-Jeff Luppino-Esposito

YouTube has long prided itself as a beacon of hope and truth for anything from the struggling artist, to the bored teenager, to the men who want to dress up as pregnant women and talk in rastafarian accents. The general idea is: keep your videos clean, and you can put up whatever you want, whenever you want, for the world to see. This guarantee extends not only to those who post videos, but, just as importantly, those who comment on these videos....

As already stated, there must be some restrictions, and that goes both ways as well. It is the right and responsibility of viewers to deem certain posts as "spam" with hopes of less suggestions to "check out da hottest webcamz" dominating the site. But, as long as your comment is not of inappropriate or offensive nature (like the videos), then it should be left for all to see, right?

Well, YouTube's recent addition of the "thumbs up, thumbs down" option on each post, denies the fair grounds for intelligent criticism or support. While the ability to give the thumbs up or down to a comment just discourages creative individual posts, in and of itself, there is nothing explicitly wrong with such a new feature, and it could actually keep the site from clogging up with repetitive posts. However, the true issue comes about with the effects of that feature: If 6 people, that's right a whopping 6 people, decide that a comment is worth the "thumbs down", it is hidden until you personally reveal the post. I know you might be thinking-- well you can still SEE the post if you want to, right? Yes, but the repercussions of such a feature dig deeper than just the mere ability to view the comment.

First, the fact that it only takes 6 people to hide a post when 100's of thousands of people view videos, is absurd in itself. How could 6 people's opinion possibly outweigh any one person in the grander scheme of viewership? Again, I understand that you can still view the post, but it is with a completely different lens that one reads a "hidden post" that they had to take extra effort to find and uncover, versus the reading of a post that simply does not receive support. Though this difference may seem minimal in a literal sense, by hiding comments that are unpopular (though not actually that unpopular), YouTube is giving into the very principles they should be denying.

YouTube was once that beacon of hope that allowed all individuals and viewers to get across a message, but now it is giving some viewers a louder voice, and is unfairly stifling others. In the world of culture, unlike politics, democracy should not be the reigning measurement of quality. Unfortunately, due to an artistic industry that relies on advertisements and sales, products today MUST realistically be tailored around gaining a wide demographic of consumers so as to promote the obvious monetary side of art. So, in the 'real world', democracy does reign in culture. YouTube, however, is meant to be the exception to that rule; for people of all tastes, regardless of their popularity, to speak out and provide entertainment, and not to be hidden behind the voice of the masses like they have always been. Two thumbs down to this repressive new feature.