YouTube reflections

I have discovered that subscribing to Lee Lefever through my YouTube account has meant that other web 2.0 clips have been ‘recommended’ on my homepage. Also, other clips to do with computer lectures are being displayed because of my recent search activity.

YouTube is an innovative way of creating an online community through the sharing of videos and comments in a public space. However, it is often in the media because of its less positive ramifications. For example, I was searching for articles about YouTube and came across many which confronted the issue of cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a disturbing and prevalent concern in many schools all over the world, especially in secondary schools. Interestingly, Froese-Germain’s article Bullying gets digital shot-in-the-arm contends that ‘Online bullying or cyberbullying is one of the changes spawned by the Internet and social networking sites’. He continues to say that social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube are making it easier for students to engage in cyber-bullying against educators and their peers.

I see the potential benefits of YouTube as an online community for people to share amusing videos, as well as educational content (e.g. UC Berkley’s online lectures), but there are also dangers inherent in social networking technologies. User-generated media needs to be monitored, but it also has many benefits in terms of the equitable access to news and other information by anyone with an Internet connection. People are able to build a community in YouTube, and other similar social networking applications. Three ways in which this is made possible is the production and consumption of user-generated media, as well as the inbuilt features enabling social interaction and participation. For more see this article by Guosong Shao.