YouTube in the New Yorker

It's back to school and what are the youth of America thinking about? Well, according to this recent New Yorker cover by Bob Staak entitled, "Back to Cool," this is a breakdown of what is on the minds of American kids today:

25% My Space
10% YouTube
10% Jessica Alba
10% Snoop Dogg
10% Counter-Strike
10% Manga
10% Scarlett Johansson
10% AIM
10% Video iPod
10% Algebra
10% PS3
10% Family Guy

What? No Jessica Simpson? Perhaps her star is finally waning? OK, maybe those percentages do not quite add up to 100% but math was never my strong point. The point is, once again, YouTube has shoved its way into our popular consciousness like the addictive treat it is.

I go through my ups and downs with YouTube. If I am feeling particularly fragile, I don't read the comments on my Sofia Coppola and Bai Ling vids as they are more than likely going to be painful. For instance, here is some recent love:

Gigan83 (1 day ago)

This bitch is really annoying. She should also read the piece about Sofia in the latest Vanity Fair.

freeloaner85 (1 day ago)

Is this girl an Indian? She looks ugly and scary, lol.

But I am not fishing for pity because then there are the great days when I meet cool people like Erin in Oregon, Parisa in NYC, John in the Bronx (read his amazing blog post here), Indiewire's James Israel, author Scott Westerfeld and Damion in Ohio who even quoted me (!!??see link!!???) on his website in this amazing tribute to sucking!! YES!

"Now is the time to make it happen. It's just us doing this and the doing is worth our time, our passion, and our effort. Let's put our junk together and start sucking." - Damion Armentrout

It is so cool to meet like minded people through the magic of the internet which is simultaneously making us more lonely AND helping us to find people who share our interests and snarky commentary. So today I say, thanks YouTube, nice going back to cool with you!