I've just realised the real reason why I love YouTube so much. Not only does it give me the chance to hear Kanye West having a tantrum because he hasn't won a VMA ("give a black man a chance!"), it also fundamentally shifts the balance between you and the tube.
Had I watched this programme live I would have been the hapless pawn in the hands of Viacom's plan to sell more hair gel advertising. If only for a while, I would have been owned by TV.
But with YouTube I can just watch the bits people tell me were notable (Britney's sleepwalk) and completely ignore the rest. It makes me feel that I'm the one in charge rather than the one being used. It makes me feel we're gradually getting our own back for all those hours, days and weeks we've all spent in front of the box watching TV that wasn't worth it.
I always say to my children, "nobody ever got up from the sofa saying, 'well, that was a worthwhile use of the last three hours'". Maybe that's why they've all left home.
Enjoy it while it lasts - YouTube is considering adding advertisements to the start/end of clips...
ReplyDeleteFor this reason, I recommend taping/otherwise recording programmes on channels with advert breaks. As well as FFWDing through the ads, you can do the same for the programmes, a trick which is particularly useful for shows of intermittent interest such as awards ceremonies. A personal best, if memory serves, was getting through the BRIT Awards in about twenty minutes, as opposed to the two or so hours ITV had allotted to it. Granted, I wasn't watching it 'live', but it did mean I saved about 90mins of time which I could use more productively...
ReplyDeleteJ
This is why I love Youtube.
ReplyDeleteWorth watching to the end.