Durring the writing of the FreeFormed paper today, Megan and I got into a rather intense discussion about whether certain social networking and media sharing platforms promote certain types of content. Megan's opinion was that people have a tendency to create certain content independent from any particular platform and that such content would be published and posted regardless of whether or not a particular platform was available to promote it. (perhaps I am simplifying or not correctly stating her thoughts, but I believe this accurate). On the other hand, I believe that many sites, such as YouTube and Myspace contain largely irrelevant and entertainment worthy content because the very nature of thier structural dynamic encoruages the idiocy. For instance, Myspace is highly marketed towards a younger generation of users and their inclusion of an 'anything goes' (for the most part) profile strategy appears to promote a popularity contest based on the number of friend connections, which can be furthered by the display of questionable and provocative personal content. Would we really see as many fifteen and sixteen year old posting their OWN half naked pictures online if platforms like Myspace did not exist to provide some kind of reward for such behavior? I personally don't think so.

YouTube functions in a similar way because most of the videos that receive extensive hits and are thus voted most popular, contain shocking or ridiculous behavior (not all but most). This is turn encourages users to create content in that vain in order to increase the chance that their videos will be viewed. This is not to say that some people would not be interested in creating such content outside of the YouTube platform, or that certain people are not using YouTube for more relevant purposes, but I feel that the constant display of silliness is feuled by YouTube's structure.

I am not in any way saying that an online platform can create interest in something that is not already there. I simply feel that in thinking about why certain networks attract certain users it is not enough to say that certain people will gravitate toward sites that represent their interests in communicating online, There does exist a certain kind of mobb mentality within some of these platforms, which encourage users to engage in behavior that they may not have engaged in otherwise.