Party with the Mission on YouTube – my first video downloads ever!

Here is the first rocking dance you have got to watch! I have no idea who these people are. As they say, I just happen to be at the right place at the right time.



Here is the sequel to the first video that you again do not want to miss out on!



For the last week, I have been keeping a blog consistently for First Baptist Church of Opelika (FBCO) while participating on their spring break mission trip known as Amplify, which occurs in Port St. Joe, Florida every year. One night while on the trip things became festive on the bus ride back to the beach houses we were staying in. Some of you might be surprised that we were indeed on a mission trip staying in beach houses. I must admit that it was incredibly nice, and if you would like to hear God’s voice loud and clear, the beach in the middle of the night is the perfect place to hear that whisper in the wind.

For a long time, I have been wondering how exactly one goes about uploading a video to YouTube. People often joke, “Hey, I am going to upload this video to YouTube” if you happen to be filmed in some sort of fashion with a cell phone or whatever. That is what YouTube has come to be, a phenomenon so well known that people reference the site in jokes. Culturally it has become accepted as part of our online identities. For example, I linked through the sharing device on the Youtube profile page with my Facebook account to share these videos with my fellow Amplifiers. The unique luxury of Social Media is that everything literally becomes intertwined together as our social profiles are linked to individual YouTube, blogs, and so on. This blog is now connected with my Google profile, Facebook account, and my YouTube channel. It seems the connectedness just keeps expanding and going on and on and on like the Energizer Bunny claims to.

So these videos are like the Cameron Crazies in Cameron Indoor Coliseum at Duke University in North Carolina. These people are hyped to serve Jesus, really no joke or puns intended. They know how to have fun, and they are not embarrassed until they realize they have made it to my public channel that now exists under the codename of Spiranox. It is kind of like MadV who started the one world pandemic with hand messages. If you have no idea what I am referring to, click here to learn more about the amazing movement of hands that this anonymous YouTube user has created. It is really cool.

We watched this guy, Dr. Michael Wesch the week before spring break in my Social Media class in a YouTube lecture he did on the subject matter of YouTube… surprise…surprise. He has literally created this field known as digital ethnography, which is largely focused on research involving YouTube. He often refers to YouTube as a community. I find this interesting since the communication is often considered one way with the exception of people posting comments. I do believe that people are coming together with similar beliefs or in my case with similar humor. I just enjoy surfing the site, and there is some sense of community in simply browsing through the work of artists, possible activists, authors, or whoever might feel the need to express a message to the world. The idea of YouTube and its system is certainly communal in nature with the fact that people are searching for content that interests them, and others are doing the same, cognizant of this fact or not while you are on there. At Kansas State University, Dr. Wesch started the class ANTH 522: Digital Ethnography where his students literally create and construct videos that become in themselves mini ethnographies. Although nerdy when I say this, I find it fascinating! Check out his digital ethnography blog.

Now we know that people post some pretty crazy YouTube windows with content that we sometimes accidentally do not want to see, but nevertheless, it is a new hobby of mine to waste time and watch what people are putting out there. You may think that something like YouTube is for teenagers who have no jobs who have way too much time on their hands. If this is your mentality towards this website and literally online movement, then I think you are gravely mistaken. YouTube is much more than that. It has become an instructional guide for almost any topic you care to think about. It has become the LipSync service of the new millennium as people lip sing their favorite tunes right in front of a webcam. I have yet to add my favorite Lacrae song, but watch out for that on my channel. I may also add some of those freestyle clips in there as well. Anyway, YouTube has become an artistic way of expression for musical and design artists alike. It serves so many functions today on the Internet that it really is kind of ridiculous. I am not even sure if it would be possible to watch all the content within ten years of just staring at a computer screen without leaving it for those the duration of those ten years. There is so much stuff on that site. I wonder where they get all the space and server bandwidth for the entire site’s content.

The point is that the uses of YouTube are endless. You may get on there to tell your testimony in Christ. You may get on there to make some goofy dance video with your friends on a volunteer mission trip. You may get on there to market a new product or company. If you have never posted a video, I would challenge you to check it out. I have added these two videos and plan on adding many more. People enjoy laughing watching the silly things they see on YouTube, and if I can make another person laugh, then perhaps it was worth the time to post my own version of a Lacrae Lipsync song. I am just saying. Loosen up. Try it out, and have a good time.