I've been so busy lately, running around, volunteering, meeting up with friends from out of town ... and the weather has just been so spectacular, it's hard to want to sit in front of the computer. When I have been on the computer, though, I've been spending a lot of time on YouTube. It's really interesting what YouTube has become -- when I started using YouTube in 2005, it was little more than a place for people to upload covers and maybe a few reviews here and there. But now it's become its own source of original entertainment, with various types of "channels."

I was talking to my friend the other day about what life used to be like before all of this "advanced media" (I don't know what else to call it), and she really can't remember life before it at all. Apparently she thought YouTube's been around since we were in our early teens, and that streaming video has always been a way of life. But I reminded her of my early web days and my first ever website, which was in 1998 and dedicated to Nick Carter. I remember having to wait days, weeks, sometimes even months, to catch an interview I'd missed because I'd have to wait until someone had uploaded an extremely shoddy video capture online, and even then, the only way I was able to make out which Backstreet Boy member was which was by the pixelated masses of hair atop their heads. That was 2003-2004.

We've come so far, and sometimes I wonder if we'll run out of new internet innovations. I also wonder what kind of impact this will all have on us that we can't even conceive of right now. I guess only time will tell ...

source: HayleyOkines.com