Monday, March 19, 2007

Online Videos Make the World Smaller

Online videos are exploding in popularity thanks to sites like YouTube. CacheLogic of Cambridge, England says, “TV shows, YouTube clips, animations, and other video applications already account for more than 60 percent of Internet traffic,” (see TR10: Peering into Video’s Future on Technology Review).

Who would have thought we would flock to the Internet to watch clips of grown men dancing on treadmills or homemade Lego Gatling guns propelling rubber bands at dominoes with remarkable speed? A friend of mind told me traffic surged on YouTube after the above Panda Sneeze video was mentioned on a television show.

Movies and television shows have long been distributed across different countries, exposing diverse audiences to similar experiences. Online videos are allowing the human race to further share experiences. Many of these short films can easily cross cultures, relying on visuals rather than language to tell a story.

With ever-improving technology, social networking on the Internet continues to prove that it’s a small world after all.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It gives me hope about the human race to think we all leap to the net just to see a Panda sneeze.
I'm serious. While there is plenty of unsavory material on the Web, it has been my experience that people crave the warm and fuzzy. And that's a good thing.

S.M. Hutchins said...

You raise a great point. When the media focuses so much on the world's negativity, it is nice to see a simple, clean video get so much attention.