168: Is YouTube making society dumber?

5/23/2017

We discuss YouTube within the context of Neil Postman's book Amusing Ourselves to Death and talk about whether it makes society better or worse. It turned into a really interesting conversation, and we hope you enjoy it!

SHOW NOTES:
Opener:
Dive -Steven Curtis Chapman | YouTube

Man of the Year -Film | Wikipedia

Stephen Colbert | Wikipedia

Jon Stewart | Wikipedia

2007–08 Writers Guild of America Strike | Wikipedia

Bill O'Reilly | Wikipedia

Links Mentioned During Scott's Question:
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman | Amazon

I Am America (And So Can You!) -Stephen Colbert | Amazon

‘Star Wars’ Twitter Account Deletes ‘Triggered’ Joke After It Triggers Users

Alongside Night -Say MovieNight Kevin | YouTube

Alongside Night by J. Neil Schulman | Amazon

The Ceiling Fan: An Adventures in Odyssey Fancast | Apple Podcasts

Matilda -Film | Wikipedia

Jerry Seinfeld | Wikipedia

Siskel and Ebert’s “At the Movies” | Wikipedia

Mystery Science Theater 3000 | Wikipedia

Mad Movies with the L.A. Connection | Wikipedia

Tom Woods | Wikipedia

Contra Krugman: The Podcast that Refutes Krugman Every Week

The Boys of ‘36 | American Experience

Hitler's Olympics | IMDb

Chariots of Fire -Film | Wikipedia

Who Would Build the Roads?

The Not So Wild, Wild West | Mises Institute

Columbine Highschool Massacre | Wikipedia

I'm Not Ashamed -Say MovieNight Kevin | YouTube

Scott Derrickson | Wikipedia

Glen Keane | Wikipedia

Stephen Baldwin | Wikipedia

I’m Not Ashamed Facebook Account’s Post About Last Man Standing

Feature Films for Families | Wikipedia

The ButterCream Gang -Film | Wikipedia

Walter Cronkite | Wikipedia

Rescue 911 -TV Series | Wikipedia

Unsolved Mysteries -TV Series | Wikipedia

Closing:
Gabe Rodriguez | Twitter

The Bargain Bin Movie Podcast | Apple Podcasts

Get Joanna & Nate to BlimeyCon '17 | Go Fund Me

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4 Comments

Benjamin

5/25/2017 03:04:20 pm

I wouldn't say that YouTube itself is amusing us to death. YouTube is just a carrier for videos. Sure, some videos have absolutely zero value to humankind and are purely for entertainment. If one spends too much time watching these pointless videos and does nothing else, then, yes, it is a waste and pointless.

However, if one watches good content and restricts their time watching videos so they don't spend all day doing it, it can be very useful. It can be educational, information, entertaining, or just plain stupid (depending on what kind of videos you watch). But the presence or watching of dumb videos doesn't define the entire platform.

If you're making videos and decide that you don't like dumb pointless videos that are the majority of YouTube, then here's my advice:

Don't make the type of video you hate.

Instead, make the type of videos that are edifying and entertaining at the same time. Books may be better for the brain and more stimulating for the imagination than videos, but the fact is that the majority of people are not reading books anymore.

So if you want to affect your generation, don't try to bring back what people don't want. It's like trying to bring back the Pony Express because trucks and planes have put horses out of commission and now horses don't get any exercise. People aren't going to use your Pony Express because it's super slow. And if you insist on continuing it without anyone using it, it's just hurting you instead of helping anyone.

Media, especially new media, affects this generation the way books and politicians did in previous generations. If you want to influence people to be smarter, then you have to be the influence in their lives, because if there's not anyone standing up for what is right (in this case, intelligent media), then everyone will just do what they want (in this case, watch dumb videos all day).

This is basically the premise of the free market. If you see a problem, you have the power to fix it. But don't go backward and try to fix it using old tools and things that people will ignore. Go where the people are and sell your product (or in this case, make your intelligent videos) to the people directly.

It's kind of like what Focus on the Family did with "McGee and Me." They found a problem with the media of their time, so they decided to do something about it. They didn't write books for kids because they knew kids wouldn't read books. They made a show to influence the kids because they knew kids would watch the show. I'm not saying you have to go and encourage everyone to boycott videos made purely for entertainment, but you can make something that people will want to watch and learn from.

One might argue, though, that being on youtube supports dumb content. Remember, that you can be in the world but not of the world. Or, in this case, you can be in the YouTube, but not of the YouTube (if that makes any sense).

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6/18/2017 12:54:56 pm

Psiphon 3 is a communication app that comes to be very handy when you want to browse something that has been blocked by the government or the ISP for some reasons.

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6/19/2017 05:23:54 pm

Drama theater and cinemas give the complete detail of one week. It also give the schedule of the shows, however this article is about the shows. I think it is not need of any one because everyone not search on blogs and mostly peoples like the website for search the all the things.

Gabriel

9/28/2019 05:46:52 pm

Anyone heard Boys in the Boats? It's about the rowing team of the 1936 Olympics that Kevin was talking about.

168: Is YouTube making society dumber?

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