{"id":8532,"date":"2019-06-26T00:37:58","date_gmt":"2019-06-26T00:37:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/?p=8532"},"modified":"2024-04-23T04:35:29","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T04:35:29","slug":"the-long-view-on-youtube","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/2019\/06\/26\/the-long-view-on-youtube\/","title":{"rendered":"A Long View on YouTube"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A long view on YouTube is that it’s a platform for artists \u2013 outsider mostly, many of whom make art about their own lives \u2013\u00a0and educators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The “how” YouTube did it (dynamic ad insertion, the advent of smartphones with video cameras, Google’s search dominance) is less interesting than “what” they did.*<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of YouTube, there is more much more art today than there was in 2005, and art is also much more diverse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has ushered in an age of mass creativity without historical parallel.\u2020 It’s engendered a cultural shift that we are just beginning to understand, as the first generations to grow up with its aesthetic possibilities turn their attention to stickier<\/a> questions: mortality, morality, tragedy, comedy, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether or not these fruits bloom on YouTube, or elsewhere, won’t matter much. The shift in visual language, and in narrative storytelling, will continue to ripple out for some time to come.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s a remarkable occurrence that is easily forgotten given how much attention is devoted to the business of the platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Footnotes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Whether the “upload” is a five-hour loop or a 5-second shot, what matters is that there is no preset form, no prescribed length. While some discursive games benefit from tight rules (TikTok, Vine) the game of performing on YouTube has worked because of its open-endedness. Yes, there are many copies of copies. But there are enough sui generis concepts to make it a vital cultural force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2020 Maybe not since the printing press and mass literacy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A long view on YouTube is that it’s a platform for artists \u2013 outsider mostly, many of whom make art about their own lives \u2013\u00a0and educators. The “how” YouTube did it (dynamic ad insertion, the advent of smartphones with video cameras, Google’s search dominance) is less interesting than “what” they did.* Because of YouTube, there…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,10,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8532"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8532"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8787,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8532\/revisions\/8787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.josemarquez.com\/etc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}