again, now its at 182,003. Congratulations Sir Fedora. You stand as a testament to what passion can accomplish

His Viral Video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZcDjcaSHvc

Censorship is (Redacted)

I was recently talking about how cultural influences shapes Youtube as it appears to viewers around the world. Yet I missed probably one of the most important influences that shapes the appearance of Youtube in different countries, at least in China. China's communistic government has the ability and right to censor any online content it deems to be inappropriate or detrimental to Chinese society. Most people associate the Chinese censorship mainly to Google, but it also spread to Youtube.

The first time the government of China censored Youtube was in 2008 when China blocked Youtube during the Tibet riots. Although the Chinese government denies any reason for the bans, many people believe it was to stop videos of violence against protesters from reaching and influencing more people. Many websites have been censored by China when they are considered to spread "harmful information". Even the New York Times has been blocked in China at points. Website blocking is relatively rare in China although some websites are routinely blocked and almost every website containing user content has been censored at one point or another.

Not only does China censor and block foreign-based websites that bring in "harmful information", but China also heavily censors Chinese websites. Weibo, otherwise known as the "Chinese Twitter", is one of the most popular websites in China and is ranked by Alexa Web Analytics as the 17th most visited website in the world. However the user content has been severely censored. Anything from political dissent to sexual innuendo is subject for complete censorship. Some of the citizens are very dissatisfied with this, as it infringes on their free speech.

Censorship and website blocking are not simply a Chinese phenomenon. Almost every other country, including the United States has varying degrees of online censorship. Youtube alone has been blocked in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Turkey as certain videos were deemed politically unacceptable. While the US may not censor quite as much as China, but much more than most American citizens realize and would be comfortable with.

As we are constantly reminded that our forefathers fought for the freedom of speech, among other liberties, the average US citizen abhors censorship. I used to have the same mentality that censorship would deter learning and lead to further oppression, and arguments can be made on how much censorship is acceptable. However, I know realize that there are several censorship systems that exist to protect us. An example on Youtube is the flagging system. If a video is deemed inappropriate or harmful it can be blocked or removed by Youtube. Part of the consideration that goes into this is if the video gets flagged as offensive by many viewers. It is this system that keeps graphic and vulgar videos off of Youtube and allows it to be a relatively safe place to search videos and connect to others.

What freedoms we should have when it comes to speech and expression have been argued and debated for a long time. I personally enjoy the levels of freedom and regulation that we have in our country. If you prefer less regulation or more regulation there is a varying continuum of countries in our world. However, it seems that we have it pretty well off here.

Alexa Web Analytics - http://www.alexa.com/
Youtube Censorship - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_YouTube

Am I a Youtuber?

So I just realized that I myself have a channel! Apparently having an account on Youtube means you have a channel as well, automatically! I don't know why, but in my mind I never associated myself as one of the "Youtubers". However, it seems that I am to join that rank of elite. I am a Youtuber.

That is if I choose to post anything. I feel like I should contribute to Youtube in some way. I was just talking recently about how I disliked the VEVO channels because they occupy the top spots while posting videos extremely rarely. Yet I have never posted a single video to my channel.

What should I post about? Do I just post about my life? I would say that I don't think my life is exciting enough for people to watch, or that I don't have very funny video ideas. However, when you watch videos from all of the top Youtubers, they are all surprised in the exact same way. They didn't think what they were doing was going to be extremely popular. They just did it for the fun of it, and are pleased with the results.

Do I have responsibilities as a Youtuber? Do I have some sort of obligation now to give back to Youtube after they bestowed this honorific title upon my shoulders. Is there some sort of initiation process I missed, or a newbie Youtuber orientation to give me my bearings. I don't even know how to post a video, or annotate, or add additional information!

 It's easy to take in all the information that Youtubers put out, yet a little bit disorientating when you are the one trying to prepare a video for everyone to watch. It gives me a lot more respect for those Youtubers who post daily with original work. I mean, I've only done 50 blog posts, some of which aren't even about Youtube, and already I'm starting to hit a wall for new ideas. I can't imagine how hard it must be to produce something every single day that is original and worthwhile. I definitely won't complain anymore when a Youtuber doesn't post in a while, or if they might recycle an idea.

I'm starting to realize now that I am a legitimate blogger as well! 60 or so blog posts is a lot of material I put out! If someone really had a desire, a surprising one, they could spend hours just reading my writing. That's one of the things I love about all the new media platforms like Youtube. Everyone on the web is now a "creator". We all are now creative producers with the opportunity to be discovered for our thoughts and succeed based off of those. It's a pretty inspirational idea to think that someone someday, perhaps years from now, might read my blog or subscribe to my Youtube channel. I am a Youtuber and a blogger. I am a creator. Now I just have to wait until I get discovered.

Is Vevo a Youtuber?

If one looks at a list of the most subscribed channels, they will find that a large portion of the highly subscribed channels consist of musical artist's VEVO accounts? When I have talked about the purpose of Youtube recently, it always is about sharing ideas and videos and introducing new talent to the populous. Therefore I think it is against the purpose of Youtube for the subscribed lists to be dominated by VEVO accounts. They should place the VEVO accounts on a separate list so that more individual Youtubers and aspiring creators can earn their place on that hallowed list.

One of the main problems I have is that VEVO is not a creative individual, it is a large corporation. VEVO was formed as a video hosting service by several music companies such as Sony and the Universal Music Group. They do benefit off of having the large amount of views and revenue that comes from that. They also serve a vital purpose by creating a platform for musical artists to display their music videos. My problem with them is that this corporation is taking away recognition, something not really needed by a corportation, from creative individuals. 

Another problem I have with VEVO is that it is extremely spacious. Not only do they take away fame and recognition from other aspiring Youtubers, but they do so on as large a scale as possible. I would be much less bothered with VEVO if they presented all of the artists on one channel, something that would be absolutely possible with the playlist system. Instead, VEVO creates a separate channel for each different musical artist. This flood of well-subscribed channels blocks out others from the top list, like a fame-hungry attention seeker. 

It is so widespread that 1/5 of the top 50 channels are all VEVO accounts, which serve no other purpose than to just post the music videos as the artist releases them. The last time Rihanna's VEVO (11th most popular Youtube channel) even posted anything was 4 months ago, Eminem's VEVO (16th most popular) last posted a music video 3 months ago, Katy Perry's VEVO (17th most popular) 1 month ago. They don't post any original or consistent content. It is just another form of advertisement for the artists, and blocks out regularly uploading and aspiring Youtubers from fame.

This problem is compounded now by the mandatory subscribing channels that Youtube has created. All Youtubers have to subscribe to this channel. The leading individual channel is Pewdiepie at 25 million, but three channels: Music, Gaming, and Sports, now top the list with around 80 million a piece. These accounts also do not post original content, but merely advertise other videos. With these accounts added in 2/5 of the top 50 Youtubers are not even Youtubers! 

These channels are corroding the purpose of Youtube, to introduce new ideas and creations to a vast audience. They have overridden a large portion of the top Youtubers list and easily take all of the top positions. Individuals producing creative content have been replaced by large companies who rarely, if it all, post videos, and mainly as a form of advertisement. We need to remove these 20 accounts from the top list onto their own list, so that more individuals and creative partnerships can continue to grow and expand.

Top Channel's list- http://vidstatsx.com/youtube-top-100-most-subscribed-channels

What does Youtube mean worldwide?

Something I recently found was very interesting to me. In Mat Pat's video "Game Theory: How Pewdiepie Conquered Youtube", he talks about how part of Felix's (Pewdiepie) success was that he came from Europe but posted his videos in the US. This meant that Youtube sponsored him to US viewers as well as Western European viewers, both of which compromise a large portion of Youtube watchers. If Youtube sponsors different videos to different areas based on the creator's background, nationality, and subject matter, does that mean that Youtube, in China for example, would look different than the Youtube that I see.

Many of us take for granted that most of the Youtube videos that we watch are in English, and to be fair a large portion of Youtube videos are in English because it is a very prominent language, especially online. However there is also a large number of Youtube videos that are in foreign languages. So why don't we notice these videos? This is because the programmers at Youtube, in a very wise fashion, decided that we, as Americans, probably wouldn't be interested in videos that are spoken in Bengali or Arabic. As a side effect of this, we might miss out on some of the clever and innovative ideas or videos put out by foreign users.

Due to the fact that the programmers separate what people see based on the common interests of their country or the Youtuber's relation to their country, this means that their Youtube would reflect the unique cultural landscape of the place or country in which they live. I think it would be extremely interesting to do an analysis of how the cultures of different countries relate to the Youtube videos that are sponsored in their areas. For example, I do know that Youtube videos for KPop (Korean Pop Music- Gangnam Style e.g.) are extremely popular in Asian countries, yet get little showing in America except for some niche groups.

 I almost feel as if I am missing out on large parts of Youtube, as if they are hidden to me because of my cultural background. I consider this completely contrary to the point of Youtube as a video sharing service meant to bring varied ideas and creative people together. Something I would look forward to in the future is a mass translation of all Youtube videos, but the effort required for that would be monumental. The subtitle system does work, but it doesn't allow for all the importance that comes with inflection.

This all stems off of a larger argument explained in HowStuffWork's article "Why don't we all speak the same language". There is a set of pros and cons with adopting a more universal culture. If we made all Youtube videos in one consistent language it would encourage interaction between creators and give viewers access to watch all videos regardless of cultural origin. However even with the adoption of a single language, this would eliminate the cultural heritage of some languages and cause the cultural diversity that we prize on Youtube to dissapear into homogenization.

It is an interesting prospect to consider how different Youtube must be for other cultures, and how someone writing a blog about Youtube from a different country might be experiencing something absolutely different from me.

How Stuff Works Article - http://people.howstuffworks.com/speak-same-language.htm

Are we too distracted?

For all the wonderful aspects of the internet, there is one feature that has condemned it among many. It is a huge distraction.

It would be interesting to run an experiment or find an experiment in which people are given access to the internet while doing homework and others only have tv and other traditional entertainment, and to see how much work they complete comparatively.

I recently talked about the sheer amount of stuff that we can access, thanks to the internet. That leads to a very important question. What is worth looking at and what isn't? I don't have an answer for this question. Personally I am on the internet too much. The fact that I made this blog about Youtube videos was because I thought I knew about this subject to be able to talk about it in-depth three times a week for a whole school year, which is a lot in total.

There is a reason that I get to sleep at 2 am some nights. There is a reason Stumbleupon-induced sleep deprivation is a running joke. There is a reason that there are Youtube playlists in which you can watch days worth of videos. There is a reason that people become emotionally attached to Youtubers. There is a reason that I am typing this blog post three hours before it is due. Part of that last one is due to procrastination, but also it's because I was watching a dumb video on Youtube when I realized I needed to do a blog post.

Youtube is distracting. Is it a detriment to our society as it drains vital mindpower and attention away from the youth that will one day run the country? Is it a welcome relief in the high-stress lifestyle we all live?

The key, as with all addictions, is to find the moderation point. If you are hurting your social life, physical health, or career by watching too much online videos than you should stop. If you are always working, maybe you need to sit down and have a good laugh over a kitten video. This moderation point may shift as you age, get married, or switch jobs, but it is vital to find it.

The internet is an extremely powerful tool, we must be wise and judicious in the way that we use it or we risk letting it envelop us. Let the internet be an enhancement to your lifestyle instead of a hinderance. There are plenty of ways that we can use the internet to make us more efficient, mentally acute, and physically fit. It is up to us to use it correctly. Be smart web surfers. Thanks for reading

How effective is online learning?

How effective is online learning actually? I s it worth the effort and time that it takes to develop these websites for the school. I want to delve into how much benefit the individuals in our school and in our district are benefiting from the new online tools. I would want to look at this using personal testimonials and more statistical GPA analysis.

There is a new trend that has started to occur across the country. Some people absolutely adore it, while others hate it with a burning passion. I'm feeling lukewarm on the subject, but I understand both sides. The issue of course is online education and how it should figure into our daily school life.

For the first time this year I am really deeply involved with online learning. This is mainly through my AP Chemistry class and our use of tablets (another idea I'd like to talk about later). However, most people are being forced into becoming acquainted with it through the use of the Canvas website this year. We watch videos of lectures on Youtube, we can get our assignments and missing work, edit and submit homework, and even take tests. I honestly feel like I could reach all the information I needed for the school year from my own home.

This is one of the great things about Canvas. I am missing a day of school tomorrow and, hopefully, I will be able to find all of the work I need online. This is so much easier for both the student and the teacher. It also provides some platform for collaboration and communication among students. However, that aspect has a long, long way to come.

My problem with all this online learning is that it is much, much harder to learn when it is simply a video rather than a face-to-face instruction from a teacher. It is so easy to get distracted while watching a video, or become frustrated with the fact you can't ask questions. In my mind, there is no substitute for a classroom setting until we somehow learn to implant knowledge directly into our head. We desire and need that interaction with our fellow students. It is our collaboration and struggles that allow us to truly learn something. Any student will tell you that the things they remember the most are what they did in the classroom, not just watching the video at home.

It is the same reason why can't just sit at home and watch Youtube all day. Even though I like Youtube, it is no substitute for the real thing. You can watch first-person perspectives of extreme skiing or hangliding, but you can't feel the wind on your face or the joy of accomplishing that. We need to have a classroom so that we can physically achieve our goals of learning. So while I do see how Canvas can be a useful tool for organization and communication, I don't see online learning as a replacement to our current education system any time in the next century. Thanks for reading.