13
May
Youtube Comment Culture
While generally known for being a cesspool of illiteracy, misogyny, racism, hatred and intolerance, the comment section on Youtube has evolved devolved since the addition of the “like” and “dislike” buttons.
Before the “like” and “dislike” buttons were added, commenting was easy. All one had to do was follow this simple flowchart created by Brendan Bergen. It was designed to assist you in deciding what kind of comment to leave. The first option is “Are you an idiot?” If the answer is no, don’t leave a comment. If yes, continue following the flowchart to figure out what comment is best.
Now, however, its not so simple. With the ability to “like” or “dislike” a video, comes the urge to explain why a certain number of people agree or disagree. Often referred to as “dislike comments” because most seek to explain why somebody would have the audacity to dislike such an awesome video, these comments have taken hold as a new type of internet meme.
Some people seem to enjoy them to no end, while others deeply loathe them. Youtube also gives its users the ability to “thumb up” or “thumb down” a comment to show support or lack there of. Features like this were designed to help influence the ranking of the comments and therefore make them more relevant. Unfortunately, people keep finding new ways to make comments less relevant.
Some of the worst are nothing more than spam and often invoke the name of Justin Bieber(insert current teen idol here) at will. They do it for the publicity. Maybe people think that thumbs give them some kind of power or points. Or maybe if they’re lucky, when other people rate their comments up, their comments get to the top of the page under ‘Highest Rated Comment’ and people click on their channels to view their videos.
Some of the best dislike comments do deserve the thumbs up though. Many are witty and clever, using themes from the video. For example, the song “Friend Is A Four Letter Word” by Cake has a comment that explains the 25 dislikes by saying:
25 pple are englsh teachers (:
Youtube is by no means the only site dealing with these issues, just the most obvious. Imagine what a site like Facebook would turn into if they had a “dislike” button. Absolute chaos.
Why is there such an obsession with “likes” and “thumbs?” Perhaps because we love the approval of others, that sense of belonging, that identification with a group. Who knows, but it will be interesting to see where the discussion goes from here.
For more info, check out this very enlightening post by Chris Menning that explains these recent commenting trends in more detail.
This entry was posted under Memes.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
