One of the most game-changing inventions of this century, in my opinion, is the advent of Youtube. Curiously, though, even though Google is the parent company of Youtube, it's really not doing a good job raising its kid because Google Translate doesn't spit out translations for Youtube to Japanese or Chinese, I only got the Korean version. Good thing to research, and good thing to keep in mind now that I own GOOG stock.
Youtube has single-handedly changed my TV-watching habits!
1.) I don't watch sports games in their entirety anymore, or any of the game. I now just watch for highlights to come out when the game is scheduled to end, making sure of course not to spoil myself by checking in on social media (I'm off of it a lot anyway nowadays). It's like watching a condensed highlight reel of the game, and instead of spending 3 hours watching football I spend about 6 minutes getting the best stuff. Sorry NFL!
2.) Especially now that I have unlimited wireless on my phone (Finally, right? Welcome to the 21st century, Robert!) I can watch videos anywhere I go, and basically use it to play podcasts, and language videos where they just incessantly repeat Korean or Japanese grammar words, or sentences. 6000 common words, 6 hours. Play it on a loop.
3.) The advent of the idea of a "Youtuber" allows anyone to be their own star! when I was in high school, my dream was to be famous, a reality TV star and show up on screen so that everyone would see me! But I thought you have to be an actor or someone famous to do that, and I would have to change myself A LOT for that to happen, like build a lot of muscles, or become a genius, save the president's daughter or something, or worse (be known for a crime). Turns out though, I didn't have to change, the world changed! The world allowed each person to be his or her own star and have their own marketing campaign, ads, and content to try to attract people's eyeballs. You are your television show! And there's a wide audience for people who make their own channels, where if you make the right edits, have good content, catchy music, you can have a million + subscribers! A million is a pretty significant number! Perfect for the millenial "me" generation which is apparently very self-absorbed and into themselves and each one is the hero of their own story. We're all "special" and can be whatever we want to be, and definitely anyone can be a Youtuber.
4.) Unlike TV channels, you don't have to have a cable subscription, have to have wires plugged into the wall, or be in the right area of the country, etc., etc. While the TV stations that I grew up watching (ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX) are still stuck with basic TV and the whole television medium, NFLX and Amzn are moving on to digital and subscription service, you can watch anything you want anytime when you want it, without commericals (for the most part). Youtube has the same idea. It's really not a comparison anymore, Youtube and cable TV. My friend Babak was complaining the other day about having to pay for a cable service. My question is, why pay for a cable service at all?
5.) Great place to put videos of things that happened in the past! It's like a free photo album/ video album (as long as you're OK with everyone seeing it, but apparently nowadays most people are!) - or just use the "private" settings. I pull up old dodgeball videos of myself 3 years ago (ever since I started recording dodgeball games, what a great idea) and it brings back memories of glory games, and eventually will be "the glory days," once I retire from dodgeball, which might be sooner than later, I've been feeling less powerful and worse, maybe because of my time away and decreased schedule of games, but we'll see. Hope to capture a lot of memories too in the future of great trips MJ and I take or at least great moments.
6.) Speaking of which, we just got back from London and didn't make it to a couple spots, and I was anxious but then I thought, why fret? Someone out there must have gone to the same spot and taken some video, and sure enough, it's out there. MJ and I went to Descanso Gardens in La Canada (not pronounced like the country) this afternoon (great place, by the way) and they have a night lights celebration going on called the Enchanted Forest, and I really wanted to see it (pretty expensive), but then just caught up on it on Youtube, like I was really there! And since I had the other senses covered already (smell, feel of the fresh air), I felt like I was there!
Thanks to Youtube, I found a channel where the host compares words between English, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. LOTS of stuff I didn't know about Chinese, like how to say "Burger King" in Chinese, or "Louis Vuitton," or a bunch of other things that are commonly known terms in English but don't show up in my everyday life for the other languages, and Google translate apparently doesn't know!
Fantasize on,
Robert Yan
No comments:
Post a Comment