This one hits hard. I was addicted to the internet earlier than most. Graduate of year 2006, I was riding that first wave of the internet as young adults, getting into forums, getting into chat rooms, sharing my (really badly made) content, and reveling in being acknowledged for it. As a shy kid with disabilities and physical deformities, I felt neglected. Online, I was heard, and directly by peers, even an audience, that I knew would appreciate what I had to say. Maybe not agree, maybe even hate, but it was different at least than not being heard. I went to great lengths to access the internet against both my parents and my school's wishes, to the point of nearly being expelled for violating school rules. During a sit down with my father in an attempt to understand my addictive, destructive behavior, he tried to explain that he understood where I was coming from: That I was anonymous and could be anyone online. But that wasn't my thought process; It wasn't that I could be anyone online, but that I could pour everything I felt was important in myself out onto a medium where I would be seen, heard, and acknowledged. I had an existence where previously I felt I was no one. Time moved on, and eventually I was just given access in my senior year, and really cultivated my online personas. I'm no star, but over the years I've made my mark on certain communities; Even elevated myself to being recognizable on certain reddits. I certainly have the points to show for it: My words HAVE had an impact on hundreds if not thousands of people on occasion. And it really IS addicting, even in the smaller, non-celebratory ways. Nobody is going to be viewing my channel because I'm not that kind of creator. But every upvote on reddit, every like on twitter, every retweet and response is an acknowledgement of my existence that I would never have offline, tucked away in my little room in a small town that I can barely transport myself around due to disabilities. If I were to lose access to the internet, or if the sites I relied on for putting my thoughts and impressions out into the world to see were to vanish, I in turn would in a sense vanish. There are people online that I feel closer to than I do to most people I've met and know Offline. My ability to speak out, and be heard, all of that would be gone, and I'm not entirely sure what I'd be left with without it. It's kind of a frightening thought.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. The internet has done, and continues to do, a lot of good in providing voices for many people who have to struggle to be heard. ❤
Did you know (judging by how good and diverse this video was, you probably do) the BBC test card you used there (Test Card F) features a digital double, so to speak. The little girl is actually left handed, the whole photo was reversed to make her right-handed as having a leftie was deemed too deviant for TV. Hence that right-handed girl only existed in digital form and has had more combined screentime than most humans, and is certainly better known than her left-handed irl twin. First time finding your channel, great video! Admittedly I say that about anything featuring Satoshi Kon but the whole thing was awesome.
Great video as always but once again I am baffled by the sheer range of sources from dozens of mediums and genres you call upon in such a short video. Does an obscene amount of information collect in your head over the years and get called upon when you find a purpose for it? Do you consume an obscene amount of media every day and start to pick out trends worth demonstrating in a video? Or do you do an obscene amount of research for each video having come up with an idea worth exploring? None of these explanations are satisfying.
Kinda makes me think of r/instagramreality, where people compare meticulously staged photos with candid shots, and revel in "discovering the truth." People seem to really enjoy ripping apart the manufactured images of certain online personalities, yet the "reality" they use to tear folks down are often a misrepresentation in and of themselves. It seems that we often allow ourselves to have depth and complexity, yet can't help but summarize others with one single video, picture, or status update.
Interesting take. You could also say that in seeing someone present themself in a way we perceive as “false” or not genuine, we can fall into a trap of dehumanizing them. Rather than acknowledge that this is a person, we treat them like a prop on a film set. Something to be edited and revealed “behind the scenes.” Tl;Dr: People are jerks online because we let ourselves dehumanize others
I think you're really starting to establish yourself as the video essayist's video essayist - I think no one else is pushing the format into interesting places and using it to explore interesting ideas as much as you have been, and I think this is some of your finest work to date. Fantastic video as always, you put the rest of us to shame :)
@@akasakikawasaki1890 I'm familiar with them all and make what some would call video essays myself (I personally don't, but it's in the same style) and I say what I did because I really believe WSGAT puts out better video essays on more interesting topics than anyone else out there. The people that for my money come closest aren't the names you mentioned, personally I've never been a major fan of any of them except Wisecrack, (and their recent stuff doesn't hold a candle to their older stuff - I miss 8bit philosophy and Thug Notes) I prefer the work of hbomberguy, Lindsay Ellis or Contrapoints who have put out individual videos I'd put a little ahead of WSGAT's (hbomberguy's SLA 3: CAD is one of the best videos I've ever seen on RUclips, Lindsay Ellis' The Whole Plate series is a perennial favourite and Contrapoints' Debating the at-right and 'the left' videos are probably the only videos that give SLA 3: CAD a run for its money) but none are as consistent. I'm very familiar with the format, and while that gives me no more authority than you, what I can say is that of all the channels I watch WSGAT's work is the stuff I think is most impressive, and knowing what goes into these videos from a production standpoint is why I'm inclined to call her the video essayist's video essayist - and also why I've seen her work held in particularly high regard on places like r/videoessay. This is, of course, just my opinion, but I will defend it if people start waving around other channels as though I would appreciate WSGAT less if I watched them.
@@VARIOUShorses thanks for explaining m8 ill check the ones you listed, i like her stuff too, thats why im subscribed to her, but i still dont see the "extra" you're seeing
@@akasakikawasaki1890 Personally I think the 'extra' something is in all of what she does - it's the way she stacks multiple media examples, multiple theories and multiple philosophies together in one video to come to her conclusions - it's her editing that's not overbearing ala nerdwriter nor underdone ala my stuff and countless others but just in that sweet spot with particularly good audio editing (these are things I notice as a wannabe professional video editor, a good edit is either invisible or deliberate and impactful and WSGAT videos absolutely nail the invisible stuff) and finally its in her selection of media, she's constantly picking interesting media that's a bit left of centre, so even if a point of hers doesn't land I'm still offered a list of media I might not have seen. That is all personal of course, but I guess I wouldn't point to any singular aspect that makes her stuff special in my eyes, it's really just that in every aspect of her work she doesn't skimp out, she pays attention to everything, even the aspects that probably won't see any return on her time investment. It's a personal thing of course and not something that everyone will agree with - plenty of people love nerdwriter's editing and plenty more might not be impressed by WSGAT's, but that's my take.
Sing once again with me our strange duet My power over you grows stronger yet And though you turn from me to glance behind The Phantom of the RUclips is there Inside your mind
Awesome as always Grace...hold on a sec....Who even is Grace? Is it a bot? How to know? Is this a Black Mirror episode?!?!!?!?!?!? *throws laptop across the room*
I love this channel because it introduces me to new movies/shows/etc that I probably would have never heard of that now I need to go and watch and think about. Thank you!
I once had a really long discussion with friends about how the digital age has provided us a fluidity of identity. We can be whoever we'd like to imagine, yet are limited in diving into that identity by the perception of our immediate environment. I'm also not the kind of person who does the research to put such ideas into words so eloquently. I prefer to express myself visually. It's just how my mind forms ideas. Using visual media to show how these existing ideas are reflected in art puts you among some of my most favourite philosophers. It gives me something to reflect my work on and weigh my own words. Thank you.
This is something I feel like I've been grappling with for a bit just in differing friend groups and didn't feel like I had a proper framework to articulate.
Congrats on that moment at 12:33 where you time it so the steam starts hissing out in the background clip at the exact moment you say "porousness". ...also the all round great video.
the editing in this is awesome as always and i really like the direction you went with this video where you used a bit of humor alongside the analyses. can't wait for your next video!
The conclusion of the video reminded me of the quote from Bo Burnham - "If you can live your life without an audience, you should do it." Or maybe i didnt get the conclusion ? Anyways, great video as always. Black Mirror had a great episode regarding this phantom persona in which a widow gets her husband's clone made from the online identity of his. Check that out. It was terrific.
This is brilliant. I marvel at your remarkable ability to draw from an array of disparate sources to illustrate and elucidate a point which is both interesting and important. (Also, top notch editing) I do wonder though about something you don't mention: the economic aspects of things. It's not just our personal sense of worth that we tie to our identities online but, increasingly, our livelihood. It's all very well saying that we should moderate our beholdenness to our online self, but if we depend on our online self to eat, to pay rent, then our identity becomes inextricably linked to our survival, and that seems really dangerous.
Thank you! There was a bit I cut out about Alice being professionally and financially tied to her persona. But I don't think being financially dependant on our online lives necessarily means they have to have more power over us emotionally. I think a big part of negotiating a potential problem is just realising it's there. Alice doesn't have to leave camming, only be more aware the kind of obsessive and negative thought patterns that can accompany success and notoriety. But I agree it's a more treacherous situation!
As someone who was once deep in a double life of heroin addiction, and also a closeted trans woman (now out and clean for many years) - creating an artificial identity is something many people already did without the internet or written word. Having certain groups of friends that we may act a little different around and whatnot. Some of us, like myself, obviously had a very extreme version of this truth going on. But so many already wore masks irl before the net - the internet just brings more digital life to them, and with that digital life comes much more depth and danger.
well i wasn't PLANNING on having an existential crisis today, but here we are seriously though, amazing video. Haven't seen anything that made me just... think, this much, for a while.
Are there any specific books/individuals best to look into under this subject matter of technology's influence on the self? Didn't know concepts like auto/biography had already been thought up. This writing flow is miraculous. The transitions from analysis to commentary to instructional are seamless. It's fun to analyze. Channel found by recommendation on front page. Archived 4/28/2019.
I'd recommend the journal Online Lives 2.0 (which you can read on Jstor: www.jstor.org/stable/i24570259) and the book Alone Together by Sherry Turkle. :)
Wonderful video, editing, writing, as always! I particularly liked the article style you used for the quotes, having the text line break at the edge of the screen. It just seems to really fit the unnerving tone of the video!
Haha, was fun to see you break persona a little bit in this video (and fittingly ironic considering the subject matter). This essay felt like a solid companion to BeyondGhibli's video on Perfect Blue and how idol culture has permeated the world (and namely the west in a newish sense) in the form of RUclipsrs and other online personalities.
another great episode on a subject I find endlessly interesting! Amazing how much thinking about the "self" online has shifted in just a few years. I feel like it speaks some similar ideas Lindsey Ellis explored in her video on RUclips and manufacturing authenticity. sidenote: I loved the little sparks of humour throughout this, made me smile :)
Thank you! And I'm glad you liked the humour, haha! I didn't want it to end up too serious. And you're right there are definitely parallels with Lindsay Ellis' video. :)
It’s interesting to consider the feedback loop created by digital identity interactions. An individual presents an identity online and the way others perceive and endorse it will further drive and shape that digital persona. The identity is now not entirely derived from the independent will of the individual, but rather how many “likes” and “views” it can get and the cold hard algorithm that facilitates this. Changing and morphing in accordance to the whims of the viewer at each loop of feedback. By the way, as always, I’m amazed by the how many concepts you can explore in such a short video effectively. Connecting one to the other seamlessly.
I love your style of presenting an idea, the visuals and the interpretation are really interesting and well done. Also I love how broad your topic range is, if I would make youtube videos, I would try to make some like these.
Another great video! (And btw, whenever I find a new youtuber I like I sometimes go through their previous content and start to comment but then feel weird about it because it is usually at least a couple of years old and I am a self concious mess. So why would people do it AND want to try to start an argument on such an old video is beyond me. So strange)
Thank you! Haha, I feel weird about that too! But I do still like getting comments on my old videos. :D Or at least as long as they don't mention something I said in the video, and then I think: "did I say that? I don't remember saying that?!", and it all starts again.
Great Video, just going to mention that the theme of duality is a common one in Japanese films from the 90s as directors started questioning the identity of Japan during the Lost Decade (alongside a cautious fear of modern technology, these themes were combined I guess for Perfect Blue and Serial Experiment Lain). If you want to watch some non-Internet inspired versions of this I recommend Cure,Eyes of the Spider and Serpents Path by Kiyoshi Kurosawa which deal with the mental process of having to act like two separate people in a disturbing way.
man! this is great, i've been looking for a succinct analysis of digital doubles in media! I'm a student in surveillance studies and I'm most interested in looking at deleuze's concept of the dividual, which is similar to a digital double except it connects the concept of capitalization and industry to how and why we produce data. I think this is an interesting starting point, specifically in the case of cam because alienation occurred through her work! it's kinda nerdy to get excited about this but it's exciting stuff!!!!!!! I'd love to see your take on surveillance in media because oh boy it's so ready to be talked about!
Thank you! That's a really interesting subject to study (and I get excited about it too, haha). I might cover surveillance and some point as it's definitely a topic I'm interested in. No plans as of now though.
Was recommended you by Zoe. This is brilliant commentary. I'd be curious about your take on digital dualism, especially how it gets debunked. Love this channel. Subbed.
Thank you! I hadn't heard about this digital dualism theory, but I was uncomfortable referring to the physical 'irl' Mima as the 'real' Mima in Perfect Blue so I guess I'm opposed, haha.
I am thinking about the ideas raised by a person I have never met, or even seen. And even if they are real, the script may be the result of several people. The irony is not lost on me.
Hey Grace! You produce video essays of astounding quality. I discovered you from your Night in the Woods video and fell in love with the channel and became a patron soon after. You deserve compensation for this great service to the world: valuable information made easily accessible and digestible to a broad audience. I TRULY hope you can keep doing this. So my question is about your process. I've consider doing video essays myself, but feel intimidated by the editing component. From reading this script before watching the video, it seems like you write the essay/script first, and edit things after. However, there are distinct moments in the script that feel like they were constructed with an edit in mind, such as the jokes. Do you add footage after the script's conception, with perhaps some editing ideas in mind? When and how do you go about gathering footage? Is there a general order? Or maybe you juggle all of this during the research (god that must be fun, stressful, and incredibly stimulating). Everything you do, from the presentation of secondary sources to your transitions, is aesthetically pleasing and flows nicely. 80 hours per video makes sense. I especially loved 6:30 through 6:50 in this one. Almost every clip in your videos conveys the idea at hand in some capacity, and I think that's the ideal and most effective (and creative) use of the form, but you are by far the most consistent with this, and I'd love some insight on to how these finished products come to be. Sorry if this is a huge question or if you get asked it all the time. Thanks again for the amazing content.
Thank you so much! I write the whole script before I come to edit, and very rarely make changes at this stage (though sometimes extra things get cut out). But after I finish the bulk of the research (I continue researching throughout the writing process because I can't help it, haha, but I try to do most of the research and note taking first) I go through whatever media I'm using to select any clips I think might be useful. This is when I start making connections between visuals and writing. I actually didn't have anything visual in mind when I wrote the jokes in this one and just put together whatever I could think of when it came to editing. This nearly backfired on the 'are you sure you want to leave youtube' bit as I couldn't trigger that warning page no matter how I tried, haha. I had to use a screen-grab and it took me ages to find it. But most of the clip matching actually happens after I've finished the narration. I go through all the clips I've pre-selected and find the one I feel best matches each sentence. Actually, a lot of the best matches in this video were pure coincidence. It's been a few years since I saw Serial Experiments Lain as I didn't have time to rewatch the whole series before writing (which I originally intended to do) and I didn't even pre-select clips until after I'd finished writing. The editing in the section you mention here is mostly luck, haha. I spend quite a lot of time choosing each clip and I never like to just use something generic. Sometimes I realise a clip would be better used later in the video and I swap them around. Hope this helps! Feel free to message me on twitter or patreon if you want to ask anything else or need more advice. :D
Hey, this film is bit similar to the psycho, perfect blue , peeping tom. P s thanks a lot for introducing me to this film. I would definitely check it out ,seems like a really good psycho thriller to me.
I don't know if it's your kind of thing, but you should check out Umami's Interface. It isn't finished yet and is kind of hard to describe, but it's definitely unlike anything I've seen before.
I think it's always been true that how other people see us is beyond our control and I suppose being famous amplifies that to overwhelming levels (I am only guessing of course as I only have 18 subcribers ha ha). We all are in some way selling a version of ourselves online.
Can you do a video essay on video game storytelling? It’s a relatively new medium of animation and entertainment. A few perfect examples are The Last of Us, The Overwatch short films, the Uncharted Series, Spider-Man (PS4), and the Halo series. There is an interesting gravitation toward good storytelling in video games that we are craving.
This video is hidden in Australia, IDK why. When I logged in with a VPN to watch a geo-blocked Last Week Tonight clip it was in my recommendeds but it doesn't appear without the VPN?
I am as much the RUclips personality BigBrosoul22 as I am Christian Camp. They are both me. Basically it's like how you act differently around your parents than you do around your peers. You are still you. It's kinda like looking at a crystal from a different angle. Same crystal, but the image is slightly different. Ps this is my personal account. So yeah I have 2 accounts.
Haha, only that it's something I've been thinking of introducing for a while but haven't because of the anxieties I've laid out in this video. But I also thought it was important to bring a bit of levity into this subject.
Just to haunt you with your former Internet-self, a few thoughts on the video: So there is this saying that money is a good servant but a bad master. Am I right, that the key message of this video is the same in regards to the internet? That rather then abandon the internet we should kinda fight to remain the "masters" in the internet?
Serial experiments lain is my favourite anime because it accurately portrays what it's like to be a 14 year old girl and what it's like to interact with the world at that age.
It's a lot like Donny Darko in that way. Even if you don't understand the esoteric themes and abstract plot structure, the portrayal of being a teenager with emotional and mental baggage still connects with you.
do you find criticality to be burdensome? i'm just wondering if you can turn it off and on. it's a question that has been bouncing around in my head. i personally am particularly critical about specific things and less so about others, which is what protects me from deconstructing literally everything and taking the joy out of it so i'm wondering how other people (and specifically people who actually engage in critical thought as a profession or hobby) go about handling the urge to break things down
I'm always breaking things down so don't handle the urge at all, haha. But that's what I find fun and interesting, so it doesn't take any joy out of anything for me.
Perfect Blue messed up that nice 20 year media span because it was ahead of its time.
True!
This one hits hard. I was addicted to the internet earlier than most. Graduate of year 2006, I was riding that first wave of the internet as young adults, getting into forums, getting into chat rooms, sharing my (really badly made) content, and reveling in being acknowledged for it. As a shy kid with disabilities and physical deformities, I felt neglected. Online, I was heard, and directly by peers, even an audience, that I knew would appreciate what I had to say. Maybe not agree, maybe even hate, but it was different at least than not being heard. I went to great lengths to access the internet against both my parents and my school's wishes, to the point of nearly being expelled for violating school rules.
During a sit down with my father in an attempt to understand my addictive, destructive behavior, he tried to explain that he understood where I was coming from: That I was anonymous and could be anyone online. But that wasn't my thought process; It wasn't that I could be anyone online, but that I could pour everything I felt was important in myself out onto a medium where I would be seen, heard, and acknowledged. I had an existence where previously I felt I was no one.
Time moved on, and eventually I was just given access in my senior year, and really cultivated my online personas. I'm no star, but over the years I've made my mark on certain communities; Even elevated myself to being recognizable on certain reddits. I certainly have the points to show for it: My words HAVE had an impact on hundreds if not thousands of people on occasion. And it really IS addicting, even in the smaller, non-celebratory ways. Nobody is going to be viewing my channel because I'm not that kind of creator. But every upvote on reddit, every like on twitter, every retweet and response is an acknowledgement of my existence that I would never have offline, tucked away in my little room in a small town that I can barely transport myself around due to disabilities.
If I were to lose access to the internet, or if the sites I relied on for putting my thoughts and impressions out into the world to see were to vanish, I in turn would in a sense vanish. There are people online that I feel closer to than I do to most people I've met and know Offline. My ability to speak out, and be heard, all of that would be gone, and I'm not entirely sure what I'd be left with without it. It's kind of a frightening thought.
Thank you very much for sharing your experience. The internet has done, and continues to do, a lot of good in providing voices for many people who have to struggle to be heard. ❤
Did you know (judging by how good and diverse this video was, you probably do) the BBC test card you used there (Test Card F) features a digital double, so to speak. The little girl is actually left handed, the whole photo was reversed to make her right-handed as having a leftie was deemed too deviant for TV. Hence that right-handed girl only existed in digital form and has had more combined screentime than most humans, and is certainly better known than her left-handed irl twin. First time finding your channel, great video! Admittedly I say that about anything featuring Satoshi Kon but the whole thing was awesome.
Thank you!
I actually didn't know that! That's so interesting, and definitely relevant to the video, haha.
Great video as always but once again I am baffled by the sheer range of sources from dozens of mediums and genres you call upon in such a short video.
Does an obscene amount of information collect in your head over the years and get called upon when you find a purpose for it? Do you consume an obscene amount of media every day and start to pick out trends worth demonstrating in a video? Or do you do an obscene amount of research for each video having come up with an idea worth exploring? None of these explanations are satisfying.
Thank you!
Haha, it's all three!
Kinda makes me think of r/instagramreality, where people compare meticulously staged photos with candid shots, and revel in "discovering the truth." People seem to really enjoy ripping apart the manufactured images of certain online personalities, yet the "reality" they use to tear folks down are often a misrepresentation in and of themselves. It seems that we often allow ourselves to have depth and complexity, yet can't help but summarize others with one single video, picture, or status update.
Interesting take. You could also say that in seeing someone present themself in a way we perceive as “false” or not genuine, we can fall into a trap of dehumanizing them. Rather than acknowledge that this is a person, we treat them like a prop on a film set. Something to be edited and revealed “behind the scenes.”
Tl;Dr: People are jerks online because we let ourselves dehumanize others
Oh man there is a lot to unpack here
I think you're really starting to establish yourself as the video essayist's video essayist - I think no one else is pushing the format into interesting places and using it to explore interesting ideas as much as you have been, and I think this is some of your finest work to date.
Fantastic video as always, you put the rest of us to shame :)
Thank you so much!
The closer look, now you see it, wisecrack, big joel. My dude explore more this genre
@@akasakikawasaki1890 I'm familiar with them all and make what some would call video essays myself (I personally don't, but it's in the same style) and I say what I did because I really believe WSGAT puts out better video essays on more interesting topics than anyone else out there.
The people that for my money come closest aren't the names you mentioned, personally I've never been a major fan of any of them except Wisecrack, (and their recent stuff doesn't hold a candle to their older stuff - I miss 8bit philosophy and Thug Notes) I prefer the work of hbomberguy, Lindsay Ellis or Contrapoints who have put out individual videos I'd put a little ahead of WSGAT's (hbomberguy's SLA 3: CAD is one of the best videos I've ever seen on RUclips, Lindsay Ellis' The Whole Plate series is a perennial favourite and Contrapoints' Debating the at-right and 'the left' videos are probably the only videos that give SLA 3: CAD a run for its money) but none are as consistent.
I'm very familiar with the format, and while that gives me no more authority than you, what I can say is that of all the channels I watch WSGAT's work is the stuff I think is most impressive, and knowing what goes into these videos from a production standpoint is why I'm inclined to call her the video essayist's video essayist - and also why I've seen her work held in particularly high regard on places like r/videoessay.
This is, of course, just my opinion, but I will defend it if people start waving around other channels as though I would appreciate WSGAT less if I watched them.
@@VARIOUShorses thanks for explaining m8 ill check the ones you listed, i like her stuff too, thats why im subscribed to her, but i still dont see the "extra" you're seeing
@@akasakikawasaki1890 Personally I think the 'extra' something is in all of what she does - it's the way she stacks multiple media examples, multiple theories and multiple philosophies together in one video to come to her conclusions - it's her editing that's not overbearing ala nerdwriter nor underdone ala my stuff and countless others but just in that sweet spot with particularly good audio editing (these are things I notice as a wannabe professional video editor, a good edit is either invisible or deliberate and impactful and WSGAT videos absolutely nail the invisible stuff) and finally its in her selection of media, she's constantly picking interesting media that's a bit left of centre, so even if a point of hers doesn't land I'm still offered a list of media I might not have seen.
That is all personal of course, but I guess I wouldn't point to any singular aspect that makes her stuff special in my eyes, it's really just that in every aspect of her work she doesn't skimp out, she pays attention to everything, even the aspects that probably won't see any return on her time investment. It's a personal thing of course and not something that everyone will agree with - plenty of people love nerdwriter's editing and plenty more might not be impressed by WSGAT's, but that's my take.
How has this channel not blown up yet?
❤
"The phaaaaaaantom of youtube is there, inside my mind"
Sing once again with me our strange duet
My power over you grows stronger yet
And though you turn from me to glance behind
The Phantom of the RUclips is there
Inside your mind
this totally reminds me of Alan Resnick’s video “live forever as you are now”
God this is just…so good?? I've been trying to come up with a clever pithy comment for days and I've properly given up, witch. -S
Haha, thank you! I'll take a 'this is so good' any day! :D
Awesome as always Grace...hold on a sec....Who even is Grace? Is it a bot? How to know? Is this a Black Mirror episode?!?!!?!?!?!? *throws laptop across the room*
:D
Love Lain and Perfect Blue but I never thought about how similar the concepts were because if the way they were presented. (I am not smart)
I love this kind of horror and hope it gets more recognized and also talked about since there’s some truth to it. Great video as always!
Thank you!
The research for your videos is insane. Your channel deserves to blow up. Also amazingly edited. Your voice is perfect too.
Thank you so much!
You always get me thinking a way no one else quite does. Fantastic as always!
Thank you!
I love your work, Grace. Thank you so much.
Thank you!
Thanks for bringing up perfect blue. All through the first part it's all I could think about in terms of how similar it is to cam
I love this channel because it introduces me to new movies/shows/etc that I probably would have never heard of that now I need to go and watch and think about. Thank you!
❤
This is the reason why I watched Cam, such a great movie.
I once had a really long discussion with friends about how the digital age has provided us a fluidity of identity. We can be whoever we'd like to imagine, yet are limited in diving into that identity by the perception of our immediate environment.
I'm also not the kind of person who does the research to put such ideas into words so eloquently. I prefer to express myself visually. It's just how my mind forms ideas. Using visual media to show how these existing ideas are reflected in art puts you among some of my most favourite philosophers. It gives me something to reflect my work on and weigh my own words. Thank you.
Thank you very much! :D
This is something I feel like I've been grappling with for a bit just in differing friend groups and didn't feel like I had a proper framework to articulate.
Dear god I love this channel, you are one of the ones I feel excited to watch and grab myself a glass of tea to make the experience marvelous
Thank you so much!
Perfect, polished, fun and entertaining as always. Good job ❤
Thank you!
Congrats on that moment at 12:33 where you time it so the steam starts hissing out in the background clip at the exact moment you say "porousness".
...also the all round great video.
Genuinely didn't expect anyone to notice that! :D
Haha, thank you!
the editing in this is awesome as always and i really like the direction you went with this video where you used a bit of humor alongside the analyses. can't wait for your next video!
Thank you very much!
I have goosebumps now...
The conclusion of the video reminded me of the quote from Bo Burnham - "If you can live your life without an audience, you should do it."
Or maybe i didnt get the conclusion ?
Anyways, great video as always. Black Mirror had a great episode regarding this phantom persona in which a widow gets her husband's clone made from the online identity of his. Check that out. It was terrific.
Thank you! Yeah, I remember that Black Mirror episode and it actually crossed my mind while writing this one. :D
This is brilliant. I marvel at your remarkable ability to draw from an array of disparate sources to illustrate and elucidate a point which is both interesting and important.
(Also, top notch editing)
I do wonder though about something you don't mention: the economic aspects of things. It's not just our personal sense of worth that we tie to our identities online but, increasingly, our livelihood. It's all very well saying that we should moderate our beholdenness to our online self, but if we depend on our online self to eat, to pay rent, then our identity becomes inextricably linked to our survival, and that seems really dangerous.
Thank you! There was a bit I cut out about Alice being professionally and financially tied to her persona. But I don't think being financially dependant on our online lives necessarily means they have to have more power over us emotionally. I think a big part of negotiating a potential problem is just realising it's there. Alice doesn't have to leave camming, only be more aware the kind of obsessive and negative thought patterns that can accompany success and notoriety.
But I agree it's a more treacherous situation!
This was fantastic. I’ve came across a lot of misreadings of cam but this was so spot on!
Thank you!
the number of viewers doesn't change how great this channel is :)
:D
This remains me of serial experiments lain.
Edit: knew it.
As someone who was once deep in a double life of heroin addiction, and also a closeted trans woman (now out and clean for many years) - creating an artificial identity is something many people already did without the internet or written word. Having certain groups of friends that we may act a little different around and whatnot. Some of us, like myself, obviously had a very extreme version of this truth going on. But so many already wore masks irl before the net - the internet just brings more digital life to them, and with that digital life comes much more depth and danger.
well i wasn't PLANNING on having an existential crisis today, but here we are
seriously though, amazing video. Haven't seen anything that made me just... think, this much, for a while.
Haha, they have a way of sneaking up on you.
Thank you!
your works has always been great in terms of substance, but you are clearly getting better and better in pacing!
I wish you a lot of viewers!
Thank you!
Are there any specific books/individuals best to look into under this subject matter of technology's influence on the self? Didn't know concepts like auto/biography had already been thought up.
This writing flow is miraculous. The transitions from analysis to commentary to instructional are seamless. It's fun to analyze.
Channel found by recommendation on front page. Archived 4/28/2019.
I'd recommend the journal Online Lives 2.0 (which you can read on Jstor: www.jstor.org/stable/i24570259) and the book Alone Together by Sherry Turkle. :)
Wonderful video, editing, writing, as always! I particularly liked the article style you used for the quotes, having the text line break at the edge of the screen. It just seems to really fit the unnerving tone of the video!
Thank you!
Lol I was just watching Beyond Ghibli's "Idol" video. Very coincidental. XD
Great job as always!
Thank you!
Fascinating video! Subbed!
Thank you!
Another fantastic subject, I never got around to seeing Cam, but plan to tommorow.
It's a great film! :D
Anything that incorporates Serial Experiments Lain gets a 10/10 from me.
:D
I found your channel because I was looking for Strucci-like channels and, at the end, you recommended her channel!
Strucci is amazing! :D
Haha, was fun to see you break persona a little bit in this video (and fittingly ironic considering the subject matter). This essay felt like a solid companion to BeyondGhibli's video on Perfect Blue and how idol culture has permeated the world (and namely the west in a newish sense) in the form of RUclipsrs and other online personalities.
I haven't seen that, I'll have to check it out!
great vid, always look forward to your uploads, there always so insightful
Thank you!
Very thought-provoking video, thanks.
Thank you!
another great episode on a subject I find endlessly interesting! Amazing how much thinking about the "self" online has shifted in just a few years. I feel like it speaks some similar ideas Lindsey Ellis explored in her video on RUclips and manufacturing authenticity.
sidenote: I loved the little sparks of humour throughout this, made me smile :)
Thank you! And I'm glad you liked the humour, haha! I didn't want it to end up too serious.
And you're right there are definitely parallels with Lindsay Ellis' video. :)
Yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes!!! New vid!!!!
:D
It’s interesting to consider the feedback loop created by digital identity interactions.
An individual presents an identity online and the way others perceive and endorse it will further drive and shape that digital persona. The identity is now not entirely derived from the independent will of the individual, but rather how many “likes” and “views” it can get and the cold hard algorithm that facilitates this. Changing and morphing in accordance to the whims of the viewer at each loop of feedback.
By the way, as always, I’m amazed by the how many concepts you can explore in such a short video effectively. Connecting one to the other seamlessly.
another absolutely fabulous upload. wow!
❤
I love your style of presenting an idea, the visuals and the interpretation are really interesting and well done. Also I love how broad your topic range is, if I would make youtube videos, I would try to make some like these.
Thank you very much!
I love your essays
Thank you!
This was absolutely excellent
Thank you!
I’m always so happy when you post! I just became a patron, I can’t wait to see more of your work!
Thank you very much!
Amazing work as always! I loved the humor in this one.
Thank you!
Another great video!
(And btw, whenever I find a new youtuber I like I sometimes go through their previous content and start to comment but then feel weird about it because it is usually at least a couple of years old and I am a self concious mess. So why would people do it AND want to try to start an argument on such an old video is beyond me. So strange)
Thank you!
Haha, I feel weird about that too! But I do still like getting comments on my old videos. :D
Or at least as long as they don't mention something I said in the video, and then I think: "did I say that? I don't remember saying that?!", and it all starts again.
you're such an inspiration to me
❤
This is VERY good! 👍👍👍
Thank you very much!
Great Video, just going to mention that the theme of duality is a common one in Japanese films from the 90s as directors started questioning the identity of Japan during the Lost Decade (alongside a cautious fear of modern technology, these themes were combined I guess for Perfect Blue and Serial Experiment Lain).
If you want to watch some non-Internet inspired versions of this I recommend Cure,Eyes of the Spider and Serpents Path by Kiyoshi Kurosawa which deal with the mental process of having to act like two separate people in a disturbing way.
Thanks for the recommendations!
Fascinating, thanks for a great video!
Thank you!
Fantastic video as always! Also I loved that you were joking more in this one. Please keep it up you have a great sense of humour!
Thank you so much!
Man, your video editing has really improved! Good work!
Thank you!
man! this is great, i've been looking for a succinct analysis of digital doubles in media! I'm a student in surveillance studies and I'm most interested in looking at deleuze's concept of the dividual, which is similar to a digital double except it connects the concept of capitalization and industry to how and why we produce data. I think this is an interesting starting point, specifically in the case of cam because alienation occurred through her work! it's kinda nerdy to get excited about this but it's exciting stuff!!!!!!! I'd love to see your take on surveillance in media because oh boy it's so ready to be talked about!
Thank you! That's a really interesting subject to study (and I get excited about it too, haha).
I might cover surveillance and some point as it's definitely a topic I'm interested in. No plans as of now though.
Great job as always.
Thank you!
Was recommended you by Zoe. This is brilliant commentary. I'd be curious about your take on digital dualism, especially how it gets debunked. Love this channel. Subbed.
Thank you!
I hadn't heard about this digital dualism theory, but I was uncomfortable referring to the physical 'irl' Mima as the 'real' Mima in Perfect Blue so I guess I'm opposed, haha.
First video I've seen from you
wooooow, I'm going to watch every one of them
You have a great style
Thank you!
I hope the others don't disappoint!
Always brilliant.
Thank you!
You have good taste in anime
My uni course just recommended this video to me, props, your considered educational now :)
I'm making the big time now, haha. :D
You're absolutely brilliant, keep it up! Could you please cite the video you said we should watch at the end? I didn't quite catch it.
Thank you! It should come up in the top right corner, but it's this one!
ruclips.net/video/KLA-uFKjQ-g/видео.html
This is *SO AMAZING* Grace!! My favourite video so far (though I am a bit biased of course, doing a PhD about RUclips creator culture!)
Thank you! ❤
Haha, I too find the subject of youtube endlessly fascinating.
@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat I hear you sister!
Michel focault would of loved/hated this (he would of loved the video, hated the truth behind it)
I am thinking about the ideas raised by a person I have never met, or even seen. And even if they are real, the script may be the result of several people.
The irony is not lost on me.
Haha, well at least the script is only written by me. And there's only one me... right? 0_0
LOL I am an idiot. I am looking all over for this movie....then see it is already in my Netflix Q.
You are amazing
❤
Hey Grace!
You produce video essays of astounding quality. I discovered you from your Night in the Woods video and fell in love with the channel and became a patron soon after. You deserve compensation for this great service to the world: valuable information made easily accessible and digestible to a broad audience. I TRULY hope you can keep doing this.
So my question is about your process. I've consider doing video essays myself, but feel intimidated by the editing component. From reading this script before watching the video, it seems like you write the essay/script first, and edit things after. However, there are distinct moments in the script that feel like they were constructed with an edit in mind, such as the jokes.
Do you add footage after the script's conception, with perhaps some editing ideas in mind? When and how do you go about gathering footage? Is there a general order? Or maybe you juggle all of this during the research (god that must be fun, stressful, and incredibly stimulating).
Everything you do, from the presentation of secondary sources to your transitions, is aesthetically pleasing and flows nicely. 80 hours per video makes sense. I especially loved 6:30 through 6:50 in this one. Almost every clip in your videos conveys the idea at hand in some capacity, and I think that's the ideal and most effective (and creative) use of the form, but you are by far the most consistent with this, and I'd love some insight on to how these finished products come to be.
Sorry if this is a huge question or if you get asked it all the time.
Thanks again for the amazing content.
Thank you so much!
I write the whole script before I come to edit, and very rarely make changes at this stage (though sometimes extra things get cut out). But after I finish the bulk of the research (I continue researching throughout the writing process because I can't help it, haha, but I try to do most of the research and note taking first) I go through whatever media I'm using to select any clips I think might be useful. This is when I start making connections between visuals and writing.
I actually didn't have anything visual in mind when I wrote the jokes in this one and just put together whatever I could think of when it came to editing. This nearly backfired on the 'are you sure you want to leave youtube' bit as I couldn't trigger that warning page no matter how I tried, haha. I had to use a screen-grab and it took me ages to find it.
But most of the clip matching actually happens after I've finished the narration. I go through all the clips I've pre-selected and find the one I feel best matches each sentence. Actually, a lot of the best matches in this video were pure coincidence. It's been a few years since I saw Serial Experiments Lain as I didn't have time to rewatch the whole series before writing (which I originally intended to do) and I didn't even pre-select clips until after I'd finished writing. The editing in the section you mention here is mostly luck, haha.
I spend quite a lot of time choosing each clip and I never like to just use something generic. Sometimes I realise a clip would be better used later in the video and I swap them around.
Hope this helps!
Feel free to message me on twitter or patreon if you want to ask anything else or need more advice. :D
good vid
Hey, this film is bit similar to the psycho, perfect blue , peeping tom.
P s thanks a lot for introducing me to this film. I would definitely check it out ,seems like a really good psycho thriller to me.
Where can I find the full piece that you quoted from about auto/biography and the digital I?
Molly Pulda's essay is here: www.jstor.org/stable/24570352
I'd also recommend the whole journal issue it's a part of, Online Lives 2.0.
Great, thanks! @@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat
Me when I see a new essay: What did I do to deserve such Grace?
EDIT: Pun was unintentional lol
Haha, my name contains endless punning potential.
10:37 Is really hilarious 😂
Haha, so close!
OMG I Love your work Grace! It wouldn't be the same if you used another reference just to match the 20 year gap.
*didn't expect for you to respond.😁
Thank you! :D
I don't know if it's your kind of thing, but you should check out Umami's Interface. It isn't finished yet and is kind of hard to describe, but it's definitely unlike anything I've seen before.
I think it's always been true that how other people see us is beyond our control and I suppose being famous amplifies that to overwhelming levels (I am only guessing of course as I only have 18 subcribers ha ha).
We all are in some way selling a version of ourselves online.
Can you do a video essay on video game storytelling? It’s a relatively new medium of animation and entertainment. A few perfect examples are The Last of Us, The Overwatch short films, the Uncharted Series, Spider-Man (PS4), and the Halo series. There is an interesting gravitation toward good storytelling in video games that we are craving.
I go where the whims of ideas take me, but this isn't something I'm currently planning on covering, sorry. :(
True.
This video is hidden in Australia, IDK why. When I logged in with a VPN to watch a geo-blocked Last Week Tonight clip it was in my recommendeds but it doesn't appear without the VPN?
Thanks for letting me know! YT hasn't told me there are any restrictions, I'll look into it!
let's all love lain
I am as much the RUclips personality BigBrosoul22 as I am Christian Camp. They are both me. Basically it's like how you act differently around your parents than you do around your peers. You are still you. It's kinda like looking at a crystal from a different angle. Same crystal, but the image is slightly different. Ps this is my personal account. So yeah I have 2 accounts.
Should we read anything into you adding more of your personality with breaking of character to this particular video?
Haha, only that it's something I've been thinking of introducing for a while but haven't because of the anxieties I've laid out in this video. But I also thought it was important to bring a bit of levity into this subject.
...could the Grace that has the references for her citations put them in the description? ;)
Sorry, that Grace is on Patreon, haha!
Just to haunt you with your former Internet-self, a few thoughts on the video:
So there is this saying that money is a good servant but a bad master. Am I right, that the key message of this video is the same in regards to the internet? That rather then abandon the internet we should kinda fight to remain the "masters" in the internet?
Oh no, my past self! :O
I don’t like the master/servant language, but I guess that’s essentially what I’m saying, haha.
@@WhatsSoGreatAboutThat Ok :D
Thanks for the response!
Serial experiments lain is my favourite anime because it accurately portrays what it's like to be a 14 year old girl and what it's like to interact with the world at that age.
It's a lot like Donny Darko in that way. Even if you don't understand the esoteric themes and abstract plot structure, the portrayal of being a teenager with emotional and mental baggage still connects with you.
As K Punk was to blogging, so...
Damn I'm younger than the internet...
Well, all things in moderation. Y'all need to unplug and go camping.
do you find criticality to be burdensome? i'm just wondering if you can turn it off and on. it's a question that has been bouncing around in my head. i personally am particularly critical about specific things and less so about others, which is what protects me from deconstructing literally everything and taking the joy out of it so i'm wondering how other people (and specifically people who actually engage in critical thought as a profession or hobby) go about handling the urge to break things down
I'm always breaking things down so don't handle the urge at all, haha. But that's what I find fun and interesting, so it doesn't take any joy out of anything for me.
Great video but the combo of digital existentialism and creepy anime shit made for terrible post-midnight viewing.
Haha, thank you!
If we want to be concise. You should not give a f**k about how others think of you.