Here Comes YouTube

In Shirky’s book "Here comes Everybody", the author discusses the possibility of something called “mass amateurization”. Any one can post anything to the internet using blog sites or other social networks. This includes uploading videos and images, as well as other content. The author describes that these tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring, and that sharing is enhanced through them. Shirky also states that society was transformed by tools such as the printing press but it is harder to prove that it was made better. it’s simple to say the internet is an interesting phenomenon. Recently I watched a YouTube video called The Machine is Us/ing Us. An Anthropologist from Kansas State University, Michael Wesch, created the video to show the future of Web 2.0. Over the course of the week it became viral. Because of this video, Wesch gave a presentation before the library of congress. Today Welsch and his students study the videos posted YouTube through Anthropology, or the effects of YouTube on society. Watching YouTube is practically a major now. We can see the effects that it has on society, the good and the bad. The web is an interesting place because it allows anyone to post anything, which changes how media is portrayed. But is this what the human race needs? Should people be allowed to post things without consequences? I believe that we should be responsible for our actions. I think that there has to be some way to genuinely authenticate a user before they upload anything so that they can be held morally responsible for what they upload.