Long live YouTube

I love YouTube. I love YouTube the same way I loved Napster when I first stumbled upon it as a pre-teen. Now, as a teen in my prime, instead of downloading music, I can watch all kinds of videos. I don't even have to wait for them to download. \nWith YouTube, I can instantly watch live clips from my favorite artists, catch memorable moments from the talk shows I fall asleep to and find full episodes of classic childhood television programs. \nI have seen so many wonderful things on YouTube. I even love the amateur videos. Upon searching for indie band Of Montreal's live cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," I found a true hit. It was a group of adolescent girls, dressed in retro attire, dancing to Of Montreal's "Disconnect the Dots." While another girl was sitting on the couch, flapping her right foot in the air, the family pit bull appeared, slightly bewildered. It was all too familiar to me.\nAs a newly arrived freshman, I often feel like I am appearing in my own version of "The Simple Life." But instead of leaving L.A., I left A.L. (Alabama) and all of the comforts of home. And while Paris and Nicole left their mansions for small-town living, I left my house in suburbia for dorm living. \nParis and Nicole no longer had limousines, stylists or credit cards. I no longer have my own car, bathroom or home-cooked dinner. The most traumatizing dorm-life shock for a pop culture junkie like myself, however, is the loss of my digital cable box. \nNow with only 40 TV channels in my room, I use YouTube to remember my cable days. I can watch clips from "The Simple Life," and I actually relate to Paris and Nicole. When I'm feeling homesick, I click to a 55-second clip of my friend Russ dancing at our friend Kelsi's birthday bash. Suddenly, I'm not so far away from home. \nSince its conception in 2005, YouTube has turned into a phenomenon. Formed by three former PayPal employees, it has recently been ranked the tenth most popular Web site on the Internet. Its popularity has been growing faster than MySpace. Who ever thought video clips might beat default pics? \nMost recently, YouTube has created job opportunities. After the WB canceled the TV series Nobody's Watching, the show garnered 500,000 hits on YouTube. The show became so popular, in fact, that NBC decided to revive Nobody's Watching. In another example, 20-year-old Brooke Brodack, known for parodying pop hits on YouTube, was offered a production job from Carson Daly based on her performances. Maybe I should start posting some of my material. \nAs YouTube becomes more and more popular, I fear it might meet the same fate as Napster. It has already faced several copyright infringement problems, and things can only get worse. I only hope that I will always bask in its freeness and never have to pay for my beloved clips. \nFor now, however, I'll enjoy YouTube while I still can.