What are you watching on Youtube now? η'

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I watched some of those "_________ reacts to _________" videos over the weekend. (Boy, I really do have a lot of time on my hands, don't I?) A few of them were people watching music videos, presumably of bands or genres of music they were unfamiliar with. Others were of people watching television series. The problem with almost all of them was that they were kind of boring. People weren't "thinking out loud" while watching the show or listening to the music, they were just sitting there, occasionally making faces. I've seen some videos of voice coaches listening to and critiquing music, and some of those were interesting. But in this case, I was literally just watching random people watch television. :undecide: To each their own, I suppose.

p.s. One of them was of a young woman listening to "Wish You Were Here", I guess for the first time. I didn't really care about her, but Jesus Christ, evidently I have the lyrics to that song permanently embedded in my brain. Out of nowhere, I was singing along, and I haven't listened to that album in at least 20 years. So that was kind of fun.
 
I watched some of those "_________ reacts to _________" videos over the weekend. (Boy, I really do have a lot of time on my hands, don't I?) A few of them were people watching music videos, presumably of bands or genres of music they were unfamiliar with. Others were of people watching television series. The problem with almost all of them was that they were kind of boring. People weren't "thinking out loud" while watching the show or listening to the music, they were just sitting there, occasionally making faces. I've seen some videos of voice coaches listening to and critiquing music, and some of those were interesting. But in this case, I was literally just watching random people watch television. :undecide: To each their own, I suppose.

p.s. One of them was of a young woman listening to "Wish You Were Here", I guess for the first time. I didn't really care about her, but Jesus Christ, evidently I have the lyrics to that song permanently embedded in my brain. Out of nowhere, I was singing along, and I haven't listened to that album in at least 20 years. So that was kind of fun.

I watched a few of those too. I guess you could say
we are two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl :p
 
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I watched some of those "_________ reacts to _________" videos over the weekend. (Boy, I really do have a lot of time on my hands, don't I?) A few of them were people watching music videos, presumably of bands or genres of music they were unfamiliar with. Others were of people watching television series. The problem with almost all of them was that they were kind of boring. People weren't "thinking out loud" while watching the show or listening to the music, they were just sitting there, occasionally making faces. I've seen some videos of voice coaches listening to and critiquing music, and some of those were interesting. But in this case, I was literally just watching random people watch television. :undecide: To each their own, I suppose.

p.s. One of them was of a young woman listening to "Wish You Were Here", I guess for the first time. I didn't really care about her, but Jesus Christ, evidently I have the lyrics to that song permanently embedded in my brain. Out of nowhere, I was singing along, and I haven't listened to that album in at least 20 years. So that was kind of fun.

Isn't this the whole raison d'etre of Gogglebox and (shudder) Celebrity Gogglebox?
Gogglebox is bad enough, watching other people watch tv but watching washed up celebrities watch tv is the worst. Made me feel quite sad when I saw an advert for US Celebrity Gogglebox. Poor Rob Lowe, how the mighty are fallen.
 
Isn't this the whole raison d'etre of Gogglebox and (shudder) Celebrity Gogglebox?
Gogglebox is bad enough, watching other people watch tv but watching washed up celebrities watch tv is the worst. Made me feel quite sad when I saw an advert for US Celebrity Gogglebox. Poor Rob Lowe, how the mighty are fallen.
I guess this means I have to Google Gogglebox?
 
my personal thoughts about reaction videos: warning, pretentiousness and philosobabble galore will await you.

it was Socrates who railed against the written word, because it allowed no response from the audience, the author wasn't physically there, perhaps long dead even. anicolism was, and is, one of the fundamental tenets of islam and in fact some christians were, for a long time, opposed to any kind of iconic art and iconography. still today very few people living abroad from technology think having their picture taken is a form of identity theft. these were some of the first simulacra in human history, opposition was strong, for reasons that seem to us modern humans completely irrational.

reaction videos are the penultimate sign of the simulation coming full circle. they're the ouroboros of television. take something that was already almost devoid of any meaningfulness in the first place and give it another level of abstraction. Baudrillard had already thought this happened when he first saw live footage of Hellfire missiles on American television, but it would in fact be another 30 years until his prediction would come true.

(a simulacrum is a representation or imitation of a person or thing. The word was first recorded in the English language in the late 16th century, used to describe a representation, such as a statue or a painting, especially of a god). since then, things have intensified. note that a simulation in this context is meant literally, not in the sense of the matrix, which consider all of our "reality" a computer simulation. in the literal sense, simulation here simply means: the generation by models of a real without origin or reality. for example, war simulations do not have actual victims, no blood is spilled, no tree torn down, no round fired, et cetera, it is entirely removed from the actual praxis, compared to, say a maneuver, which is still to some degree rooted in reality: space and time, weather, actual people, movement, equipment, fuel is burned, rounds may be fired, orders issued, et cetera. a maneuver is not a simulation, though it might be called a low order simulacrum)

well, they were all wrong folks. this is it, this is the line, and we've crossed it finally. with most of these things there's no going back, so be prepared for everything to be even more meta than it already was. can't wait to see a livestream of pewdiepie reacting to a video of Joe Rogan reacting to a video of Ben Shapiro reacting to a cringe feminist compilation featuring himself, but all ironically of course.
 
I watched some of those "_________ reacts to _________" videos over the weekend. (Boy, I really do have a lot of time on my hands, don't I?) A few of them were people watching music videos, presumably of bands or genres of music they were unfamiliar with. Others were of people watching television series. The problem with almost all of them was that they were kind of boring. People weren't "thinking out loud" while watching the show or listening to the music, they were just sitting there, occasionally making faces. I've seen some videos of voice coaches listening to and critiquing music, and some of those were interesting. But in this case, I was literally just watching random people watch television. :undecide: To each their own, I suppose.

p.s. One of them was of a young woman listening to "Wish You Were Here", I guess for the first time. I didn't really care about her, but Jesus Christ, evidently I have the lyrics to that song permanently embedded in my brain. Out of nowhere, I was singing along, and I haven't listened to that album in at least 20 years. So that was kind of fun.
If you want to sink into despair over the future of the human race, watch the ones where kids react to ordinary things people used as recently as the '90s.

I find myself wanting to reach into the computer and shake sense into those little brats when they adopt these obnoxious facial expressions and OMGWHATISTHISWEIRDTHINGDIDPEOPLEREALLYUSETHISHOWDOESITWORKWHATSITEVENFOR? attitude.

All that angst over a simple pay phone, rotary phone, VHS tape, cassette tape and Walkman, and other such things. Mind you, I've seen an allegedly adult woman (in her 20s) stare at a rotary phone and not have a clue how it works.
 
Why is that so bad? I don't understand. Did children in the 90s all know how to operate a record player or a 16mm camera? I kinda doubt that, just as I don't expect kids in the 2030s to know what a Gameboy and an iPod is, and why would they?

Also, I'm entirely unsure why you blame the kids and feel angry towards them, and not towards their parents and our society as a whole..
 
Why is that so bad? I don't understand. Did children in the 90s all know how to operate a record player or a 16mm camera? I kinda doubt that.. Also, I'm entirely unsure why you blame the kids and feel angry towards them, and not towards their parents and our society as a whole..

Or indeed feel it matters.
I grew up in the '70-80s but never learned how to drive a horse and buggy or ride a horse.
It may be changing faster than ever but obsolete technology from before they were born is just a curiosity to them, no surprise there.
 
Why is that so bad? I don't understand. Did children in the 90s all know how to operate a record player or a 16mm camera? I kinda doubt that, just as I don't expect kids in the 2030s to know what a Gameboy and an iPod is, and why would they?

Also, I'm entirely unsure why you blame the kids and feel angry towards them, and not towards their parents and our society as a whole..
It's not that they didn't know what it was. It's their attitude. It's obnoxious, in that way that some kids roll their eyes and sigh ostentatiously, and put on this bratty attitude like they think everything that came before them is hopelessly weird, useless, and dumb.

Not all the kids behave like that in the videos; some are genuinely curious and have a thoughtful comment or two, but the majority are... brats, at least in their attitudes.

Of course the parents aren't blameless. It's a sad society we're turning out now, when kids aren't curious about the past and the parents make little effort to teach them. I remember finding my grandmother's wool-carding tools one day, and asking what it was. She taught me how to use it, which was rather neat. Not that I've ever put this knowledge to practical purposes and can't now anyway (turns out I'm extremely allergic to wool), but at least I learned something that day, and she was happy to have a chance to explain something that had been a normal part of her childhood (which was a century ago, now).
 
So I've been watching a lot of puzzle videos lately because of this weirdly charismatic British youtuber named Simon Anthony.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCC-UOdK8-mIjxBQm_ot1T-Q/videos

There are hundreds of videos, so just sort by "most popular" and start at the top. :)



Yup, Kurt Hugo Schneider is a genius.
 
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