I feel I should validate something.

LINKS HO!
Ay, many a link will follow is this 'ere passage.

In case you haven't picked this up, which is highly likely, depending on how much time you spend with me/if you're Aleks Grimes, (Aleks, I figure if I keep linking to your blog, you'll update it eventually) I kinda really like YouTube. In fact, I might even call myself a YouTube fangirl. Though I do try to imagine YouTube complexly.
I absolutely love it, spend all of my time and internet downloads on it, and have formed these attachments to people who I will never meet, and ideas that spring from the other side of the world. I can imagine, and I know for a fact that it does, that to some people, this fascination with YouTube seems ridiculous, illogical and kinda weird, so I want to take a moment to explain it.

If you were to take a survey, asking people what they mainly use YouTube for, I suspect that over 50% of the answers would be "Uh, for videos of funny cats. You mean to imply there are OTHER things on there?"
In fact, I think that if you were to take a survery, asking people what they mainly use the internet for, they would come up with a very similar, cat-related answer (the internet is nothing if not a place for cute/amusing/silly pictures of cats with misspelled, white text accompanying phrases).

But I digress.

YouTube is a place that, while 5 years ago no-one knew of it, now gets over 24 hours worth of video uploaded every minute. And a fair portion of that is funny cats, and fair portion is funny other-animals-that-aren't-cats-but-also-do-cute-things and another fair portion is just other funny videos, of skits or of people being stupid.

But what you may not know about, is the YouTube community. This ranges from people like Natalie Tran and Charlie McDonnell right through Kristina Horner and Eddplant and then to such folk as Handful of Minutes and Simon, who I linked to a few posts ago.
And do you know something? All of these people, from 800,000 subscribers, down to 1,000 subscribers are connected. And I don't just mean because they all use YouTube.

People are welcomed in, and they form friendships, and relationships, and record companies and huge projects that decrease world suck and they have YouTube Gatherings, mission projects, and even a summer con and all this is done through the people on YouTube.

I am just perpetually amazed by the things YouTubers can do, and how friendships can form between those who count as YouTube Famous, and those whose subscriber count is at least half family members.
And that a community like this can exist in a place where a whole lot of the videos are of double rainbows and people putting cats in bins. Everyone loves a good Cat Gets Put In Bin video.
And also that this community can be so freqeuntly overlooked.

Ever seen a Ray William Johnson video? What about a Shane Dawson video? Yeah, both YouTubers, both in the top 5 global partners subscriber count, and both part of the YouTube community. I mean, I don't think they're about to go to VidCon 2011 or anything (like me!) but they, and many more well known YouTubers are friends with lesser known YouTubers and many a nerd.

And this, odd little Oddlings, is why YouTube is such a wonderful thing; that is can be a place for funny things, for sad things, for memories, for naked girls, for kittehs, for memes, for music, for copyright violation, for crudity, for nerdiness, for haters, for lovers, for the old, for the new, and for the subscribers, or for the community.

Blog Summary:
I really love YouTube.