Why I left YouTube

I would never have thought that leaving YouTube could ever pain me at all, let alone pain me as much as it does. But it does.

As you may have noticed if you've read some of posts, especially about Google, I have an intense dislike of said corporation's policies and of their increasingly intrusive attitude in general. Not because of some paranoia, but simply because I instinctively withdraw from any attempt to be herded and "managed" - especially not by a corporation on an ego trip, the sole aim of which is to amass big bucks and exert control over the virtual world. 

Now, YouTube is demanding that you link your account to an email address - or else (you won't be able to interact with anyone on YouTube, or even give feedback).


Ask yourself: why on earth would they possibly need your email address? 

There are several possibilities, not necessarily mutually exclusive. 
Let's go with the most harmless possibility and venture this answer: to "improve" your Google profile - or should I say, your Google dossier? 
To build a comprehensive mine of information about your tastes, choices and way of thinking - so they can cater to it, of course. So they can serve you advertisements that you are - or so they think - more likely to click.

I don't mind panhandlers. I just don't like it when the panhandling is disguised and presented as something for my benefit.
I also don't like being treated like a semi-literate idiot, only interested in shopping - especially not by brainless crawlers who cannot understand a repeated "no" because, well, they don't have a brain.

And so, when Youtube suddenly started prompting me to link my existing account with an email address, I first ignored it and sailed past it.

Then it became impossible.

And so I left.

Obviously I still visit YouTube and listen to music - as an anonymous user or "guest" - but I cannot communicate with other users anymore.

I hear you: Yeah, so?

Well, here's the thing. In my years on the internet I have visited many, many, many websites and forums. Many promised stimulating interaction, but eventually my enthusiasm fizzled out, because the few interesting people visiting them were outnumbered, silenced - or simply chased away - by a multitude of ignorant (and quite possibly pubescent) loudmouths.

Of course YouTube has more than its fair share of idiots and vulgar, aggressive loudmouths. However, there's one big difference. 

If you go to YouTube, it is presumably to listen to a piece of music or to see a video or a film that you find interesting. Which means that the majority of comments you'll see under any given video will also be from people who are interested in the same thing as you. Some of the feelings and thoughts expressed resonate with you; some resonate in the deepest core of your being.

And because YouTube currently is the most popular such website in the world, it is visited by millions - all sorts of people, from all over the world.

Which is why it is hardly surprising that some of the most incredible, lucid, intelligent, smart, funny, lovely, interesting comments I've seen or heard in my entire life I found on YouTube.

Every now and then, rarely, I happen to stumble upon a person who sounds like the long-lost twin I never had. My heart startles and flutters wildly in recognition, almost in panic, like a bird startled out of its slumber.

When that happens, you want to give the person a heads-up, just to let them know that there is another person out there, in the wide world, that feels or thinks exactly like them. 

Or perhaps you want to say something that you feel is vital, on that small, day-to-day scale. Or you want to smile at them.

Or perhaps you simply want to get the heavy load of unexpressed gratitude off your chest, so that your heart, swollen with momentary bliss, can breathe again.

You simply want to say thank you, that was lovely and it made my day better.

That is what I'll miss. My own acknowledgement, small and humble as it may be, of people whose faces I have never seen, but I have seen their mind and their heart. They spoke to me, and I won't forget them. 
My acknowledgement may not mean much to them, but it means a lot to me.

I think acknowledgement of what is beautiful, or true, or just feels right, can be as important as creating those values. It has a civilisational value that grows in proportion with the ugliness and vulgarity and ignorance that seem to be sweeping over the WWWorld.

I hear you again: You're willing to abandon something you like that much over a principle?

Yes, I am. It is simply a matter of having choice, but that is compelling enough a reason.  

Avalanches are nothing but billions of harmless tiny crystals, as soft as water.

P.SS                 . When the internet thinks it knows you

             Personalized information filters pose a threat to democracy.
          (Not to mention that the inability to prevent such gathering and compiling of information about you already is anti-democratic.)