"Broadcast Yourself" (Media Meditation Seven)

YouTube, a video sharing website that is so much more. It's a way to stay entertain, to share your ideas or compulsions with the world, or just have a good laugh with a friend. This isn't the only use of YouTube, perhaps for the average citizen, but think about its relationship with the news, advertisements, and politics. It's so much more then a girl lip-syncing to Hannah Montana.

It's everything from politics to pop culture to...

cats?

YouTube acts as a personal, aesthetic, and cultural shift, similarly because it exports personal information on a mass scale through multiple forms of media. You are able to access YouTube on your computer by different websites and through certain cell phones. You don't even have to go to the home website to find a video from YouTube, it could be on a blog, a Facebook or Myspace page, or even a link from a Twitter post.

What is most interesting is how eager people are to post videos for everyone to see. There is no privacy on YouTube, let alone on the Internet. While on YouTube, not only are you able to see the many video posts, but also all the advertisements. They've even started playing short commercials before certain clips.

While YouTube is probably one of my favorite websites, I'm afraid it may be turning into a mini television station ruled by the public and dominated by advertising. While "Commercial Alert has been working to 'limit excessive commercialism in society'"(372) I fear we will still be forced to watch a 30 second ad in order to see our 1 minute video. How much time are we willing to waste waiting?