Daily Story 99 - Why R U on youtube?

(You can watch a video version of this one here)

I started on youtube because I wanted to find a certain movie, and having been clueless about copyright at the time, I looked online and eventually found it on youtube. After that, I realized that there were a lot of AMVs on the web and started to get really involved in the fandom, making my own AMVs and just having fun exploring my potential as an editor, which I had really wanted to get into ever since my freshman year of high school, when I took a media production class at the 45-student private sports academy I was attending at the time.

Then, of course, I learned about copyright the hard way and got my first account banned, so of course I started a new account and kept on going, but then I grew out of that "OMG FAN VIDS OMG" phase - mostly because I had learned a lot more about copyright and felt guilty - and wanted to make more original stuff, but I didn't really have the means for it at the time so I kind of just floated around lazily and watched random stuff that I found when I was bored. You know, the typical kind of thing people do on youtube.

Then I found Flippycat. I was absolutely captivated by all his domino videos and watched as many as I could because it was just so awesome to me, and that's how I found the Mean Kitty Song.

At that point in my life, I had been getting really involved with various online communities. There are a few webcomics I follow religiously, and I'm a semi-serious-but-mostly-casual role player on gaiaonline. I was realizing that I really liked the idea of online medias, especially since I have such bad anxiety that I literally have to force myself to talk to most people face-to-face, especially if I don't know them very well or there's an important issue that's come up. Talking online is, well, easier for me. Hell, most of my social development in the past several years has been largely due to meeting people and making friends online, and considering where I was even just two years ago, I've improved tremendously. So when I realized that there was actually a huge and awesome community of creative people on youtube, I was thrilled.

So why do I stay with it? Well, a big part of it has been that entertainment value, but now a huge part of it is just how awesome the people are. It's something I want to be a part of. And sure, I'm not that great at committing myself to actually making videos, but thanks to youtube, I have been able to commit myself to do more of what I do best, and that is writing. Besides, I know I'll be able to commit to videos eventually. I may not be there yet, but hey, that just means I've got something to look forward to.