About a month ago, a friend and I had a heated discussion about YouTube. The discussion was about the possibility of “YouTube failure.” And by that, I mean the failure of YouTube as website. Not in the metaphorical sense, but literally “What would happen if YouTube failed?” What if the severs were erased? The screens went black. All data was lost. What would happen if then next time you tried to go to the website you were instead taken (a la Liam Neeson’s Daughter) to a website page that reads: “Server Error 500”?

Where is my "Justin Bieber" vid!

But my friend and mine’s discussion was not about the global chaos, riots, or occupy movements that might ensue when the world was unable to get its “Haul” video fix. No, instead our argument was based around my friend’s belief that it would only take a day for a next “YouTubian” website to emerge to take-up YouTube’s fallen crown (which I assume is mainly made-up of adorable kittens and racist comments). I disagreed with this assertion. I think that it would only take eight hours for a new “YouTube” to emerge*. This assertion might come as a surprise to some; others might think that it is not bold enough. Either way, the point of the discussion was that, while YouTube isn’t too big to fail, the idea of YouTube is.

This argument makes it seem like YouTube isn’t important. That is not at all what I am claiming. YouTube is extremely important. And while it is true that viral videos permeate so much of the online experience that they can’t die, it is of the utmost importance to understand “the way” in which this content is presented to us. The medium is not the message; the way we let the medium shape the content is the message. YouTube is important because it has shaped the way in which we think about internet videos. It has dictated the rise and fall of success in the medium since it’s birth. It would be impossible to speculate as to how the landscape of media would be changed if perhaps a more intuitive, educational, or personable website was in control of the majority of entertainment web videos. Hypotheticals aside, it is now paramount that media theorist hold a critical eye to the way in which we, as a population, interact with the primary source of video content (that isn’t porn) on the web.

In the time that I worked on PerpiTube, my harshest critique of YouTube was often it’s sophomoric architecture, however in the 6 months since I started YouTube has done a complete overhaul of it’s site. Now, instead of looking like Myspace circa 2003, it looks like Myspace circa 2008. Yet, I can’t help but notice that “we” collectively feel like it is an improvement. The truth is, YouTube isn’t ever going to be an easy, intuitive, or even cool site to spend time in. The content of the videos on the site are all of those things, yes, but that is besides the point. YouTube doesn’t need to be any of those things because it is functional. And much like mid-size sedan, it doesn’t need to be much more than functional. It will never escape its foundation of crappy architecture and childish organization because in doing so it would give up functionality.

"I'm cool now, right guys?"

This critique isn’t cynicism. I love YouTube. I love spending time in YouTube. I love it probably more than the average person does or should, but I also push myself to do what I believe was a big part of the PerpiTube experience; think critically about what the space I occupy on the internet says about the information I view there. I am always aware of the paradigm of YouTube and how it influences the videos I view on it. The prejudices and biases I have based around this then lead themselves to critical examination. This in turn leads to intelligent discussion of larger metaphysical concepts like “What is ‘art’, ‘comedy’, and ‘celebrity.’”  I may be relentless of my critique of YouTube, but I do it out of love. I want to see media scholars discussing YouTube. I want to see YouTube taught in classrooms. I want to see YouTube change the way writers of television and film think. I want to… Oh look, a cat video…

- James

* My personal theory is that if YouTube died right now, Vimeo would simply create a new site that was essentially the same thing, relegating the old Vimeo to be called Vimeo+ or something of the sort, and it would take them all of eight hours to get the new site up and running.