The space I will be observing is YouTube. By definition,YouTube is defined as a site where you upload a video of (someone or something)to this video-sharing website.
On this website people are able to watch andpost videos out for entertainment and learning purposes. People can search andwatch videos from YouTube not just for entertainment purposes, but they can betrying to find a video crash course to watch before a test, a tutorial, andothers are even watching videos about giving birth! Robyn Longhurst, in her article “YouTube: ANew Space for Birth” states that, “Some women are now sharing their birthingexperiences with millions of viewers who are part of the online video’community’ YouTube Broadcast Yourself. Searching the word ‘birth’ on YouTuberesults in close to one million ‘hits'”(Longhurst). It is actually amazing thatYouTube is able to broadcast videos like such so that people can explain theirexperiences like birth. This is extremely beneficial for the society in termsof getting real life, accurate stories, opinions, suggestions and informationon topics such as birth. The culturalsignificance of that space of YouTube is that it draws so many people in andreally develops a connection towards viewers.
YouTube allows people to commenton videos where they can gain feedback from others or simply make a commentabout the video, watch all sorts of videos and post videos. From this you cangain two things out of watching these videos. The first thing you gain is somesort of entertainment or enjoyment of watching the video and the second thingyou gain is some sort of information or an idea from watching the video.YouTube definitely brings the virtual community closer together and has anextremely beneficial effect on the population in which people can interactwhile learning and simply enjoy watching and posting videos.
I find greatinterest in this space because I am an active user of YouTube. From simplylooking up music videos, to listening to music, to watching a tutorial about amath problem that I don’t understand, YouTube is a useful resource I found thatI can use in any which way. In terms of learning and entertainment, YouTube isa big part of my virtual life. By completing these observations, I hope to gaina lot of knowledge on this space that I can prove to others that YouTube is notonly a source of entertainment, but that it is also a resource that people canuse to better their education, learn from others, observe other’s experiencesand obtain useful information from real life experiences. I hope that throughthe observations that I make, I will be able to show that the culturalsignificance of YouTube and how it is definitely a resource of entertainmentand learning.
