First off, there’s an archiving issue here. YouTube might go down someday, and researchers really need to be archiving a sample (not all, as that would be impossible) of the videos on YouTube, including some of the unpopular videos.
And that’s why I find Beebee’s videos interesting – b/c they’re unpopular. I think what’s revolutionary about YouTube is what’s going on under the surface. It also is an illustration of how online motion pictures cannot be thought of as mere extensions of the entertainment motion picture industry as it stands. People are using motion pictures for other things, namely to connect with other people, to socialize, to work out issues of self-image, to make friends, to understand the culture or sub-culture that they are a part of. Should we be regulating, censoring, and advertising in the middle of people’s social interactions?
For the sake of argument, I’m going to refer to beebee as a “freak.” He is an unusual fellow. I mean no offense by this. I’m only pointing out that his behavior and appearance are unlike those of the majority of others many of us encounter in our lives and through the mainstream media. People are not inherently freakish, but are considered freaks b/c they happen to be different than the group of people they are surrounded by, which radically changes the minute you upload a video of yourself. Even though you may only want to be part of a community of a select, sympathetic few, the nature of the Internet (blogs, ebaum) dictate that your video/blog/whatever will be linked to by a group of people who are quite different than you, so different that they find you funny and worthy of derision. For the age group that is especially concerned with forming a self-image - early teens (coincidentally, this seems to be the group that using vlogs and blogs the most) - the jump from the playground to the vlogosphere is significant.
Is it exploitative to watch or link to beebee’s videos? Is it unethical to comment on the videos, to tell him to stop posting videos, to make fun of him, or just to laugh and forward it to friends? This dilemma of freak appeal is nothing new (see Howard Stern’s Wack Pack and/or your average elementary school playground). I recently saw the episode of The Sopranos in which Tony is trying to join his neighbor’s exclusive country club, but feels as though he’s just being kept around for the WASPs’ amusement. Tony’s story about Jimmy Smash – the boy with the cleft palate they all used to make fun of in school, who would sing for the amusement of others but go home and cry himself to sleep - was a perfect articulation of the ambivalence many people feel towards freaks. They can't help but laugh at them, yet they feel guilty for doing so. Its not a question of whether or not you sympathize with them. Many people sympathize with them AND find them hilarious. Freak appeal drives the ratings of the most popular show in the US, American Idol.
The standard answer to these questions is: yes, it is exploitative to look at these videos, to talk about these videos, and certainly to laugh at them. Any other viewpoint is a justification for our sick, unethical desire to laugh at freaks. No matter which side of the argument you’re on, it comes down to a question of normalization through censorship. Either you normalize the freaks by laughing at their behavior/appearance and by forwarding them on to others an encouraging them to do the same OR you normalize people who are laughing at a certain mode of behavior or appearance by discouraging them from doing so on ethical grounds.
But the comments on beebee’s videos and many others suggest that the audience is split in two – the people who laugh at it, and the people who want to encourage him to be more visible, to ignore the haters and come out of his shell. The Internet has been a way for freaks to shed their abnormal physical characteristics and their social hang-ups and make friends in a new way. Vlogging seems to be the next step in this process – people are returning to their skins, accepting the facts that they stutter, they look unattractive, they have boring things to say, and are willing to be judged by these characteristics. But instead of rejecting them outright (as would happen in RL), the online community is embracing them to some degree. Is this genuine? Is it a genuine attempt to compensate for the meanness of others that may or may not work out? Not sure, but will find out.
There’s also the issue of whether or not Beebee890 is acting, which cannot help but be an issue post-lonelygirl. Now, we look for physical characteristics – the moles on his face – as some sort of marker of authenticity. He could be affecting the voice and the character of beebee. Again, this raises ethical issues. Is it immoral to even suggest that a disabled vlogger is “faking it?” Is there any way a person could fake such a thing and parlay it into ill-gotten financial or social capital? Could you build up a fanbase under these false pretenses, sell ad time, insert a product in the video, and make a profit? Granted, this is lower than low behavior, but it’s worth considering the possibility of it. In the end, the lesson of lonelygirl was to be critical of all video (in particular vloggers) purporting to be “real.” It is easier to be a fraud online than in person. Its not a reason to doubt everything (which plenty of people do on YouTube, insisting that all videos are faked), but merely to consider that possibility.
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