Michael Wesch is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Kansas. In 2008, he gave a lecture about how instrumental the role of Youtube and the world wide web is in general in evoloving the human race from an anthropological standpoint. He states that as sites such as youtube give the public the chance to contribute to the mass media, more and more people are having to change themselves in terms of personality or how the appear in order to fit in with the new medium and society.
As this lecture was given in 2008, many of the big famous youtubers who gain income from the site haven't started out yet. Instead, he focuses on how the platform was used as a means of connection around the globe; almost like a new social media. This can be seen by the fact that a majority of the videos that were posted back then were roughly 3 minutes long (about 200,000 a day back then- this has increased dramatically though) with ordinary people discussing their views and talking about their philosophies and lives.
Furthermore, he discusses how anyone with access to a webcam can join in on the global discussion rather than needing a full film crew or a producer commissioning the work. This lead to the creation of online dramas and the emergence of the channel known as Lonelygirl15, but i'll discuss that in a separate blog post.
This video clearly demonstrates how media how now influenced society in such a way so quickly that has caused shock waves resonating throughout the world, leading to mass societal change in only 20 years or so.
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