my glass bottle YouTube video

I’m still thinking about the value of our ability to share using social media. The little things we like to contribute (and the reasons why we are compelled to do this) made me take a new look at a short (45 second) experimental video I put on YouTube not quite four years ago. Related to the family glass hobby, this video has now had over 72,000 hits (yes, it’s hard to believe).

There’s nothing special about the production of this video — it’s just a bunch of still photos cobbled together with iMovie. I was playing with ideas related to recycled glass and YouTube offered some free, very psychedelic music that inspired me. There’s really not much more about it that I can say. I’ve posted other videos intended to promote a message but this really doesn’t have any of that going for it 🙂

YouTube analytics shows interesting facts about who is looking at this video, but there’s no real pattern that I can discern. The hits come from all over the world, from slightly more females than males, from many search engines and linked pages, etc. The best news is that most people watch it through to the end (well, it *is* short).

The whole thing is sort of mysterious (why do people view this video?) but it seems to sum up why we should care about not allowing overly-protective legislation to shut down what’s great about the internet — anybody’s few moments of whimsical self-expression can be “out there” and that’s something to be cherished.

Coping, Resilience and Zimbardo’s presentations in Croatia

dove

I received a message via my Youtube account today from someone who had just attended a talk by Dr. Philip Zimbardo during his speaking engagement in Croatia. Here’s a link to that message which is basically to thank me for my video “Echoes from the Square” which Zimbardo had shown as part of the presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMrf_sd3gkA

My understanding is that Zimbardo is focusing on coping and resilience for this tour. I’m sure he’ll be referencing the Stanford Prison Experiment and his book “The Lucifer Effect”. What is really thrilling to me is that he followed through with his plan of using my video, which tells a story of coping and rebuilding.

Dr Zimbardo had requested permission to use the video  about six months ago and I thought I might never know if he would actually end up presenting it or not. Thank you to Youtube user “TheAshes987” for using the comment feature and letting me know 🙂