Oh Shit.

Thanks to a twitter post from my friend Joey Camire (you can read his and other Brandcenter student blog posts at www.blommit.com) I learned that this kid named Ben is the most subscribed-to person in Youtube.
Before I say anything else, please take a look (and then tell me how long you lasted.)



Now, this touches on a couple of subject I recently wrote about. The one being the contemporary Warholian 15 minutes of fame and how these days they refer to Youtube and not necessarily to TV and mainstream media. Point proven.
The second one was about this morning's post, which was about great TV. And the video shown above is discouraging me from thinking that TV was headed towards a good direction. Well, I overlooked a small detail, TV. And the fact that the latter is now widely watched through the Internet, and there's plenty of user generated content to compete with the traditional content.

This kid, who I estimate has to be no older than 16 years old has produces videos that are sometimes watched by as much as a million people. That's scary. I love the fact that anyone can have access to a million people, it's the world we live in, the media democracy. But, is this what other 15 year olds are watching. And maybe you're thinking "yes, as opposed to be watching other crap-MTV shows or bad reality TV" and maybe you're right, it is after all a vicious circle, viewers watch what's out there.
Is there a way to make everyone watch the shows that are truly interesting and worth watching? I don't think so. No more than we can convince people that this type of music is better than another, or forms of literature, or films. It's a matter of taste. It's the eternal mainstream VS quality issue (which I personally think that it's sometimes bullshit because they're not mutually exclusive, at least not all the time.)
Yes, it sucks. No, there's no answer as to why the world functions the way it does. It's just a matter of taste. You have to take whatever you think is good, and I truly hope you don't think this way of using YouTube is.