YouTube is very different to many other social networking sites in the way that it places almost no emphasis on the converse between users, but instead focuses on the sharing of videos. Roughly 25% of internet users speak English, and another 25% speak Chinese according to the 2010 statistics by Internet World Stats (2013). These two languages already take up half of the population of internet users. Many smaller languages and countries are likely to come across large language barriers when using social networking sites. However, this is different for YouTube as it uses the universal language of video. Whilst there is still a small language barrier, it is far less prominent when compared to other popular networking sites such as Facebook.
For the most part, YouTube is not "authentic" or "real" in the way that Zuckerberg claimed Facebook to be in the McNeil reading (2012). Many YouTube users are anonymous and even those users who have signed up only need access to a Gmail account, so there is very little entry of autobiographical data. As the week 4 lecture stated, autobiographical data is a commodity in which to sell users products (2012). With YouTube we can rest assured that we are not selling our identity and being categorized or getting specifically targeted by ads. That being said, don't expect to not encounter any adds on YouTube as they are partnered with Google. Even though the adds may not relate to you specifically they will still appear on almost every single video with a substantial number of views.
Reference List:
Internet World Stats. (6th March, 2013). Internet World Users by Language. Internet World Stats Usage and Population Statistics. Retrieved 22nd August, 2013, From http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats7.htm.
Van Luyn, A. (2012). BA1002: Our Space: Networks, narratives and the making of place, Lecture 4: Networked Narratives (Lecture 4 PowerPoint slides). Retrieved from http://learnjcu.edu.au
McNeill, L. (2012). “There Is No "I" in Network: Social Networking Sites and Posthuman Auto/Biography.” Biography 35.1, 65-82. Biographical Research Center.
Simon. (6th February, 2013). Why Google’s Display Ads Are A World Apart From Facebook’s Display Ads. Retrieved from http://www.techwyse.com/blog/social-media-marketing/why-googles-display-ads-are-a-world-apart-from-facebooks/
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Nice analysis. Youtube is quite different from the other websites as the users are not pushed to get to know each other. But they do have something in common; posting, viewing and sharing videos whenever the content. Moreover on youtube, you have right to certain level of freedom of expression through videos (parodies, covers, jokes..)'it is all about a website which enables the public to modify and/or re-adjust movies, songs..' (Van Luyn.2013)
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