The YouTube Phenomenon (originally posted on 3/7/07)

I am flabbergasted right now. And to say that the hair is standing up on the back of my neck would not be exaggerating. I have 3 subscribers to my 'channel' on YouTube. I even have comments from 2 of them and now received an email message from one commenting on my cute videos. Who are these people?? And why do they want to watch my family being funny? I don't want to watch other people I don't know doing stupid things. It's only funny to watch people I DO know being stupid. That's why I hate to watch "America's Funniest Home Movies".Clearly, I have graduated out of the youth culture and am now one of those "older generation" parents. I don't understand the whole YouTube phenomenon. And I hate this part of it. Perfect strangers watching me and my family? One of these people that subscribed to my channel has viewed over 21,000 other videos. Who has that kind of time? Does this person sleep with his modem hooked up I/V-style so as not to miss the latest video uploads? At the same time, I love YouTube. I can take a short movie on my digital camera, upload it to YouTube and link it into my blog in a matter of 15 minutes. How's that for technology and staying in touch with family and friends! However, if I don't make my YouTube channel public, then my family and friends can't view my linked video on my blog. This is a complicated problem.If I wasn't so guarded about my privacy (Internet and otherwise), I'd be half tempted to reply to Wariogolf (that's his user name) and his email on my cute family. I'm sure Scott and Eric would enjoy 'messing' with him for a while. In the meantime, all I've done is block the ability for subscribers to my channel to send me email messages. Ha! That should fix him, huh?!