First, a formal approbation: I think YouTube is an incredible resource for entertainment, education and, most frequently, procrastination. I spend way too much time watching the vlogbrothers talk really fast, philosophers on "The Big Think" speculate about the future, and the late Christopher Hitchens "Hitch-slap" any dogmatist that comes into his path. I love YouTube because it makes interesting ideas accessible to anyone--not to mention it brought us the coconut fail guy and the grape lady who fell, classic. Also, it really does help time pass when you have other, more important things to do.
But that doesn't mean I love everything about YouTube. This brings me to my second item, a bit of a pet peeve, so bear with me: Before a few months ago I was never a YouTube junkie to the point where I subscribed to channels. The only exception to this being my brother's channel, which unfortunately hasn't been updated in years. Once YouTube launched its new design and layout, however, the homepage was replaced with a newsfeed similar to the one on Facebook, leaving me with a barren wall of (in internet time) antiquated videos. I guess the change is an attempt to make YouTube more personalized to the consumer, so an algorithm provides suggestions based on calculations from your browsing history and the things you "like." This pandering abolishes the chaotic adventure that was YouTube and replaces it with a nicely packaged product that I can just sit back and enjoy. It seems nice, but may be the foreshadowing of dark things to come.
Which brings me to my third point, a worry: Today on Mashable I read an article, that claimed YouTube would soon roll out some paid subscription channels. You know, there's nothing wrong with a content creator wanting to get a little compensation for their work. Please don't misunderstand me, but it just seems like this goes against the whole ethos of YouTube. What was once a "you make it, you share it, you watch it" website, seems to be turning into a "we create it, we sell it, you watch it" website, the type of site that may be the future of cable television. I don't know if I have a legitimate gripe, but I am not comfortable with the way things are looking on the YouTube front.
Fourth and finally, a WTF: Today, while watching a Sixty Symbols video (which I found through the new method of browsing, searching through other people's subscriptions), I got an hour long "standard in-stream ad," which is the kind you can't skip five seconds into the ad (learn more about youtube ads here).
PS: I never watched that video. I wrote this griping blog instead. Let me know what you think in the comments!
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