(NSFW, lots of swearing) http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1771556
http://xkcd.com/202/
Ladies and gentlemen, today I have decided to write about the world of hurt and pain that is YouTube comments. Emerging in the world of the “social” internet, user generated communities are worth their weight in gold. However different communities have very different standards. This Collegehumor video illustrates a certain type of etiquette that is kept by internet commentators and highlights (explicitly) many stereotypes that the users have established for themselves. Interestingly enough, stupid YouTube comments have arguably become a norm for those visiting or entering the YouTube community. When compared to other “Web 2.0” online communities (Digg, Reddit, Blogs), I would say YouTube is equivalent to an immature ten year old racist. There is no mercy once you post your video on YouTube. Bigotry, slander and racism are found in almost every video with ten or more comments. A few intelligent comments will be made until nearing a tipping point where one person will cross the line and the comments will soon plummet into a back and forth of personal attacks. Anytime anybody writes anything pro-American it will be followed by fifty comments that are anti-American and so forth. Users will not hesitate a second to call a video fake or point out the flaws in somebody’s best performance.
While there is no overall group identity for commentators, opinionated comments cause other users to respond, and often have an effect on the opinions of users just watching the video. Raised eyebrows come down hard and often for comments that do not follow the norm. However, in some cases this seems to provoke users (trolls) to cause trouble and say things just to piss other people off. This ties in with SIDE theory in that users’ opinions on issues are based on their own real life group identities and the community often groups to ridicule others’ individual differences. However, individual focus and group focus is very situational. For example a user may sympathize with a user being publicly ridiculed by the community but ridicule another video and sympathize with the YouTube community. Anonymity also plays a very large part in the polarity of the comments. Because users do not have permanent identities associated with their usernames, they are visually anonymous and their comments can express any type of bias without the normal social consequences. My question is whether YouTube moderates their comments and their reason behind doing (or not doing) so. A Leviathan policing every YouTube video and removing bad comments is unlikely and probably the reason why so many deprecating comments exist. I have read that CBS arranged a deal with YouTube to remove undesirable comments from their only their videos. This then brings about the issue of free speech and whether YouTube comments are the property of the video’s original poster or the property of the commentators themselves. Hobbes said that if there is no Leviathan, the community will disintegrate and I think YouTube is a very good example of a space that drastically undervalues social boundaries and norms.
7 comments:
Hey Austin, Great post. First of all, that was pretty funny video. I like that you included a link in your blog; it is a great attention grabber. Little nuances like this make reading other’s blogs much more enjoyable. You brought up some really great concepts in your post. It is pretty crazy how obscene the language gets on You tube. I actually did a lot of research on cyber bullying for a project and it’s a very interesting aspect to cyberspace. People really get lost behind their computer and say very crude, awful statements—statements that they would probably never say in FtF. Like you said, it is definitely a very slippery slope when you begin monitoring what is said on these sites. Is it an infringement on our freedom of speech? I am not really sure, but what is true is that many user comments abuse their power. Great post!
Austin,
I found your blog extremely interesting as YouTube has become such a staple of teeange enjoyment these days. Usually we talk about the site in a positive way so I found you post particulaly great to read as it went in a very different direction.
As you mentioned people do tend to egg one another on in their posts. This seems to relate directly to the idea of anonymity. People feel that they will not be held accoutable for what they say online thus they sometimes are actually MORE honest and take advantage of the opportunity to be as frank as possible, and it seems me based on your post that it is commonly negative.
Further more great application of multiple theories...this shows you put thought into your post.
Austin, that video was hilarious! Great find! Your blog was great too, I really enjoyed reading it. I've noticed the trend of commenting that you talked about. How everything comments will be nice, and then one person will be an A-hole and everything blows up. Some people, I believe, just make snarky comments to start arguments on purpose. I wish people would just be polite for once and leave nice comments.
Great post, Austin! That video was really funny. I have always been perplexed about the ridiculously low level of discourse on YouTube’s comment section. Unfortunately, I don’t think that it’s about to change anytime soon and I’m not sure if it would even be a good thing for YouTube to take greater control over the comments. The issue of where to draw the line would become important. If YouTube starts censoring people’s comments, who’s to say they shouldn’t also start censoring the videos that people post based on the same standards? YouTube already has certain standards for its videos, but extending these standards to try to prevent trolls from taking over might be detrimental to free speech.
Austin, good post!
I'll be honest I watch YouTube *a lot* and I have mentally trained myself to ignore everything below the last pixels of the video on the page.
The racist and mean comments are ridiculous and don't add anything to the video.
Though I think Youtube now lets you give comments thumbs up or down which is nice.
Anyway great post! Thanks for the video link too...
YouTube comments are truly the lowest form of communication. No one ever looked at a YouTube comment thread and said, "Oh, what an interesting and thoughtful discussion". If Wikipedia threads and articles are an example of how we tap into the collective intelligence of the masses to bring out the best in humanity then youtube comments are quite the opposite.
The phenomenon that you mention is actually a very interesting one. I've heard people refer to it as the "oscillation effect" before. Essentially, if one person skews from the standards of social behavior, rather than a kind correction, another user will retort in a similar manner (a la your pro-american/anti-american comments). These oscillations continue, pushing behavior farther and farther away from the social norm.
Great post and may God have mercy on YouTube's soul.
Hi Austin, I really enjoyed your post, Great Job! The video you included from youtube was hilarious. By adding this link, you definitely added a lot more interest and intrigue to your post. I like how you address so many different theories/concepts in your post to explain your point. By supporting your claims with these established theories, it definitely validated your arguments. It’s unbelievable how cruel people can be once that feeling of anonymity takes hold of them, it is almost as if they become a different person. People go a step to far with their comments, regardless of freedom of speech; people should not be saying such cruel and hurtful comments. Since it’s so hard to police this online, it perpetuates itself as more people see it happening, they think that it’s okay to say these sorts of comments. Great Post!
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