December 4, 2008
Yearning for YouTube
Walk into the library on any given afternoon and about half of the computers you see are on YouTube. Most students find it hard to imagine life without YouTube or other online video sources. SMUdailycampus.com reports.
SMU Temerlin Advertising Institute students Anna Lee Doughtie, Kat Farmer and Lizzie Harris conducted research to find out what would happen if students deprived themselves of online video sources for two weeks.
... Seven SMU students who agreed to participate were self-described "heavy users" of online video, with half saying they watch a minimum of 30 minutes per average day. From Oct. 24 through Nov. 7, students agreed to avoid such sites as YouTube.com, Sidereel.com, iTUNES video, Surfthechannel.com, Yahoo video and official broadcast network Web sites.
One week into the study, more than half of the participants said they had "accidentally" been exposed to some form of online videos, typically YouTube.
It was virtually impossible for some participants to completely avoid online video content.
For those who have come to rely on online "how-to" videos rather than instructional books or manuals, two weeks without YouTube demonstrations proved challenging.
Students generally struggled with going "cold turkey" with online videos. Some felt disconnected from their favorite television shows because they would typically watch them online, whereas others simply increased the time spent watching the television set.
... In a picture collage created to describe the effects of online video deprivation, one participant selected a picture of a man straining to see through a tiny hole. "I felt sight-restricted, because I couldn't see what was going on," he said.
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