July 25, 2009

It’s My Tube, it’s Your Tube

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So it’s a Friday night. For some that’s an exciting evening. If I remember correctly, it’s got something to do with getting dressed up, going out and having fun? The most exciting part of my evening will entail fixing the relative paths problem on a client’s Joomla site, at which time it will indeed feel like a reason to celebrate! So, perhaps you’re a bit like me, and your idea of a hot date is marking the calendar for the next WordPress upgrade release, and being social means hanging out with your friends on Facebook. Or perhaps you’ll really be wild and crazy and chat it up on MySpace at the same time! If you make your living online, indeed it’s sometimes hard to break away and take a much needed breather.

Sure there’s always TV, especially now with the gazillions of available channels, premium movies, shows galore and sometimes there’s STILL nothing desirable to watch. With the exception of two TV shows, Dexter and Criminal Minds, I don’t watch any television. I couldn’t tell you what’s happening or popular, a far cry from my time working for the media firm. For 7 years, I transcribed and monitored television and radio programming. I could rattle off the weather report on both coasts. I could easily repeat that year’s Oscar nominees and who wore what to the Emmys. I knew the fall lineup like the back of my hand, and if a celebrity so much as sneezed, I was your go to girl for all the juicy details.

I am now media dumb. I know no recent films, no new TV shows and my daughters were recently highly disturbed that I had no idea who Lady Gaga was. My oldest almost disowned me when I asked “Twilight? What’s that?”

So what does an uncool, uninformed, disconnected chick like me do when she wants a time out?

YOUTube, of course!

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What is YouTube? It is essentially a video sharing site, like one big living room with a million TVs to choose from.

Founded in February 2005, YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and share original videos worldwide through a Web experience. YouTube allows people to easily upload and share video clips on www.YouTube.com and across the Internet through websites, mobile devices, blogs, and email.

I admit I actually used to think it was a rather trivial concept, no different than being a virtual couch potato. Yes, hours can surely be wasted just like with real TV, but the benefits of what the site offers are rather amazing. I began to realize it’s value when I started looking up CSS tutorials. I then thought, “hmmm I wonder if there are other tutorials I can find here?” Sure enough, I was watching and absorbing hundreds of tutorials on photo retouching, php programming, Joomla, WordPress, and countless other topics. I was amazed, and it’s now the first place I send anyone who has a need to learn just about anything.

But all work and no play, you know the saying! So one day, I was sitting here working and for whatever reason thought back to the Elvis: Aloha from Hawaii performance. Wow, I hadn’t seen that in years. I didn’t have the DVD, didn’t even own the audio CD. Hmmm, how about that YouTube place? It couldn’t hurt to do a search. An hour later I had watched almost the entire concert and happily had Burning Love stuck in my head for a week! Having my thirst for Elvis music quenched, I wondered what else I might find? All curled up in front of the computer, my daughters and I spent the next several hours essentially overdosing on videos. Many took me back to my childhood and teen years, providing a virtual vintage walk down memory lane that I was able to share with them. This You Tube thing was cool!

I explained to my daughters that they truly have no idea how fortunate they are to have some of today’s technology to benefit from. Back in MY day, I remember falling head over heels in love with Simon LeBon of Duran Duran, after seeing the music video for Is There Something I Should Know, that aired one day randomly on TV in the summer of 1984. But because there was no You Tube, no internet, I had to wait 2 months before I even found out the name of the British hottie and my then future husband. Indeed, the web and sites like You Tube are luxuries we kids of the 80′s could then only dream of.

Other uses for YouTube?

News, primetime TV shows, children’s shows, comedy, LOTS of comedy. There are literally You Tube “stars” that have thousands of subscribing fans waiting with baited breath for their next taping and upload. Others like to vlog (video blog), and share their commentary and opinions on a variety of topics. And if you’ve ever made a fool of yourself and have been unlucky enough that it was caught on tape, be assured it’s been posted for the masses so the entire online community can laugh at you.

From the serious, to the silly, to the downright embarrassing, YouTube has something for everybody.

The SILLY

Even the POPE has a YouTube channel!

A few of my own favorites

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