Hi guys!
First of all, I want to thank Sarah and our English course because I finally discover what You Tube is and how it works. Sadly, You Tube is well known from the news on TV: often stupid pranks and silly tricks among teenagers are shot with mobile phones by boys and published on You Tube where everyone can watch them. Recently, parents of disabled children discovered violence and abuses on their sons thanks to videos in You Tube. Some days ago, two students used the camera of their mobile phone to shoot one of their classmates while she was ran down by a bus. The girl died in the accident and their friends published the video on You Tube. I have no words when something like that happens…
Even if You Tube nowadays is on everyone’s lips, I’m not ashamed to confess that I visited it last Wednesday in the lab for the first time. I thought it was something different: greater, more eye-catching… I don’t know but I was struck by its simplicity and its clear layout. I watched some videos: some of them are funny, others are ironic or satiric, others are quite witty and others are simply stupid and senseless. I think that this is the main danger of a video sharing tool like You Tube: you can find whatever you want there and so you have to be very careful when you’re looking for something. I mean, I don’t believe that You Tube is always a dangerous tool: the problem is that tools like it need to be used and visited with a critical eye but, often, the greatest amount of its users are teenagers or even children who are not aware of all its potentialities and its risks. So, maybe it is right that people could publish whatever they want on it, but users should be aware of it and they should remember that a critical approach is always necessary in order not to be simply enchanted by it. As far as my language learning is concerned, I think that You Tube as well can be a useful tool because in the majority of the videos people speak English and, especially, colloquial and informal English.
Before adding a comment, please have a look at the nice video I found out in You Tube. It’s a small cat waking up. It is so tender… If you don’t guess it from my choice of the video, cats are my favourite animals!
Enjoy it!
Elena
First of all, I want to thank Sarah and our English course because I finally discover what You Tube is and how it works. Sadly, You Tube is well known from the news on TV: often stupid pranks and silly tricks among teenagers are shot with mobile phones by boys and published on You Tube where everyone can watch them. Recently, parents of disabled children discovered violence and abuses on their sons thanks to videos in You Tube. Some days ago, two students used the camera of their mobile phone to shoot one of their classmates while she was ran down by a bus. The girl died in the accident and their friends published the video on You Tube. I have no words when something like that happens…
Even if You Tube nowadays is on everyone’s lips, I’m not ashamed to confess that I visited it last Wednesday in the lab for the first time. I thought it was something different: greater, more eye-catching… I don’t know but I was struck by its simplicity and its clear layout. I watched some videos: some of them are funny, others are ironic or satiric, others are quite witty and others are simply stupid and senseless. I think that this is the main danger of a video sharing tool like You Tube: you can find whatever you want there and so you have to be very careful when you’re looking for something. I mean, I don’t believe that You Tube is always a dangerous tool: the problem is that tools like it need to be used and visited with a critical eye but, often, the greatest amount of its users are teenagers or even children who are not aware of all its potentialities and its risks. So, maybe it is right that people could publish whatever they want on it, but users should be aware of it and they should remember that a critical approach is always necessary in order not to be simply enchanted by it. As far as my language learning is concerned, I think that You Tube as well can be a useful tool because in the majority of the videos people speak English and, especially, colloquial and informal English.
Before adding a comment, please have a look at the nice video I found out in You Tube. It’s a small cat waking up. It is so tender… If you don’t guess it from my choice of the video, cats are my favourite animals!
Enjoy it!
Elena
