The wonder of YouTube

Check out what YouTube is up to:



I heard about this "Life in a Day" experiment from one of my classmates. It sounds like an incredible example of what YouTube is all about: giving ordinary people a chance to share the ordinary (or extraordinary) moments of their lives with a potentially limitless audience, and giving all of us a chance to check out the details of lives that may be similar or very different from our own.

This kind of innovation should come as no surprise to anyone who's seen Michael Wesch's presentation, "An anthropological introduction to YouTube." Wesch explores the culture of YouTube, and part of what he explains is that YouTube is a chance for ordinary people to express themselves in a way that might feel a little more interactive than a writing-based outlet like a blog. Now this same concept is being expanded by a filmmaker for a larger audience. I see a lot of potential for cross-cultural experiences, as we each get a glimpse into the lives of people around the world.

Wesch discusses the issue of authenticity within the YouTube community, which makes me wonder how insincerity might affect this project. Would it matter if someone was less-than-forthright in their representation of their life? Would it be any different from the ways in which we operate in our everyday lives? How authentic are we in our personal interactions? What's the connection between in-person authenticity and online authenticity?