I got hooked on subscribing to YouTube user videos in the summer of 2007. Today, suffering from a little cold/flu medicine insomnia, I picked up one of my short-time-to-favorite YouTube user series, Etho Plays Minecraft. Believe it or not, I've managed to watch 237 episodes now.
I don't understand half of the engineering and electrical circuitry that Etho, or many similar Minecraft "gurus" that I happen upon (such as Haydz or NoobSniper), work on for their amazing constructions in that little boxy world of Minecraft chunks that we all love to hate or hate to love. But it makes for a great source of ongoing entertainment.
Consider the snappy video tutorials of today versus the ye olde time printed walk-throughs for video games, that took forever to print out on dot matrix paper and cost a fortune in ink cartridges. No contest convenience-wise.
I started watching cosmetics application videos back in 2007, then slowly expanded to beauty gurus. I had my favorites, but a few really wore out their digital welcome mat with their unnecessary drama.
After that, I started adding to my visual collection by looking for magazine and news source channels and reviews of products and services. I even learned a lot about stick shift driving before taking my first class by watching YouTube videos.
Then started on entertainment series. Anyone remember Chad Vader? What ever happend to him? Was he copyrighted to death? Simon's Cat took over his spot in my subscription queue and has been causing me the occasional spurt of giggles on slow Friday afternoons at work--while I work of course, in another tab.
Some people have a gift for explaining things visually as they themselves go through it. The serendipity of following someone ad-lib or look like they're ad-libbing is slightly addictive, slightly voyeuristic, and slightly sad in our attempt to connect with someone who doesn't know we're riding along with them on their way. It's v-blog-stalking. We all know those of us who blog stalk cause we love a person's style or learn a lot from what they post.
I think YouTube totally trumps reality TV. WAY trumps it. I don't care if many of these YT users are power partners or whatever they call them these days. They basically make a ton of money off views, likes, and subscriptions. They honestly earned it. They should make the money, they do a good job entertaining us from our digital/mobile devices. Kudos.
With time I've curated my subscriptions to a bare minimum of 29 channels. There's been tons more at times, and there's been tons less. Sometimes I don't watch YT for weeks or even months on end. Then need to catch up to my old so-called friends. Sometimes I neglect my old favorites for a brand new channel whose videos I simply must catch up with.
It's been an interesting experience, this effortless sense of entertainment and ability to reach out and touch our entertainers, even if it's just by leaving a comment or a thumbs up on their latest video. I'm liking what I'm seeing.
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