June 25, 2008
Anthropology Professor, Now a YouTube Star, Says Web Video Can Help People Craft Their Identities
Washington— Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, set out to study the culture of YouTube users, and he ended up becoming a video star in the process. He and his students have been lovingly documenting how people are using their Web cams to express themselves, and his short videos about the new ways the Web is connecting people have been viewed millions of times.
But when Mr. Wesch gave a talk at the Library of Congress on Monday, one audience member essentially asked: So what? Why should anyone care about a subculture of homemade video makers, or the fact that some people watch amusing clips on the Internet instead of looking at TV? “I don’t understand how this is going to impact my life,” said the questioner, who said she’s only ever watched one YouTube video.
“It will impact politics — it will impact who gets elected this year,” said Mr. Wesch. “And I think it can be argued that Obama would not have taken the election without social media. Clinton with her machine would have just ran right over him.”
Throughout his talk he emphasized the human impacts of online social media, even when he was showing seemingly frivolous clips of teenagers dancing in front of their Web cams. “You can say that this is all hype, that this is just people dancing and having fun, but think about what they’re dancing in front of. They’re dancing in front of about a billion boxes in places all over the world that are networked together, and that are allowing us to connect in ways we’ve never connected before. … This is really a very important moment.”
Mr. Wesch’s prior anthropological work focused on a tribe in Papua New Guinea and how the introduction of written language and formal education impacted the culture, he said in an interview after his talk. He says he’s now trying to look for ways that video and other social media are causing cultural shifts in our own society.
He says that many video bloggers on YouTube, who record personal diaries or commentaries regularly and post them for the world to see, use the technology to explore their identities. Instead of going off on some solitary journey to “find themselves,” these YouTubers are trying different performances for an online audience and making changes based on feedback from the crowd. “Instead of finding self,” he said, “it’s creating self.”
Throughout his talk, Mr. Wesch showed examples from YouTube, including some of his own creations. You may have already seen his biggest hits — The Machine is Us/ing Us and A Vision of Students Today. For more on Mr. Wesch’s research on the anthropology of YouTube, see our video report in Wired Campus TV. —Jeffrey R. Young
Posted on Wednesday June 25, 2008 | Permalink |Comments
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Mr. Wesch’s YouTube “biggest hits” are certainly worth a look. As they said on Laugh-In, “very interesting!”
— L Wood Jun 25, 11:58 AM #
While I don’t doubt the great potential for social networking, much of it to date reminds me of my Mother’s admonition: “Fool’s names and Fool’s faces……”
— B.J. Jun 25, 12:13 PM #
Please tell me that Professor Wesch did not make the grammatical error he is quoted as making!
— Barbara Cole, Ph.D. Jun 25, 12:35 PM #
In light of Dr. Cole’s grammar-police post, my post should have read: “Fools’ names and fools’ faces…” Perhaps I was misquoted.
— B.J. Jun 25, 01:54 PM #
Four months ago, I posted a video response to Mike Wesch’s “Vision of Students,” which has gotten about 2500 hits to Mike’s 2.5 million.
His view is the popular one in mass culture, a view that enables underachievement and comfort with the technological solution to everything. My view is a little harder to swallow but, I think, more realistic. We are facing an enormous problem in education. Digital technologies may be part of the solution; but they are a fundamental part of the problem too.
See: http://ie.youtube.com/watch?v=7eixWcKhlXY
— Peter K. Fallon Jun 25, 02:22 PM #
Ya, I totally agreed with Prof.Wesch. For me, I begin to build website, simple web design, 10 years ago and not really strong in my academic subject, expert meddling with computer. As web evolved, from multimedia to web 2.0 (user centric), I found myself in an academic environment doing web 2.0 in the academic library environment. Technology really is wonder, from a street smart ending up in an academic library exploring new stuffs.
-Hazman Aziz
http://hazmanaziz.com
— Hazman Aziz Jun 25, 08:58 PM #
I heard Wesch speak in person recently, and he and his videos are stunning. I loved his arrogance and bravado, but all in all, this guy is way out there in front of the curve.
Let him run with it. He knows what the future holds. I, for one, was honored to hear his thoughts on current technologies and applications in current pedagogies.
Give Wesch the credit he deserves. We’re lucky to have him in academia.
— Cathy Tedford Jun 25, 09:39 PM #
To Peter Fallon, the suggestion that my view “enables underachievement and comfort with the technological solution to everything” is outrageous. At the end of “A Vision of Students Today” I wrote “Some have suggested that technology alone can save us” and followed these words with students holding signs that said “I Facebook through most of my classes.” I think the message there is clear. Technology alone will not save us. I share your perspective seeking what you call “the metaphysics of media” (grounded in Postman, Ellul, and others) and simply believe that we need to understand the impacts of this new media environment – both its potentials and possible pitfalls. Most importantly, we must reshape education in a way that allows students to harness and leverage the potentials of this new media environment without sacrificing critical propositional thinking skills.
To Barbara Cole, sorry for the grammatical slip. I must admit I make that particular mistake often, as it is one that is perfectly acceptable and passes without notice in my primary speech community.
— Michael Wesch Jun 26, 12:12 PM #
“I loved his arrogance and bravado…”
Probably not the two adjectives I would have picked. But whatever technology-education-cultural curve there is he’s definitely on the front end of it, while the majority of instructors seem to be several years behind. Its hard to keep up with those kids these days…
— Tim Jun 27, 10:23 AM #
(NOTE: This is the second time I am posting this. It seemed to disappear after I posted it the first time)
Hey Mike—
MEA culpa. I too was hasty. I could have worded that better. But please note that the operative word was “enables,” and not “encourages.” The former would indicate that some people looking for excuses for avoiding propositional thought (i.e., “pain” — LOL) can rationalize that avoidance; the latter implying an enabling attitude on the part of any proponents of Web 2.0 technologies.
I certainly did not mean to imply the latter, and regret deeply that I did not say that clearly enough.
Peace,
Peter
— Peter K. Fallon Jun 28, 07:45 AM #
@Cathy’s failed attempt at sarcasm – optimism and confidence shouldn’t be confused with “arrogance and bravado.”
@Peter instead of picking apart Dr. Wesch’s video (and making a shameless plug of it), why not create your own video that presents the importance of propositional skills in today’s media saturated, acoustic world? This critique of Dr. Wesch as an unwitting optimist rather than the realist that he is is absurd.
— Doug Jul 1, 01:12 PM #
No sarcasm intended here at all, and please accept my apologies for any confusion. Wesch was fantastic!
Peace.
— Cathy Tedford Jul 4, 11:51 AM #
Dr. Wesch’s videos always seem to elicit a strong response, be it negative or positive. The important part is that they get people to think and reevaluate some important concepts about this digital age. Having been in academic technology for the last few years, I really enjoy showing his videos to faculty and students alike to get feedback and stimulate discussion.
— Autumm Caines Jul 25, 12:08 AM #
The video for this presentation is now available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPAO-lZ4_hU
— Mike Wesch Aug 4, 01:49 PM #