Trolltown: YouTube as the new public sphere epicentre?

Most people seem to think of YouTube as simple a vehicle for online entertainment. Who doesn't want to watch videos of pranks gone horribly bad or baby sloths in a sanctuary? But the one thing that's allowed for the exchange of pretty much unregulated analysis, commentary and discussion is the ability to comment on a video. Keeping in mind the several thousand videos I've seen over my YouTube career, I'd have to say that YouTube's place as the leading entertainment video site on the net is slowly transitioning into that of a serious forum for online discourse.

For example, people can argue on a musician's page why a particular artist is their favourite, or skateboarders can decide which grip tape is best by scrolling through various video demonstrations. While some video uploader's choose to disable comments on a certain video, usually because of sensitive subject matter or the expectation of racist or sexist comments, a reply can also be made on a video in the form of a video response. This is done by referencing the topic in the video or in the video details section.

What prompted me to write about this is some of the shocking comment's I've read under some videos. Because of the anonymity that anyone can have online, the comment sectiosn on popular videos have turned into battling grounds for 'trolls', internet users with nothing constructive to contribute to a discussion. Trolls resort to profanity, personal attacks. Just look at the comments section for this Justin Bieber video (seems to bring out an opinion from everyone!)

It seems the only constructive dialogue is coming from the more 'niche' videos, such as discussions about a certain type of tennis string or relatively obscure musicians. This civility is immediately noticeable as soon as you scroll down. After going through several more YouTube videos, I've just noticed a relationship: the less views a video has, the more polite and civil the comments are.

What does this say about YouTube users? That 'trolls' just need a place to be noticed, being the type of people that will say something controversial purely to stir up opinion and response. So in order to avoid some of the stupidity that internet anonymity provides for, stay away from Justin Bieber videos. It's for your own good!

How to make a brain slushie...or at least grab the attention of 4chan

So during my skimming of Australian News a couple of weeks ago, the image of a young girl's face full of tears and the out of control phenomenon of internet 'trolling' caught my eye. This 11 year old posted a video on Youtube ranting about 'popping a glock' into all her haters mouths making a 'brain slushie' pointing out that they were all just jealous of her looks and whatnot. This attracted the attention of 4chan 'trollers' who harrassed and cyber-bullied the tween. All the drama provided much material for the Aussie media to trigger a debate on the controlling of internet content and its access.

My first reaction: "Where are her parents?" and "Wow, she looks older than 11". I pretty much missed the point of the article and thought more about the wonderful choice of words the tween used. In retrospect it makes me wonder; how net savy parents are nowadays, restricting kids on the net as a good idea (?) and the risks we all face when putting our opinion out there on the wild wild web whether it be through Youtube or blogging. Obviously this girl's parents aren't too up date with the goings on of the virtual world (and their own daughter's). Her mother quote "does not go on the computer" thus could hardly judge what is appropriate, so scratch the first two off my train of thoughts. And this girl had no shame telling her haters to get 'AIDS...(from her)..none existent penis'. Risk? What risk?

Hey, she's only 11, so her maturity level probably isn't that high so we look to the parents to ensure such incidents don't happen. Sure, you can't protect your kids from every danger on the internet but you can at least implement measures and educate yourself on the use of the internet. Oh and get to know your kids I suppose. I have seen the generational barrier that causes many parents to avoid the internet, computers and technology in general like it's the plague but I believe it is a necessity for parents to get to know the basic ins and outs of the internet because cyber-bullying is real. As for the drawbacks of sharing public opinion? I'm sure there's a privacy option for most sites (correct me if I'm wrong). If ya wanna go public, remember that everyone has an opinion and trollers will troll out of the share joy of getting a reaction. Just don't let your 11 year old daughter share theirs publicly or you'll have to step in.

Sometimes, people just don't learn.