Yo…

What’s your relationship like with YouTube?

Recently I had an interesting experience with YouTube. I got a new laptop and I hadn’t signed into YouTube via Google. So it didn’t know who I was. “Hi, my name is Sammy.”

The initial displays were mostly popular culture…music videos Harry Styles I think; Stranger Things for sure. It was like when Disney Plus started and the algorithm didn’t know who I was or what I liked. “Hi, my name is Sammy.”

Like the old couples in When Harry Met Sally sharing how they first met stories I had to introduce myself to the algorithm. This was how we first met. And I don’t know if we’re living happily ever after but we’ve been together ever since.

What’s weird about YouTube and the algorithm, and social media is that the original impetus for the internet was to bring people together.

It was founded on information and commonality. It was literally about forging connections. The odd thing is that the connection mandate is still active; though it’s now fractured.Many of the QAnon and similar conspiracy types are together on the same page; the internet is still bringing people together. Turns out the utopian notion of world wide web togetherness was never really truly clear.Back in the day…the Internet was sold to us as like that classic Coke commercial I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony) but unlike the Coke commercial, what exactly was bringing us together. What are we singing about in “perfect harmony?”

Just some of the themes explored in Alex Winter’s The YouTube Effect documentary now playing at Tribeca Film Festival. (Oddly eough you can see the trailer on YouTube.) The documentary posits we’re currently in a  “misinformation apocalypse.” Sounds like we need a John or Sarah Connor.

(Gale Anne Hurd was a producer on The YouTube Effect…she of course produced along with James Cameron the original Terminator Trilogy. Originally Skynet was a cautionary tale then it became a meme; sadly we diluted the danger. We’re not often a wise society.)

You know Alex Winter as the non-Keanu Reeves half of Bill and Ted. While Keanu is busy avenging his dog (mash those guys up!); Alex has mainly been directing documentaries that explore the impact of technology on our society.

The YouTube Effect is a nuanced look at the utopian and dystopian aspects of the popular platform we all use.

You know the negative: misinformation has ruled creating a Bogus Journey for many Lost Boys. The positive is it’s an Excellent journey especially for Showbiz Kids typically ignored by traditional media.

All of this leaves us with a “strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.” feeling.

You can hear some of this misinformation on radio call-in shows. Listen to the obtuse points people will make. It’s not always well thought out and it’s clear some of them are not even listening. They’re just totally determined to express this point of view that they feel is oppressively marginalized.

(I dunno how anybody in North America can feel marginalized. All this social media, you can make YouTube videos and podcasts…Google docs is free if you want to write blogs or books…you can express yourself, your experiences…your POV in countless ways…from t-shirts and fashion to you name it platforms. The freedom of expression we all have and the opportunities we can RSVP to is astonishing. Now whether the market will embrace you or what you’re putting down is an entirely different matter. But good gravy you can say and do so much: even if you’re not accepted at high school or being rejected by Hollywood. You have a fresh freedom. We all do!) 

Caleb Cain is one of the stories documented in The YouTube Effect. He fell in with a bad crowd online; all alt-right and racism and such. As he reflected on his journey in valley of the shadow of death he concluded: “It was killing my empathy.”

Caleb goes on to add in the documentary: “Especially in the early days of YouTube you could find dissident information. You could find information on there that was outside the culture and the reason that’s so important is because you can’t see contradictions in your society unless you get outside the culture.”

And he’s right. The Coke commercial harmony again…but harmony around which ideas?

In the past I was excited to download music (yes via Napster and Limewire) because I no longer wished to be constrained by the radio (i.e. corporate approved playlists). (That freedom again!)

I could now gratefully download music from Brazil or the UK. Special sounds that were not mainstream; and may never be mainstream. Bands I did not have access to before Napster and the Internet.

And this process of downloading indie music or alternative music or however you want to phrase it did impact and sculpt my taste. It quickly separated me from others because not everyone was actively doing this.

And yet the thing is: a lot of people are content with the radio. Everybody knows U2 and Radiohead but not everybody knows Turin Brakes or like Starsailor.I employed the freedom Napster and the internet gave me to feed my curiosity and deepen my pop culture hunger. But…there’s always a but and Alex’s documentary acknowledges that but…many people are using their online freedom instead to become slaves; to keep consuming the same broadcast or music or political talking points as everyone else. “See I told you!”

To me the whole value of the Internet is to deepen my individuality: to make me as distinct as possible. Instead, it has become Borg-like where resistance is futile and any individuality is erased.

I don’t want that. Resistance is fertile!

And this is the complexity of YouTube…all social media. It’s never just one thing. It’s utopian and dystopian at the same time. In my interview with Alex he used the word nuance countless times and I’m grateful.

Nuance is the most valuable online currency there is because it’s so rare. Wisdom comes from recognizing and accepting nuance no matter how uncomfortable a situation or an idea may be.

And dude has hope! Nuance is good at that…it smoothly provides hope; like the calming reassurance from a stoic grandmother.

Attached is my conversation with Alex Winter, director of The YouTube Effect which premiered at Tribeca Film Festival.

Facing The Music,Sammy Younan-28-

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