In his article, Youth on YouTube as Smart
Swarms, Duncum investigates how children engage with YouTube and access to
uploading and viewing video media. He agues that the universal access and group
mentality create the same sort of swarm effect that is observable in the animal
kingdom, and that the products youth create are because of this swarm
mentality.
I think we need to give the youth on YouTube a
little more credit. It seems odd to me, to focus (as the article does) on
a series of videos on Barbie torture, in response to this single toy that has
created it’s own genre. YouTube is primarily a source of entertainment, and
while the formation of these niche specific genres is interesting, I don’t
think it is fair to overlook the originality of much content that kids produce
on YouTube, or to deny the vast education community on YouTube, that many
children engage with.
As an example, I have been a faithful follower of the
Vlogbrother’s community since 2009. The
two brothers that make up the vlogbrothers channel, John and Hank Green started
sending video blogs to each other in 2007. They became popular rather quickly
particularly among the 13-17 year old age demographic. As a response to the
popularity of the educational topic videos they were posting, John and Hank
started to organize separate channels dedicated entirely to education. With the
help of a small team they started the CrashCourse channel. This channel has a
series of videos on World History, Biology, Chemistry, Literature, US History,
Psychology, among other topics and the content is similar to intro college
level courses. Of course, the CrashCourse channel is just one example of the
education community on YouTube that is particularly popular for youth.
Another genre that has amassed massive popularity on YouTube is the D.I.Y. category. There are videos for how to do or learn anything- how to dance, how to cook, how to sew, how to apply makeup, etc. While most of more well known channels in these areas are by older creators, a massive contribution to this category is from youth. So often big name YouTube hosts will invite subscribers to post a video response to their content, as a way to engage with fans. Many of these video responses are from a younger demographic, and are a thoughtful or a meaningful assessment of the content in the original video. It is a vast oversimplification to say that children will just respond automatically to whatever is virally popular and share it in a swarm like way. Creators even before they reach double digits will want to respond to a favorite video of one of their idols, or even create a video tutorial themselves as inspired by something else.
It does youth a disservice to charge them as a ‘swarm’ instead of looking at them as individuals with individual goals and interests. While it is a thought provoking comparison to draw in terms of how we view and interact with them on a large scale, it is unrealistic to belittle youth in this comparison and to say that this is a helpful way to think about it. Youth are excluded and minimized in so many other ways in our society, to be reduced to analysis as part of a swarm is just adding insult to injury. A better way to approach youth culture would be to view it how it really is, a response and interaction with general public or adult pop culture. If anything, the bulk of adult YouTube users are the ones who make up a swarm. It is the nature of a decentralized internet platform, and any of the reasons listed in the article as a comparison to the a swarm could be applied in more depth to adults. It is time to give credit to the youth of YouTube (and any other internet community) and approach them as we would approach a community of our peers, instead of trying to compare them to something that is barely human.
Duncum, Paul. "Youth on YouTube as Smart Swarms." Art Education (): 32-26.
Another genre that has amassed massive popularity on YouTube is the D.I.Y. category. There are videos for how to do or learn anything- how to dance, how to cook, how to sew, how to apply makeup, etc. While most of more well known channels in these areas are by older creators, a massive contribution to this category is from youth. So often big name YouTube hosts will invite subscribers to post a video response to their content, as a way to engage with fans. Many of these video responses are from a younger demographic, and are a thoughtful or a meaningful assessment of the content in the original video. It is a vast oversimplification to say that children will just respond automatically to whatever is virally popular and share it in a swarm like way. Creators even before they reach double digits will want to respond to a favorite video of one of their idols, or even create a video tutorial themselves as inspired by something else.
It does youth a disservice to charge them as a ‘swarm’ instead of looking at them as individuals with individual goals and interests. While it is a thought provoking comparison to draw in terms of how we view and interact with them on a large scale, it is unrealistic to belittle youth in this comparison and to say that this is a helpful way to think about it. Youth are excluded and minimized in so many other ways in our society, to be reduced to analysis as part of a swarm is just adding insult to injury. A better way to approach youth culture would be to view it how it really is, a response and interaction with general public or adult pop culture. If anything, the bulk of adult YouTube users are the ones who make up a swarm. It is the nature of a decentralized internet platform, and any of the reasons listed in the article as a comparison to the a swarm could be applied in more depth to adults. It is time to give credit to the youth of YouTube (and any other internet community) and approach them as we would approach a community of our peers, instead of trying to compare them to something that is barely human.
Duncum, Paul. "Youth on YouTube as Smart Swarms." Art Education (): 32-26.
I agree with you, YouTube allows the youth a creative way to express themselves, it is not fair, and in general ignorant for Duncum to generalize all youth on YouTube as a "Smart Swarm." YouTube gets the youth of today interested in video production, which is a wonderful thing. The abilities many of these kids have when it comes to special effects, cutting, and even uploading their videos supersede my YouTube abilities. Even if some of the YouTube videos are redundant in theory, they are still creative in their own ways, putting twists on things, and adding their own personalities. What Duncum may not realize is that simply making the videos takes talent. I went on a little YouTube hunt and found this amazing video with the most creative YouTube videos ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6h-uueuNMc ; can you watch this and simply refer to the creators as merely following the swarm? The creators of these videos most likely started videotaping things at a young age, just like the youth involved in YouTube today. The youth on YouTube may not have the abilities to create a work like these just yet, but these videos inspire them to create their own videos, and with time they too will be creating amazing works of art.
ReplyDeleteI am going to agree with you and Jessica on this article, even though in my own blog response to this article I agreed with Duncum's encouragement of the use of YouTube in the Classroom. I think Duncum might misunderstand YouTube a little because he is from a different generation, but I do not think he intended to insult the youth on YouTube like the article sort of implies. I also really liked how you mentioned to wealth of information that YouTube can provide for its users in videos like the DIY tutorials.
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