10-year-old Lists YouTube Favorites

A well-rounded girl with interests in print and digital media.

Our food and media fast came to an end when the sun went down yesterday. Getting to work, we filled our bellies and minds, not with just mere content, but with delicious things that brought pleasure and delight, laughter and groans.

The main thought was that YouTube is becoming indispensable as the platform that catapults a performer to the realm of super-stardom. Part of this realization came from (finally) becoming clued in to the Korean rapper Psy and his YouTube hit "Gangnam Style." Hundreds of million of hits, countless spinoffs, parodies, all because a cherubic rapper from a tony suburb of Seoul posted a video. I love the idea a song in Korean can become an international hit.

The daughter found a mashup video that takes "Gangnan Style" and brings it to a video poking fun at the "Slender Man" video game. The game posits a creepy tall man with no face pursing game-players. The kid is lobbying for this game for the holidays.

Moving from satire and music to the world of social commentary are a few videos from Ryan Higa (Nigahiga channel on YouTube). Higa, a Japanese-American from Hawaii,  is a young film student who makes his comic videos with minimal technical support and snappy editing. He makes me excited about the possibilities of what a person can accomplish at home with her/his devices. I admit I'm also late to this party as Higa's videos are a big hit and have been viewed in aggregate over a billion times.

I am complicit in our family's unhealthy tittering about flatulence. I know I'll be sorry for my lack of resolve in keeping a stern face, but this is just the way it is.