How can youtube possibly save anyone? It’s an algorithm destroying attention spans of generations.
Still, the more I research about videomaking and the more scenes flash around my mind – it’s been so long since I’ve felt something like this. Maybe the first time.
Years and years of neocities had me funneling all my emotions the same as the niagara falls through a straw. What makes YouTube different?
I’m not sure what it is, but however much I wrote it just felt like a flat glass slab. Like a muffled cage. A dinner for one even if you’re surrounded by all the other customers, some nodding toward your way, sending some wine.
But it was the only way I knew how to express myself. The only place that’d let me express myself, and for that I’ve be forever thankful for all of those who welcomed me through the years. In a way they kept me going.
Still, as the only way I knew how to express myself, it just wasn’t cutting it. Too silent. Sectioned off from the chugging of the world, and I didn’t know how to fix this lacking beyond than refining my words over and over hoping that somehow I’ll find the magical puzzle piece that holds the whole bridge together. A bridge toward some sort of fulfillment.
That puzzle piece never came. The thought of going even higher for some fulfillment, like writing a novel or something more, filled me with dread. It felt like a dead end.
Staring at my wall wondering what’s next, so I was graced with a suggestion: maybe try making a video.
Instead of writing thought vomit on neocities, why not make it all visual? Add some fidelity. Maybe that’ll work.
And so as I dive into Davinci and friends, cobbling together these clips piecing this all together – the puzzle piece clicked in without me watching.
What makes YouTube different? YouTube brings stories to life. However you want to remix it together. It comes alive. There’s no more muffled glass – it’s a bloom, or a canopy, or a school of fish scrambling about in a bubbly flurry. A field to get lost in.
And with every publish only today do I realize we’re writing a novel now – our story, even if you insist you have nothing to do with me.
In the same way neocities can keep one going through the years – maybe youtube can do the same, except let one make some bridges to new worlds. Worlds to share – what’s the use if you don’t share it?
Even if you want to slap the parasocial label on it all, call it all apocalyptic as we’re slaves to some algorithm – even then youtube still lets you bring stories to life. Even your dreams.
Whatever you’re aspiring to do, YouTube is right here waiting for your search query. For you to learn and ascend toward whatever dream you’re working towards. Or problems you’re sorting through. I always hear car mechanics cite youtube for their credentials. It wasn’t always like that.
Long ago in order to research anything you’d have to call up the librarian, or drag through internships. Sift through a bunch of labels or take notes to to later typewrite into an essay. A lot of information was just walled off, traded as secrets between professionals.
But today, if you want, you’re a click away. Whatever you want to do next, you aren’t alone.
YouTube is waiting to help you with your story. I wonder when you’ll share it.
Will you?