YouTube’s Singing Sensation Marie Digby

Marie Digby, 24, is a singer – songwriter living in Los Angeles, who has been blessed with a beautiful voice and amazing talent. It all started when Marie uploaded her video “Umbrella” – an acoustic version of Rihanna’s song – onto YouTube on May 27th 2007. In less than a year “Umbrella” has gathered over 5,521,073 hits and 26,773 favourites. After gathering so much attention via comments on YouTube Marie upload more covers such as James Morrison’s song “You Give Me Something” and Linkin Parks “What I’ve Done”.

Although Marie had already signed with Disney’s Hollywood Records in 2005, she decided to upload videos of herself on to YouTube to gain more publicity – it definitely worked! She has written many of her own songs such as “Stupid For You” (a personal favourite) and “Unfold” which you can find on her YouTube channel and MySpace website. Her song “Spell” featured in the season finale of “Smallville” and her version of “Umbrella” featured in MTV’s “The Hills.”

Her album is coming out on April 8th. To pre order it visit this website.

This is a clear example of how YouTube can be used in a constructive way.

Youngsters dice with death in YouTube railway stunts

Yesterday it was reported that youngsters are filming trains speeding towards them as they stand near the platform edge, with their cameras shaking because of the speed of the trains.

The youngsters try to get the drivers to sound train horns and then post videos on YouTube, with titles such as “horny drivers” and “awesome horn”.

This suggests that their incentive for carrying out such dangerous performances is that they will be praised via YouTube. By YouTube allowing such footage to be posted on their website they are encouraging this risky and harmful behaviour.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

YouTube Used in Fight For New School

Last week, Thestar.com reported a NDP MP’s campaign on YouTube to build a long awaited primary school in Attawapiskat, Northern Ontario, Canada.

By the weekend it was the third most watched political video on YouTube Canada.

The reason why YouTube was used to launch this campaign is because the MP believes that this is where people go to get their information.

Yesterday, Thestar.com reported that despite the campaign on YouTube, the primary school will not be built.

I think that it’s fantastic that YouTube has been used to promote this worthy cause. So far, the video has been viewed16, 893 and gathered 129 comments. This clearly shows how YouTube has the ability to be used to benefit the general public.

If you would like to sign the petition click here.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

Learning through YouTube

Boston Now reported last week how YouTube has helped make the classroom more interactive for teachers and students.

Thomas Fauls, a professor at Boston University said: “It’s great. There’s a fair amount of reliability; you can find what you need. It’s a no-brainer that it’s an instant hit in the class.”

As a university student, I agree that YouTube does in fact make lectures more interactive and exciting. One of the things which keep me awake during my psychology lectures is the frequent use of YouTube. Our lecturer shows us footage of interesting experiments almost every week which makes the class so much more exciting and appealing.

Personally, I believe that it’s much easier to understand and remember an experiment if you see it take place, rather than simply read it from a book. This can be applied to all subjects, not just psychology.

This illustrates how YouTube can in fact be seen as a success.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

YouTube Posting Leads to Arrests in Assault

Video images of first degree assaults were posted on YouTube reveals the NY Times today.

Police were tipped off about the footage when interviewing students about a separate incident. The footage shows punching, kicking and the use of a pocketknife against the victim.

It has now been removed from the website.

I’m finding it difficult to decide whether I think this video should have been posted on YouTube…On the one hand, it’s awful as it advocates violence and the use of weaponry. It also exemplifies how corrupt society has become that teenagers are firstly abusing one another, and secondly using mobile phones to record their abuse and then post it online. It’s as if they are proud of what they have accomplished which may in fact influence others to copy their obscene behaviour.

However, as a result of this footage being posted on YouTube the police were able to find the students and arrest them. The fact that this was the second local arrest in the past month linked to YouTube shows two things. One, evidently there is a lot of crime in this area, and two, the people in this district feel it necessary to display their felony online.

Therefore, by teenagers posting such videos on YouTube they are assisting police in finding and arresting them. Now, police will find it easier to locate such criminals. This illustrates how YouTube can actually be seen as an essential source for police when fighting against crime in New York.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

YouTube Video Causes Stir on Island

In today’s online edition of the Daily Times, an article was published on a video clip posted on YouTube revealing students imitating lewd sex acts in their high school toilet.

It managed to rank a few hundred views before it was eventually removed from YouTube.

Personally, I don’t understand how this video could have been posted online in the first place. There is nothing to gain from such a stupid and unpleasant video.

It also gives a bad name to their school as now it has become associated with ‘those boys on YouTube’.

I believe that this is the type of footage which should be censored from the public because no one benefits from it.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

Swedish Police Act after Violent YouTube Video

A 30 year old man in southern Sweden is under suspicion for serious weapons offenses, after he posted a film of himself and a friend firing pistols on YouTube, Huliq.com published yesterday.

Here is another example of how criminals use YouTube as an incentive to commit felonious crimes. Police believe that it’s common for criminals to post videos of themselves online.

One of the main problematic consequences of such anti social behaviour being published online, especially to a massive audience, is that there is a possibility that viewers may replicate the criminal’s actions.

There have been many psychology experiments which illustrate how true this is. Bandura (1965) conducted an experiment whereby children watched adults behaving aggressively or with a Bobo doll. After, the children were given the chance to play with the Bobo dolls and lo and behold the children replicated the adult’s behaviour and were violent with the doll. Bandura’s experiment is one of many which illustrate such findings.

Unfortunately, it’s safe to say that society is becoming more dangerous every day. We hear stories of children raping young children and teenager murders. If violent videos weren’t published on YouTube, such as the above, then maybe these vulgar acts would decline.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

US servicemen ’snorting drugs’ video

Footage of American service men snorting drugs was posted on YouTube, reports Metro Online today.

Drug abuse is increasing.

 

These kinds of videos on YouTube are extremely damaging as they act as drug promotion. Viewers may think ‘If American service men snort drugs then why can’t I?’ This could lead to them replicating the men’s behaviour.

Additionally, these American service men are supposed to be representing the United States Air Force and the state of America, who are currently attempting to reduce drug abuse…not advocate it.

There is an organization called “The Partnership for a Drug – Free America” who carry out drug education campaigns, and are determined to diminish drug abuse in America. They even have a channel on YouTube. However, this channel isn’t doing so well with only 3969 views and 23 subscribers.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

Lack of Control

YouTube have a lack of control.

People can upload whatever they want with little level of control in place. As you can see in the articles below YouTube have allowed such horrendous videos to be posted online. Sometimes, the videos are removed after a sufficient amount of complaints are served, however, simply removing them does not solve the problem. They should never have been allowed online in the first place. Once YouTube realise that they have to control the videos posted before they are actually online YouTube would be a happier place.

The video which disturbs me the most is ‘’YouTube Rape’ Mum Condemns Perverts Who Watched Online Footage’. The fact that over 600 people viewed this footage sickens me further. This is the kind of footage which encourages other criminals to carry out such crime. It’s sad that this is what YouTube has come to…gang rape footage, threats against schools, footage of officers behaving badly etc.

Aside from some of the footage being inappropriate, the comments on the videos can be even worse. Beyonce’s video for the song Listen attracted over 9 million viewers and over 6,000 comments. Among those comments – which were mainly from her fans – were crude racist remarks. There is nothing wrong with the video, or the song, in fact it’s a lovely song with beautiful lyrics, however, people still made offensive racist remarks which sparked off an argument within the comment page. YouTube did mark some racist comments as spam however the majority is still there when it should be removed. Unfortunately there are many other similar comments on other videos. This is a clear example of how YouTube lack control over the content being posted on their site.

I’m not saying that YouTube is an awful website, in fact I think highly of it in certain aspects. I think it’s great how music videos, funny scenes from movies, interviews with famous people, documentaries and other such footage are posted on YouTube.

However, they have to up their control over the videos and comments posted on the website.

What do you think? All comments welcome…

‘YouTube Rape’ Mum Condemns Perverts Who Watched Online Footage

Footage of a woman being raped was watched by over 600 people on YouTube, Sky News reported yesterday.

The 3 minute footage showed the 25-year-old being violated for hours in front of her screaming children, aged two and four. Later the footage was removed from YouTube.

This article is shocking. To think that something as disturbing and violating as this could be posted online is disgusting.  This is the type of footage which MUST be prevented from being uploaded onto YouTube.

Furthermore, the fact that over 600 people watched the footage on YouTube is just as alarming.

Rape crime is increasing, and footage like this only promotes it.

What do you think? All comments welcome…