About Youtube Commenting

Since its release in 2005 YouTube has grown out to become the most popular video sharing web site. Even though there are some companies and organizations that use YouTube to promote their business, still the vast majorities of videos are created and uploaded my common people. (Some media corporations offer some of their material in the site as part of as a YouTube partnership program.) This is the engine and the fuel that keeps YouTube going.

Because YouTube has become so popular I believe it somehow reflects the modern society and its users. There are various ways to communicate and interact with other users in YouTube, however in this post I’m going to concentrate on music video commenting. For every video in YouTube there is possibility to comment about it (unless in some rare cases it has been forbidden) and people can also press thumbs up or down depending whether they liked the video or not. Both of these actions however require the user to create an account.

The most popular videos collect thousands of comments and even more thumbs since that’s less demanding to contribute into; only needs one click from icon when the user is logged in. Usually the sphere and the topics of the discussion are somehow related either to the video, artist behind it or to previous comments. Some people comment to express how much they liked the video and some do the contrary and comment just how bad the video was and what’s flawed in it. Apart from these comments there are many users who simply want to comment something about the video or music and seek attention. It would be interesting to study if certain types of music videos usually contain more intellectual comments, arguments and actual conversation.

Like every medium also Youtube has its typical language and way to use comments. I must admit than from my own personal viewpoint most of the comments aren’t that intelligent. Many people don’t reason or argue properly and justify their opinions with really false logic if none. It also seems quite common just to comment a video to express and indicate disgust. This doesn’t mean studying commenting couldn’t be intriguing. I think still as a medium YouTube represents quite well the thoughts and idea world of the main user groups that are willing make a profile and pay the effort for comment or other interaction. The comments can be seen as reflected image of modern young stereotypical active internet user. The cruelty of human mind is also clearly visible; there are many people who like to mock peoples outlooks, flaws and basically anything that can be turned into a insult. This applies both to amateur and professional videos. Fortunately also genuine support and encouragement alongside with congratulation and praise can be found. In fact the whole spectrum on human emotions can be identified.

Finally noteworthy is that the language and commenting behavior in YouTube transforms and changes constantly. It takes influence from current events, popular phenomenon and also from other mediums. As a example when a famous video game Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim was released, few weeks after thousands of different YouTube videos where filled with a funny comment from the game “.. took arrow to the knee”. Other good example could be the huge number of Kony 2012 references on multiple YouTube videos earlier this spring. Also the different tactics to earn thumbs up for comments and furthermore make them top comments change rapidly. First there were jokes mocking Justin Bieber, but then they went kind of out of fashion and people had to be more inventive. Some guys tried to earn attention by telling their story as a starting artist and begging for thumbs up to get people’s attention and perhaps even the necessary boost for their career to launch off. These kinds of comments were also responded with jokes. Basically every comment can get a response that’s tries to outsmart and deplete the previous one.

Funny YouTube comment quiz round in TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQrjweCqE8

Ilari Huhtinen