As mentioned, Today we’re talking about tags.
Now, most people think that tags are harmful to YouTube society. But that’s not true.
Tags can be helpful to the society.
Take the 7 facts tags for example.
You don’t what the heck Jim Booth is, but you check it out anyway.
Now, you know Kat. You seen the Violent Pornography video and thought it was the best cover ever. Seriously, it’s good.
The sudden change of quality surprises you. You have gone very depths of the YouTube world. Not crazy deep but deep for fledgling YouTubers less than thousand subscribers.
Charlotte Dow is very good. But, it’ll be hard for person to recognize the person if they only saw TomSka. But now you found her organically, just by following the tag! One tag can crosses bridges with community and make for a great lasting bond.
She is very new, but very funny. She has a distinct taste that is known for female YouTubers. (Yes, I consider female like a microbrewery. And this video appeals to healthiness of YouTube-sphere by association.)
By now, you followed 7 tags of the 7 facts tag and you realize some things about tag videos.
1. It strengthens the community. Most tags are given to their friends and they give the tag to their friends and soon you find yourselves in a network of tags, organically made from friendship.
This network, without organization pushes people around the network, satisfying them with similar content that’s updated more frequently by the collective network. This make people stay more on YouTube and visit YouTube more frequently. Which is what YouTube wants. And the creators gets more views and subscribers; it’s a win-win! This is how the ecosystem sustain themselves.
2. It bridges communities. As you see, we have gone from London ‘make well-produced shorts’ crew to US ‘talk-random-but-poignant-story’ girls. These two are far apart as it gets, but the tags connected them in a way that makes the world a little closer.
That leads to 3. It strengthens all communities. If you’re a fledgling YouTuber and someone notices you and you make a shout out or collab or get tagged, you’re most likely connected to a wide array of YouTubers. Your idol is just few parties away from you.
Fangirls started to multiply because of the idea of inaccessibility. The viewer feels that these idols are not the people you meet at a street and converse and have a friendship, but rather a precious resource, which contact is few and graciously provided like God. People distance themselves and paint the picture which leads to idolization which leads to chaos!
Stratification, like the rainforest is healthy. There’s no doubt there’s the viewers and the stars. But there’s people in the middle who are most important to the society. People might think that less than famous is futility in exercise, a boost to their ego. But they are the people that holds the YouTube ecosystem together.
Midfielders are the hardest position and one of the most important position in football (or soccer for americans) And primary consumers are a very crucial part to any ecosystem.
People in the middle have the ability to connect to the upper echelons and yet still connect to the viewers, ‘bring them up’ as people say.
By wrangling fangirls to create their own content and create a community around them then perhaps present yourself and others to the top YouTubers, the middle regulate the obsessiveness of the fangirls and gives social mobility to YouTubers which means there’s going next generation of top YouTubers and the next and the next...
Tags are great way to connect the top to the bottom. Tags tightens the connection of the stars and the fans as collaborators, not idols. DFTBA inc. regularly feature fan content which they sell as merchandise. Fan gets profit and star gets merchandise.
In the book business, author writes a book, editor and author work together to fix it and publisher makes distribution and give final touches. In TV, Writer gives an idea and works with the director and star act out the idea and they all collaborate (or not) and network head approve and make final touches and distribute to the viewers. Remember that I never wrote viewer till just now. Viewer are mindless consumers, a fish in swarms of influence. A scientific experiment.
This is quite different. Top works with the middle. Bottom enjoys the Top while creating for the Top which Middle brings up and gives to the Top and so on and so forth.
What I’m saying is that viewer works as the machine. In education, there’s a thing called the ‘haze at the top’ where the district office lies. District office gives crucial decisions but people don’t know them... Parent go to the teacher, principal or even the superintendent but never the ‘director of assessment’, although s/he makes the crucial decisions. People don’t know this stuff!
TV Networks and Publishing House worked the same way, then the internet came. And structure became upside down. It became a bowellism structure, like Centre Pompidou or the Lloyd’s building. All the heating and and stairs all visible to the naked eye. You can see the inner working and push them into the direction of the public. It’s like running the asylum. And you see why Old is afraid of the New.
Whew! Sorry, who thought talking about tags lead to how internet revolutionized the fundamental tenet of our society. I didn’t. In fact, I was going to transition to tomorrow but it seems that I got too far. So the basics.
- Tags strengthens how YouTube system works.
- The Middle is a crucial part of the YouTube system.
- YouTube system will revolutionize how the bureaucracy works.
I was also about to talk about how social media gives the fine line of friends and fans and how that lead to danger and constant deliberation. But I think we’re good here. Thank you and goodbye.
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