YouTube

YouTube is one of the internet's de facto repositories, the first place many of us go when we have videos we want to post or store online. It's also a place where local authority meetings are broadcast, for example, providing a vital opportunity for public accountability in ways that weren't possible before it existed.

It isn't just a "platform", McGrady says, it's a critical piece of infrastructure, and that's how it should be regulated. "For companies that own so much of our public sphere, there are some minimum expectations we should have about transparency."

Searchability

At this point, the far-reaching implications of database-watching are somewhat uncertain. The technological character of the search process deserves more attention. The hunt for (and among) moving images is becoming just as important as looking at the search results. But we’re all too happy to integrate YouTube into our busy daily lives so we don’t have to think about the implications of watching the computer 24/7. It’s already a cultural fact that we take TV everywhere with us and watch a quick clip while we’re waiting at the bus stop. What does it mean that our attention is being guided by database systems? Is searching really more important than finding? Why has searchability become such an essential organising principle? Why is our personal relationship to the relational database being pushed? Who will show us around and tell us which keywords will find us something interesting? And are we really in dialogue with the Machine? Cultural awareness of how the algorithms work is still a long way off. Are the answers to our questions really democratically determined by users, as is often suggested, or are there editors in the background recommending the ‘most popular videos’?

WWW-ADHD

But cultural pessimists complain all too gladly about the fall of the Grand Narrative. Not only do we read too few books, we now also watch too few films and too little TV. Like small children, we are unable to sit still and pay attention while Father Cinema reads us a story. The ‘modern neurosis’ Freud spoke of now manifests itself in the way we scatter our attention in cyberspace. Attentive watching and listening have given way to diffuse multitasking. When we sit down at the computer, we all get ADHD. During video clips, which last an average of just 2 ½ minutes, we jump up and down, sing along, play air guitar. We behave like hyperactive children receiving too little attention, and if we don’t like something, we scream at the drop of a hat, or immediately turn to something else, conclude psychologists who study online behaviour.