Media pundits are often quick to criticize YouTube. They characterize
YouTube videos as crude, obscene, offensive, insipid, amateurish,
otherwise objectionable in some way, or just a waste of time. And while it is true that
YouTube does have large quantities of videos featuring farts, wedgies,
gross-out and crude humor, sexually suggestive situations, information about
illegal drugs, impolite language, and other questionable content, that is
only one small segment of the spectrum of material available on YouTube.
Yes, YouTube has all this weird stuff that people sometimes complain about,
but YouTube also has videos on every other conceivable topic too, for better
or perhaps even for worse!
For every crude fart joke video (for instance, "Farting in Public" by Nalts), there are several instructional or
inspirational videos of the highest quality:
It is disingenuous to focus on only the negative without acknowledging all
the postitive material available on YouTube.
Naturally there are those of us who enjoy the entire spectrum of video
content available on YouTube. Although we might grow tired of inanely cute
or blatantly commercial pop material rather quickly, there is plenty of
fresh and interesting material available too if we simply take the time to
find it. Often the weird stuff is the best stuff. Sometimes educational
videos are what we desire and at other times we just want to be entertained,
but in any case, there is no need to consider certain types of material to be
out-of-bounds; and it is certainly not acceptable to censor videos so that
they are no longer available for others with tastes different from our own
to enjoy.
It is important that we not isolate ourselves from material that
xenophobic, narrow-minded, or dogmatic people would like to keep from us and
so sometimes it is important to actually celebrate the weird stuff!
