YouTube: An Example of Technological Structuralism

May 23, 2024

YouTube: An Example of Technological Structuralism

Instagram is, in a word, fun. I love posting goofy “reels”, as they call them, of my life. My posts, of course, could be damaging to me due to the fact that anyone in the world has access to them. My most recent video is a humorous clip of why inflation is out of control. I went to a gas station where a small, 8 ounce tube of Pringle’s cost a whooping 6 dollars. This may seem like I’m against our current leaders, due to the fact that they’re printing more money, and thus, causing inflation. Despite this, I trust our leaders, but it is evident I am against inflation. As fun as Instagram is, it wasn’t the first site to feature videos anyone could post. It all began on a certain day in 2005:

February 14th is commonly known as Valentine’s Day: a holiday that provides an excuse for one to indulge in chocolate. (and, of course, share his love for another) Not only is Valentines the anniversary of numerous couples, but YouTube as well. Set up in 2005 by three PayPal employees, the original intent was to create a dating service with videos in contrast to images. Now, YouTube is undoubtedly the most popular video-sharing platform. With over 1 billion hours of videos ingested each day, YouTube has evolved from a flaky dating site, to a device that distributes original content. The first video featured co-creator, Jawed Karim, geeking over elephants. Though an immature preview, this became the genesis of Social Media.

YouTube is an example of technological structuralism. The belief that, though technology has importance, social structures shape the development of technology. This contrasts with the ideology among technological determinants: their viewpoint being that technical advancements are inevitable.

According to Jimmy Wales, the esteemed creator of Wikipedia, determinism in general is,”..The philosophical view that all events in the universe, including human decisions and actions, are causally inevitable” This applies over technological determinism as well, but, of course, with technology. No one could fathom the potential YouTube had; it’s success wasn’t inevitable. Therefore, YouTube is not an example of technological determinism. YouTube became what it is today due to the all the content creators. It’s structure was built from social interactions across the world.

Ordinary people became excessively popular, rising to stardom overnight.

There is more, however, to the view of a structuralist. Science Direct states,”In the structuralist view, structural changes are causes of growth rather than outcomes of a process of capital accumulation and of rising per capita incomes. Moreover, the growth process may be punctuated by periods of discrete shifts in resource allocation (“creative destruction”) and growth acceleration rather than being smooth throughout.” Normally. People think growth leads to a change in society. Structuralists, however, say it’s the other way around. How things work causes growth. This growth, of course, will not always be smooth. There will be periods of big jumps and changes that may lead to faster growth. This is to say that, in contrast to steady growth, there are bursts of spontaneity. (followed by growth spurts) This is exactly the society that YouTube is.

Despite how overwhelmingly structuralist YouTube seems to be (compared to determinism) one may still contend that YouTube is, in fact, a product of just that: determinism. LTSE argues such, saying,”At the time, a popular online site called “Hot or Not” allowed people to rate the attractiveness of other people. Its premise was incredibly simple—judging by your photos, you were either “hot,” or you were “not.” Steve and Chad’s original idea was to expand on that to provide people with a way to upload more robust dating content, such as videos. The upcoming popularity seemed to be inevitable.” Despite this, when YouTube was a dating site, no one wanted to participate. When Jawed, however, posted a raw video of himself commenting on elephants, and their,”Very, very, very long trunks” millions of others wanted to post similar things that they found enjoyable. Again, this is an example of structuralism. Even if it was just a dating site, it would have required socialization: there would need to be others involved. In the end, YouTube can be nothing but an example of structuralism.