A poignant topic, especially given the current situation that is occurring in Turkey, and that much of the news and video we have been able to gather from the events there have been via YouTube, Twitter or other social media sites, not mainstream media (especially in Turkey). As with the Arab Spring, and other recent 'uprisings', social media, and YouTube (or similar video posting/sharing sites) in particular, has been a way for any and everyone to be able to post current events and news as it happens. It makes everything more immediate, more interactive, and less removed and distanced as they may have been in the past.
YouTube is indeed an archive of cultural memories, and a rather vast one at that. As Saper notes "YouTube archives the most mundane recollections, the most profound lectures, experimental video essays, clips from popular culture, and anything that one has a vague memory of seeing before (on TV or online)" (4). Be it the events in Turkey, the videos of Khan Academy, historical footage, a cute cat or a hilarious moment, YouTube has allowed the world to post whatever we like, to better determine what we wish to see, and also to become content creators and artists and get our work out there for all to see cheaply and quickly.
As someone 'older', who remembers computers before the internet, and has seen all this unfold, I am intrigued to see where we go next in terms of social media and media technologies, and can't wait to see what the future holds.
Saper, Craig. "The Felt Memory on YouTube." Enculturation 8 (2010). Web. 3 June 2013.
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