The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity

I think that this speech on YouTube by Michael Wesch was actually very entertaining and fresh. I had never really heard my generation be called the MTV generation. The MTV generation is known to have short attention spans, be materialistic, narcissistic, and not easily impressed and he used this quote to describe us: "In the midst of a fabulous array of historically unprecedented and utterly mind-boggling stimuli....Whatever." I think that he makes a great point when he compares his students in his class to the audience of American Idol. Why is society including myself so wrapped up in this show, but in class we are so disengaged. I have no idea what the answer is! His class did a research project on YouTube and found that there are 500,000 videos uploaded everyday and about 99% have no use. Most of the videos loaded onto YouTube are home movies but if that movie becomes an internet phenomenon there is no telling how many people will view it, remake it or even make it into a rap song. Look up Charlie bit me on YouTube. It is a very cute video of two brothers but what people have done with it is the funny part. "Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred." -Lev Grossman. I thought this quote was really great and it is so true! Click here for further information.