14 DAY TRIAL // YouTube's project, Trendspotting Tuesday, which refers to a day when the company features some of the most representative videos on the homepage for a whole day, could turn into a fiasco because of people's attitude towards it. For example, some of this week's featured videos are religious. YouTube's selection is rather fair, as the team allocates videos to most of the major religions, but people are intolerant, blaming the choice of some of the clips.
"You should be banned for this religious propaganda!!!!" says one of the users, probably an agnostic. Others join in the public outrage. "Dear Noah, please do not forget to take me on your Ark. LMAO... sorry my friend dared me to," laughs another. Religion isn't the only topic that people don't seem to appreciate that much. Foreign language lessons are also disregarded since, as one poster says, those who really want to do something about their linguistic skills usually learn on their own.
However, even just a little attention is better than none, as it happens with the large majority of weekly featured themes. Most of the people are frantic about getting their videos on the featured list and don't even notice the content that is highlighted that day. Desperate calls like "2,000 comment. It is fate. Feature my video Please!!!" are present in maybe 90% of the comments. Users' craving for celebrity status makes them not even pay attention to the videos that are being selected.
Once the comments are opened, users start to advertise their own videos and they forget that, if they don't comment on this week's featured videos, the same will happen to them, when and if their clips get picked up to be on the homepage. Although YouTube's initiative is good, because it makes people get in touch with the world's current issues, as long as this battle for the spotlight is on, the advantages are null. This, of course, applies to the users, because any company whose website is visited, although the comments may not always be the most pleasant, is definitely a winner.