YouTube and Culture

Today, I discovered Schoolhouse Rock videos on You Tube, thanks to Jim.

Schoolhouse Rock is a show which I evidently missed during my childhood, but was fairly significant to most others during their childhood. I've been reminded many times of that fact during random conversations - at work, in grad school, at bars, with other friends, etc. Of course, most of those with whom I've had these conversations seem to be close to my age, if not my age. Ergo, I wonder how I missed such a huge cultural phenomenon (as it seems to have been).

Regardless, I've always understood that it's topics were quite useful and in fact may have made many of my peers better writers, better mathematicians, and better students than they already were. (Thank God for that. There weren't a bunch of people in school who could string a decent sentence together, much less remember their multiplication tables.)

Today, I find that the information is really quite useful as I am finally exposed to the cultural phenomenon on which I've completely missed out. I certainly don't agree it's silly to think that if I watched enough of the Schoolhouse Rock videos, I could claim that shared identity which I do not have now.

Videos I've seen so far:
- Three is a Magic Number


- Conjunction Junction


- Rufus Xavier Sasparilla


- I'm Just a Bill (I could have used this myself! History is not, and probably never will be, a strength for me.)


Given that You Tube has just proven to me that it has more value than simply pure entertainment, I wonder how many other functions it serves. I'm know there's a social networking aspect (given the option to log in, post comments, post replies, etc.), but are there other instances where You Tube serves perhaps even higher purposes?

If You Tube can and does communicate culture and can create shared identity again, even years after the initial phase of communicating that culture and creating that shared identity, what else does You Tube have the power to do? Whom else can You Tube affect? Is it possible to use You Tube as a place to encourage social justice? Regime change - for third world countries? Education? Will You Tube create a professional version, where one could find information and video clips from the world over, that could be used in confidence and recognized as truly trustworthy, especially as a reference in a thesis?

Is this perhaps a situation where I simply don't know enough to realize that I don't know?