Of all the videos on YouTube that I watch, the top three topics are sports, music, and religion. I hardly ever see a video that does not have people arguing over stupid things (this band is better than that band, this team is better than that one, you're going to hell, etc.) I appreciate the knowledge we have at our fingertips in this Information Age (Digital Age?), but I really dislike what technology has done to our culture: how it has turned nice, ordinary people into arrogant, "tough", narrow-minded braggarts. Since the advent of the Internet, particularly in the last decade, decency and manners have taken a back seat to fraudulent "expertise" and machismo. In the privacy of a man's own home (with Google as his trusty sidekick), there's nobody around to question his claim as king of the mountain. He knows everything, and all of his musical/political/religious interests are
the best, and everyone else can go suck an egg. Everyone from 8 to 88 has new-found courage thanks to the Internet. We can debate, argue, threaten, swear and goad with no fear of repercussion, because we're doing it all from our desks, and none of our opponents/victims/audience will ever see us in real life. We are awash in this dopiness, and it has driven me to cease commenting on YouTube altogether. The only videos I still like to comment on are Three Stooges videos. I don't recall ever seeing an argument on those; most of the comments are just people laughing. That's more my style.