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The Youtube Reflex - Ben Claar, Media Diet

It’s not a conscious decision anymore, it’s just a reflex. I call it the YouTube Reflex. If I have free time to scour the internet for pleasure-inducing entertainment – and even when I really don’t have time, I make time because by now I’ve whittled away so much of my self-control – I type in “y-o-” in the search bar and press enter to open YouTube. Or I just click the YouTube logo on my MacBook touch bar or use some other shortcut. The navigation requires zero cognitive brainpower because it’s total instinct at this point. If I’m not making the conscious effort to do something productive with my open laptop, I’m going to end up on YouTube. If I finish a paragraph of an essay I’m writing and don’t have the willpower to keep grinding… YouTube Reflex. Recently, I’ve noticed the YouTube page shows up at the front of my browser and I have no memory of navigating to it. It’s the dangerous “one more video” mindset that convinces me one more Wisecrack video essay — or Super Smash Bros gameplay video, or Nigahiga comedy skit, or Honest Trailer, or Screen Rant Pitch Meeting, or CinemaWins, or movie trailer, video game trailer, or Saturday Night Live sketch, or lightsaber duel, or random Trending video — couldn’t hurt and I can stay in the leisure land of YouTube. Thus, the YouTube Reflex.

FaceTime is a new fixture in my life. I know it’s been around for a while, and I know for a lot of people my age its been a defining pillar of social life. What changed for me? I have a girlfriend now, and it’s how we stay connected when we’re not together. So I spend at least an hour every day now trying to decide whether my eyes should be focused on Marissa’s image or my own little image in the corner of the FaceTime screen, or whether I should look directly at the tiny green dot. Marissa and I both have our own FaceTime style. She’s usually under her sheets in bed, talking on her phone, so I only see half of her face. I’m usually talking from my computer – my iPhone’s mic has been dysfunctional for about a year now – so I’m upright and seen from the shoulders up. 

FaceTiming is not a continuous action like talking on the phone usually is. It’s always broken up by something. Often physically, because the WiFi in my apartment is pretty crappy. But Marissa’s screen will pause while she checks her texts, or she’ll send me a link to some funny video that I’ll react to. We switch to Snapchat and to Instagram, and sometimes I use my phone or iPad to communicate with her on two devices at once. Yes, a lot of my life is seen through the lenses of Apple Products nowadays.

Let’s talk about memes for a minute. Recently I tried to explain to my grandma what memes were again — and it occurred to me that, about 6-7 years ago, I would have answered with: “it’s like a popular picture of a character that people put different captions on to tell a joke! Like Philosoraptor or Bad Luck Brian!” But that’s not what memes are at all nowadays, and if someone shows you a meme of that type, you assume they’re doing it ironically or don’t actually understand what a meme is. The best way I could describe a meme now is an “internet joke. A shareable internet joke.. A trending social media joke?” You know it when you see it. Instagram’s my go-to place for them now. When you follow enough meme accounts, you can basically do infinite scrolling. I scroll on the way to classes, on car rides, and just in general when I’m waiting for something and my phone is the only way to entertain myself. If I don’t actively search for memes, they end up getting sent to me through text or GroupMe some way or another. 

If I had it my way, I’d sit down each day and binge movies and entire seasons of interesting TV shows. I’m way behind on The Flash. But there’s just not the time during the semester. Instead, I basically spend the equivalent time that watching those movies and shows would take, but with memes, YouTube, and FaceTime. Fantasy Football too, but only in the Fall. 

And if you think this post was written without at least three YouTube breaks in between, you are quite mistaken. Youtube Reflex.