YouTube: the Savior and the Defeater

YouTube: the Savior and the Defeater

I'm not trying to be a saint.
I don't wanna be president someday.
I'm just trying to make my way. Yeah!

I'm sorry I'm a fuck up, yeah; I can't do nothing right.

 I'm sorry I'm a fuck up, yeah; It ain't no one's fault but mine.

 I'm sorry I'm a fuck up, yeah; I can't do nothing right.

 I'm sorry I'm a fuck up, yeah; So if you fuck up all the time.

 Let's all sing, “Oops my bad I never said I'd ever get it right.”

 Da Da Da Da Da Da!  

                                                                                                            (Dawson)

            These lyrics come from a song written by one of my favorite YouTubers, Shane Dawson. He premiered this song through a video he uploaded on March 30, 2013. This video and song are a perfect example of a love/hate relationship I have with YouTube. I love the meaning behind it and the person who made the video is great. At the same time it uses inappropriate language that I do not personally care for.

            YouTube has played a huge role in today’s popular culture. People can communicate through it in a way people have never been able to do before. Anyone can upload a video to it for anybody in the world to see. It is a great website, but, like anything else, it has its ups and downs. YouTube has become an escape from life but also a way for people to bully others.

            John Cloud wrote in his article, The YouTube Gurus, that people can waste a lot of time on YouTube because, “…there is an endless supply of kinda weird, kinda cool, kinda inspiring stuff there...” this is a big reason why I like YouTube; all of those videos can waste my time and become an escape for me. I can watch videos that can make me laugh and take me away from anything else going on in my life. I can have a really bad day of classes, but I can always go back to YouTube and have a good laugh or just make me feel better. (Cloud)

            Another reason why I like YouTube is because of the YouTubers. A YouTuber is a person who posts videos regularly and has gained a big audience of people who watch the videos. A lot of these people are paid to make these videos. The YouTubers are the people who make me come back every day to watch videos. They make some of the most popular videos and most of them are to just simply entertain people for a short while.

            A couple of my favorite YouTubers are Shane Dawson and Joey Graceffa. Both of these YouTubers have different styles when it comes to video making. Dawson creates original video sketches and some original music videos and makes some parodies of music videos and other videos. Graceffa, on the other hand, makes daily video vlogs of his life. Dawson makes video vlogs, too, but on a different channel from his other one.

            I enjoy watching Dawson’s videos because they usually push the boundaries of what is acceptable. I always find something funny in them and he tends to just be a funny person in general. Graceffa’s videos are much simpler than Dawson’s. Graceffa simply goes around recording whatever he is doing. It sounds simple and boring, but he makes it fun by the way he approaches life.

            These YouTubers take me away to their lives where everything seems to be more fun and interesting. The more I watch them, the more similarities I see between them and myself. I even get the feeling, sometimes, that I actually know these people. Either way, they can always put a smile on my face and can sometimes make me laugh out loud making my roommate wonder what the heck I am doing.

            Although I really like YouTube, there are parts of it I do not like. One of the problems that show up is bullying. Some videos are made just to make fun of other people. These videos can be taken down if they are really bad but they don’t always make it that far. Even the comments can be really bad. On September 7, 2012, TheSomebodytoknow posted a video about her struggles with bullying in real life; she committed suicide about a month after she posted the video. Comments made after the video was put up were about how she should kill herself; there are still comments made today about how she deserved to die. (TheSomebodytoknow)

            The video was sad and actually made me cry, but some of the comments were terrible. I couldn’t believe how appalling some of them were. YouTube, and the internet in general, has made it so easy to bully people. People can write whatever they want and people would never know who wrote it.  This is powerful weapon against people that anyone can wield.

            Macklemore and Ryan Lewis say in their song Same Love how people have “become numb to what we’re saying… behind the keys of a message board.” They are talking about how people comment how things are “gay” on YouTube and other places on the internet. They are correct in saying people don’t care what they say while online because there is no face-to-face contact. Bullying face-to-face a bully can sometimes see how they are hurting another person. Online, though, people can’t see each other and can’t tell how what they are doing affects somebody else. (Macklemore and Ryan Lewis)

            If you have not seen the videos or have not heard the songs I have talked about, I highly suggest you go and watch/listen to them; I know I am going to go back and watch and listen to them again. YouTube has become a part of my life just like other parts of popular culture. There are always parts of it I will not like, but nothing is perfect. The problems with YouTube would be hard to stop, anyways, since the website grows bigger every day. There will always be people who are going to be terrible to other people; it’s part of life. Despite the bad parts of YouTube, it is still a great way to get away from things.

 

Work Cited

Cloud, John. “The YouTube Gurus.” Time. Time Warner Inc. December 25, 2006. Web. October 18, 2013

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis. “Same Love.” The Heist. 2012. CD.

Shane Dawson TV. “‘Fuck Up’ Music Video by Shane Dawson.” YouTube. YouTube, March 30, 2013. Web. October 9, 2013.

TheSomebodytoknow. “My Story: Struggling, Bullying, Suicide, Self Harm.” YouTube. YouTube, September 7,2012. Web. October 7, 2013.

Higher Education IS Worth the Price

Higher Education IS Worth the Price

            When most people are handed their high school diploma, they usually have two choices; enter the workforce and begin making a living for themselves or go into higher education. It’s a choice between begin making money now or pay money for a few years and possible make more money afterwards. Although the first choice may seem logical at times, it might not always be the best choice to make. There are many reasons why higher education is worth the price, such as the knowledge gained, a chance to get a better job with a better pay, and gaining an experience that people can get nowhere else.

            Furthering one’s education is always a way to gain more knowledge and broaden one’s mind. This is the reason for higher education having general classes that everyone must complete, such as speech, mathematics, and physical sciences. These classes may have nothing to do with one’s major and career path but they do broaden their minds. Sanford J. Ungar said in his essay The New Liberal Arts, “It promotes the idea of listening to all points of view and not relying on a single ideology, and examining all approaches to solving a problem rather than assuming one technique or perspective has all the answers.” (194)

            Broadening one’s mind is important for any career. It helps to make a person an individual rather than just another person. Having different people in a career can bring different ideas and then a better outcome in whatever people are working on in their career. Becoming an individual can also set one apart from others when applying for a job, thus, having them get the job for being different.

Furthering one’s education can open up new career opportunities for them. This is one of the main reasons for having higher education; to prepare one’s self for a future career. My degree in higher education is preparing me to teach music to children of all ages. This is something I wouldn’t be able to do if I wasn’t going to school; this is a career where I must be prepared properly before I go and do it.

Although degrees for higher education are usually specific to one’s future career, they can do more with their degree than just what it is specifically for. There are some careers where all one needs is a bachelor’s degree. Charles Murray said in his essay Are Too Many People Going to College?, “Employers value the B.A. because it is a no-cost (for them) screening device for academic ability and perseverance.” (233)

Here is an example from my life: I am majoring in music education and hope to teach a high school band someday. I realize, though, there are not always positions open for that so I should look into other career possibilities just in case I can’t find a job when I graduate from college. One of my other interests sparked an idea for a back-up career. The Boy Scouts of America needs people to work for them and there are usually positions open. One of their requirements is to have graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree. The employers don’t care about the specific degree one has earned, they just want people who have graduated from college.

Anyone who has gone to college, even if it was for only a semester or two, can say it was an experience they couldn’t have had anywhere else. It’s a place of learning but on more levels than people think. It can be a real eye opener for some people when they get there. College life is a completely new lifestyle than what it was when they were in high school and while they were living with their parents.

College changes young adults by making them take care of themselves. As Dave Berry said in his article The First-Year College Experience, “You'll also be on your own, your own boss (more or less) 24 hours a day.” They will need to be responsible enough to do many things at college such as get to class, get their work done on time, eat healthy, make good choices, etc. their lives are suddenly very different from what it was in high school and they will need to adjust. The sudden transition can be very beneficial but can also turn out to be bad.

College can also be a place where people decide to act really immature because they are away from their parents. Because of the lack of parents there tends to be more “rebellious’ behavior from the young adults, such as over-consumption of alcohol, drug use, and multiple sex partners. My first experience with a drunk person was in the evening after the second day of classes of my freshman year. It was a very strange experience for me, and I was not looking forward to another one. I knew I was going to dread weekends after football games and especially Hobo Day, my college’s homecoming.

Even a crappy moment like that opened my eyes to the real world. I knew I was going to meet people like that my whole life and that I was going to have to deal with them. College does that to people. It makes them realize more and more that life is going to be hard. People will not always be nice; there will be times where money is short and nothing seems to be going their way. The thing to remember is that they have to push through and keep going. Life is going to be like writing a ten page paper the night before it is due; it’s going to be long and hard but worth it in the end when they get that”A.”

The college experience has its ups and downs but it is worth it in the long run. It costs a lot of money in the short-term, but the long-term benefits of a better job and further knowledge out-weigh the money any day. I can’t wait to leave college to get away from some of the problems, but I also know I will miss these years when they are gone.

 

 

Work Cited

Berry, Dave. "The First-Year College Experience." College Confidential. Dave Berry, 2011.          Web. September 24, 2013.

Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, eds. "They Say/ I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing: With Readings. 2^nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.

Murray, Charles. "Are Too Many People Going to College?" Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst. 222-42. Print.

Ungar, Sanford J. "The New Liberal Arts." Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst. 190-97. Print.