I subscribe to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. I get the paper delivered to my house every day and enjoy the ritual of going outside, picking it up, separating the advertisements and checking out the headline stories (and the police reports and comics, obviously).
Conversely, I never jumped on the YouTube bandwagon. I guess I don't have the right sense of humor to find videos of cats or children or prank calls very funny. I don't like huddling around somebody's laptop and laughing at the appropriate moments. It's kind of awkward. The only YouTube video I'm an avid fan of is Rebecca Black's "Friday." It's a modern classic and I jam to it every Friday. Deal with it Heather.
But, I'm really enjoying the shift from reading articles to watching videos for this class. And when I realized that I thought, "Doug is modeling the course texts after the natural progression of rhetoric. How clever!" Doug is a pretty crafty guy who probably plans much of his classes around his personal amusement. Wouldn't it be funny to stage a class battle over whether there are or are not original ideas? Hilarity ensues. Wouldn't it be funny to make people complain in writing about how they hate to read? Wait. Writing means reading.
So at this point, we should all be recording video blogs instead of typing them.
But that would be so embarrassing to do in a coffee shop. Oh well.
So if I'm realizing that, like Anderson said, "what Gutenberg did for writing, online video can now do for face-to-face communication," I'm realizing that whether I like it or not, my old buddy the newspaper is going out of style.
If I was really hip, I wouldn't read the newspaper. I would get all of my news from obscure video-only news sites (future: YouTube News Edition?) and probably do my best to become functionally illiterate, because the written word is so 20th century. By the time I pick up the newspaper, it's already several hours out of date. What I read is yesterday's news. So when I go out into the world with my newspaper-knowledge and somebody says "Oh my goodness. Did you hear what happened this morning?" I have to blush and say "No...I don't have TV, nor did I turn my computer on this morning, and I didn't see anything crazy in the newspaper. What happened?"
I guess I should take after my mom and my sister and start listening to NPR in the mornings. NPR will always be hip in my book.
So Dash takes the YouTube age to the next level. "If you have the ability...what are you doing with it?"
Step it up, YouTube.
Not only YouTube, but the government. Twitter is another bandwagon I never jumped on, but that's just because I'm stupid and set in my ways and don't recognize innovation when I see it. The idea that people can communicate with the government through Twitter is just a fraction of the way the government could use technology to be more transparent and democratic. Which is probably why the government does not use social networking technology, not even YouTube...because that would be too transparent for their liking.
So let's just put it on the young people. The people who the government kind of ignores (how many politicians in D.C. are under 40 years old?) and whose vote politicians scoff at. The next generation must put these tools to use, Dash says. Sure thing, I'll do that.
But I still like to read the newspaper.
Ahhh....I like to read the newspaper too. But judging from the trouble they all seem to be having financially, its days are probably limited. I do like the physical feel and separateness of the ads, sections, etc. And what will I start my fires with when they go out of business???? Yiikes, all those secondary uses of the local rag. I'll have to use something else. I have literally used the newspaper as window washing wipes, weedblock in my garden, packing material, the list goes on and on. Hmmm...that might be an idea for a new product. Something absorbent that replaces all the old uses of the newspaper...
ReplyDeleteYour observation about the 'out of dateness' of the newspaper, even hours later, is true. It's puzzling to know that the newspaper has probably seen it's best days, but still be attached to it's form.
Nice blog, by the way.
I enjoyed your post, but I found two flaws.
ReplyDeleteOne, cat videos ARE funny. Two, our government DOES release youtube videos. http://www.youtube.com/user/whitehouse?blend=1&ob=4. That's a link to the White House's video channel. Many other government agencies and bodies have youtube channels, and many of them are quite interesting.
While HILARIOUS cat videos make up a significant portion of youtube videos, to ignore youtube as an educational tool would be kind of ignorant. Follow a politician's or a journalist's channel, and stay up to date in a visually striking and informative way. Like Anderson said, FTF communication has developed for hundreds of thousands of years, reading and writing only a few thousand. I find youtube a great way to stay up to date politically, and make informed voter decisions. I also find youtube a great way to stay up to date with funny cat videos.
Newspapers may not be going as quickly as we think, (they're just going to be read differently). Newspaper websites have been steadily increasing (I know, not what you want to hear). I couldn't find numbers on the print version (because that seems like too much work for a response comment) but magazine subscriptions have actually been on the rise for something like the last two years.
ReplyDeleteAlso, FRIDAY IS THE WORST VIDEO ON YOUTUBE. I'm starting to seriously reconsider listening to your taste in pop culture.
Ha! I love your writing! For the record, Newspapers are cool, so are funny kitteh videos, NPR rocks (mostly because of the ageless voices of all the people on there--my life will be a strange place when those voices disappear), Friday is a fine music video, but my personal Friday fav is "Last Friday Night" ( Here's the link--can't seem to make an active link in a comment: http://youtu.be/KlyXNRrsk4A ), and I think you profiled our fearless leader quite well!
ReplyDelete(And why not teach a class in a way that is fun and entertaining? However, I think before class is over we should have a student meeting and steer a class in the way *we* think is fun--so, 20 different ways?? *This* would be fun! Must think on it! :-D)
KTHXBAI!!
I completely understand how you feel about youtube, but I do think it can be used as an educational tool (similar to TED talks) more so than finding cat videos or dumbasses recreating their favorite jackass stunts. For example, I go on every now and then and find inspiring lectures and interviews from well standing intellectuals (Christopher Hitchens, Noam Chomsky, Fareed Zakaria, etc.). I also find it inspiring how many millions of people actually view TED talks videos each year, so I am inspired that more people are looking for those inspiring and engaging videos than something for cheap laughs.
ReplyDelete