If you knew me personally, you'd probably know that I have pretty mixed feelings about the Internet and things like YouTube and Facebook. My major beef is with Facebook I suppose, it's mostly the mounds of garbage that YouTube also has to carry on sheer principle that causes some dislike. My view about the Internet(it's been more hate than love) has been shifting lately towards a more positive shade.
So what's been causing this? A few things, which in many ways is just more so me finally finding personal interest and investment in what is out there, but I'd like to discuss what I'm seeing and how it's changing the way I see the Internet.
YouTube Subscriptions. Simple enough, and they've been around assumedly(don't care spell check) as long as the site itself. But what I've recently come to realize as I've discovered vloggers that interest me, is that YouTube is doing a great job of networking interests, an example of which is Geek and Sundry. Albeit I'm a "geek" or whatever, but it's the concept of a channel covering a general interest group *and* helping to support that community become further strengthened. Subscriptions also help support and help provide statistics for people creating and sharing in the community, and I suppose maybe I should specify that it's primarily the effects of subscriptions that makes me appreciate them.
LEARNING! Being up at four or five in the morning, boredom is a common enemy and our mind wanders. Something that is an interesting occurrence and not limited to myself, is somehow ending up reading or watching something that's educational, discussing various aspects or science, math, art, literature, what-have-you. I mean holy hay, at four in the morning last night I was watching a YouTube video about the sound and how that ear processes things and... just... it was AWESOME. And I learned.
Community. For me, this isn't just an incredibly overconnected concept of complete social sharing of every facet of our lives and a sense of commercialization of the everyday life(just my general feelings), but rather a cohesive sense of a common interest or mindset, that is (almost always) self-aware and well, I'm not sure how far into defining community I care to go. The intent of my use in the context is to show how it brings groups of people together and helps their interests reach new places and realizations, and hell yeah I'm biased, but I think the Brony Community is a good example. There are many creative minds in the Brony community, such as artists, animators, musicians, writers, analysts, and they are all working with and playing off of each other. The openness of sharing of this creative content seems to have fostered even more content to be created(circular!), and I believe that's one of the many factors that's helped cause the community to grow as it has. The thing is, it's not just self-satisfying, the Brony Community has also helped people within and outside of its community, with fundraisers and other types of events to help support people, or as they are more likely to say, "to help spread love, tolerance, and friendship".
But I digress, since this isn't about how I love MLP:FiM. It's about how I'm starting to allow myself to hate the internet less, because I'm starting to see some of the potential it has become more realized. It's not to say I never saw the potential for the internet to do "good", and it's still going to be a while before some of the best things it will bring will be truly realized by society. I'm starting to see promise though, and maybe some of the subtle shifts I'm seeing occur are actually signs of a cultural revolution in which people are finally starting to support each other, and can maybe one day learn... love and tolerance.
-Alturiigo
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