Michael Wesch and YouTube… Are we Digitally Disconnecting or Connecting?

After viewing Michael Wesch’s talk at the Library of Congress on the effects of social media and digital technology on global society it got me thinking about what “digital disconnect” means in 2010. Wesch, who is a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, examines human uses of technology. His talk to the Library of Congress focused on the phenomenon of YouTube, and the community of people using it. The talk illustrated the power of the internet to transfer both information and feelings. For example Wesch tells the story of a chubby kid dancing alone in his suburban New Jersey bedroom who created a video which created a world-wide dance frenzy. This “silly” video has been viewed an estimated 600 million times. Ten years ago “digital disconnect” seemed to mean that kids in school were ahead of their teachers in using technology to do homework. Today, whether we are disconnecting or actually connecting by the millions is open to question.

The global social network Facebook now has about 600 million members. So, if we are spending hour upon hour connecting with others and making new “friends” online (while sitting home alone) are we connecting or disconnecting? As Wesch states, “YouTube is a celebration of new forms of community… the types of community we have never really seen before … global connections transcending space and time… and in fact they can actually invent new ways of connecting with each other and  it’s getting easier and easier to do.” Wesch concludes that the web is about linking people together and, we are going to have to rethink some things… even love.” The question, if we are connecting or disconnecting may have to be reevaluated as well.

“As media has changed, human relations have changed” proclaims Wesch. And, in 2010 technology is moving at lightening speed and the dynamic of human relationships appear to be changing as well. Communities are now being built via the internet. Facebook and YouTube are examples of virtual communities. In 1993 Howard Rheingold wrote a book called The Virtual Community. Rheingold may have been the first citizen of the internet community. In the book, he describes a population that is as real as any physical community. People meet, talk, seek information and even fall in love. As Wesch says about YouTube, what we see here is “people connecting very, very deeply.”

Technology can be what we make of it. We can continually focus on the “downside” of the virtual community. But, we can do that with the physical community. There was loneliness, isolation and negative human relations long before the internet. In my mind, technology can and will be embraced to overcome these and many other difficulties associated with everyday living… and, bring us closer as a global community.