Most days Adam Lacey, a 22- year-old music and ancient classics student in NUI Maynooth slides out of his bed, knocks on YouTube, and spends his free time between classes watching video blogs.
The phenomenon of video blogging (vlogging for short), an art that involves a camera and random discussions where bloggers share intimate details of their lives, may be catching on here in Ireland.
“I think it’s interesting to see opinions on different aspects of life, but you also have those people that show a little too many personal details or take it a little bit too far,” says Adam who has taken on the form himself. Although his channel only has a few videos, mostly him talking about his life at University, he advocates that it’s the best way to communicate in a highly connected world.
“Youtube is a platform that is instantly accessible to the world. I could upload a video and instantly someone on the other side of the world can see it,” he says. Right now Adam’s channel is very much in the creative stage, he has spoken to friends about creating short movies and parodies. His taste is heavily influenced by videos he found while scanning through YouTube from, MissGlamorazzi, WhatTheBuck, or crazy posts from iJustine (whose most recent video blog was a post about over packing!).
“The whole vlogging phenomenon is a lot more popular over in the US. It’s only really seeped into society here in the last year and a half,’” says Adam.
Vlogging usually takes place on YouTube, where teenagers have dominated the platform since its creation a few years ago. Although a form of video blogging has been a part of the internet since its inception, only in the past few years have we seen a splurge of young talent grabbing the camera and allowing us to visit their lives.
These vloggers are sexy, wear cool clothes, sport American style hats, keep fit, listen to cool music, and are immersed in all aspects of social networking. They are solidly members of Generation V.
“YouTube (the most popular platform) has a feature that shows you data on the age groups that watch your videos and the countries they are from etc,” says Adam.
There were 150.3 million unique viewers on YouTube in September 2012 according to comScore, an agency that rates internet video hits. YouTube also hosted 1.8 billion adverts, but the amount of money going to video bloggers is a closely guarded secret.
By Liam Cahill
