{"id":221,"date":"2011-04-19T17:00:28","date_gmt":"2011-04-19T21:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/semiotics\/?p=221"},"modified":"2011-04-20T15:51:45","modified_gmt":"2011-04-20T19:51:45","slug":"221","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/semiotics\/2011\/04\/19\/221\/","title":{"rendered":"Connectivity and the YouTube Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jessie Kastenbaum (jekastenbaum@vassar.edu)<\/p>\n

As technology progresses, the world becomes more connected and communication improves dramatically.\u00a0 Wu\u2019s The Master Switch<\/em> follows the progression of communication technology starting with the telephone, going to the radio, then to film, and so on.\u00a0 With each new device, people become more connected to each other and are able to communicate in different ways.\u00a0 The telephone allows two people to hear each other across distances.\u00a0 The radio allows people to hear multiple types of media, from talk shows to music to presidential speeches from remote locations.\u00a0 With film, viewers can see and hear stories come to life.\u00a0 Wu mentions \u201cthe power of an open technology like radio broadcasting to inspire hope for mankind by creating a virtual community\u201d (39).\u00a0 The first thing that springs to my mind when I think of a \u201cvirtual community\u201d is the Internet, and YouTube in particular.<\/p>\n

Through the Internet, we can share information and ideas with anyone else in the world who also has access to the Internet.\u00a0 This map, which shows the global connections via Facebook, illustrates just how connected the world is via the Internet:<\/p>\n

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This connectivity is extremely apparent on YouTube where an enormous community of video bloggers, or vloggers, has sprung up.\u00a0 Many people think of YouTube as just a site for video clips of adorable kittens and of people running into stop signs.\u00a0 However, there is so much user-generated content that goes unnoticed by the greater public. \u00a0Audiences interact with vloggers through comments and making video responses.\u00a0 In addition to interaction between vloggers and their audiences, there is a great deal of interaction among vloggers.\u00a0 Most of the vloggers I watch are members of the same YouTube community, called Nerdfighteria.\u00a0 Nerdfighteria began when two brothers, John and Hank Green (the “vlogbrothers” on YouTube), began a vlogging project in which they would communicate without text for an entire year.\u00a0 They built up an audience around their vlogs and call themselves and their audience \u201cnerdfighters\u201d (because we fight for nerds and fight to decrease world suck, which is exactly what it sounds like). \u00a0Here is one of John\u2019s vlogs (which actually talks about community a bit):<\/p>\n