Wolf - Practicum Post #6: The One-Way Communication Pattern of YouTube

During my time working on this project, I have ultimately used the two media-based social networking sites I was working with, YouTube and Last.fm, in different ways. Because of its vast collection of content, I've began to use YouTube as a one-way social networking mechanism. After trying to reach out to different users on YouTube earlier in the semester without much luck (probably because I don't have any video content myself to share with the world), I decided to use YouTube mainly as a subscriber to people who post content I like a lot. For instance, I've always been enamored with live versions of Pearl Jam, which is why I ultimately elected to subscribe to gndcd402, who has uploaded 1,909 videos to his channel, most of which are live versions of performances. As the heading on his channel suggests, it is indeed "Pearl Jam heaven," as his over 23 million video views and over 7,000 subscribers can attest. I wrote on his wall to thank him for providing such a great resource for Pearl Jam fans:

Of course, with over 7,000 followers, I don't anticipate on gndcd402 replying to me, as it appears he hasn't really responded to others who've commented on his channel. That's the issue when a person becomes popular on social media - you become forced into a one-way communication/engagement with them, as the person has simply too many followers to answer everybody. This is seen with celebrities on Twitter, who can have over a million followers, mostly Tweeting to the masses but very rarely responding to those who Tweet at them. I would probably be more apt to converse with a YouTube user who has less subscribers to appease, but that type of interaction isn't as easy to find as it is on Last.fm.

Last.fm on the other hand allows more conversation simply because nobody uploads their own videos. It takes a lot longer for someone to be popular or have a highly trafficked page on the website simply because really the only thing a person can provide in terms of content are in the form of news or events. Those simply don't attract as much attention as quality video, because people visit Last.fm first and foremost for the music, not necessarily the people on the site. People visit the site to track and organize their music, and meet people with similar tastes. Thus friendships necessarily form more often by using two-way communication, which isn't always the case with YouTube.