HOW I BECAME A CONVERTED VLOGGER AND WHY I MADE MY FIRST VIDEO:

A Student's Journey and discovery of YouTube - Learning from the Digital Ethnography Working Group @ KSU.

My first video tracks the journey I began when researching the question - Why do people blog? - as a project for one of my Information Science classes.

I first posed the question in a class discussion with great derision. I felt that "spewing your guts" all over the internet and sharing them with the world was "stupid and needy."

My professor convinced me to use the question as my research topic. He also sent me the link to Dr. Wesch's Web 2.0 video.

I was captivated by Wesch's portrayal of the "big picture" and the feeling of interconnectedness it gave me.

Inspired, I began searching through all of his videos and those of his Digital Ethnography students.

I began branching out by watching not only the students' videos - but also the videos in their playlists and favorites. If I drew a map of all the videos I watched - starting with Dr. Wesch's in the center - it would look a great deal like a family tree. (This "tree effect" fascinates me and I could go on forever on that tangent, so I'll force myself to stop there.)

Over time my question evolved to - How is blogging changing the world? - and then finally to - How is vlogging changing US?

After watching hundreds of videos I finally decided - (duh! forehead slap) -
to create my own account. The humanity and connection I witnessed in my many hours of viewing transformed me from cynical skeptic to converted vlogger.

I created this video as my final report and played it for my class during our project presentations. I wanted to take them on my journey of discovery. I wanted to show what I had learned and try to answer some of the questions I journaled along the way.

Most of all I wanted to create something that would portray my own "RETHINKING" and a few of the ways in which we all might be RETHINKING US.

Thank you, Dr. Wesch and DE students.

"We're as unfinished as the shoreline upon this beach." - Joan Anderson

Check my playlists to see all of the videos I used in the creation of RETHINKING US.