Eradicating loneliness through YouTube
Confession: Old people make me feel weepy and sad. Whenever I see one herding shopping trolleys at Sainsbury’s, paying for their week’s shopping in coins, or just looking lonely, it takes all my strength not to cry.
Peter, a 79-year-old English widower, has spent the last week making himself into YouTube’s latest star.
Already the video-sharing community’s members have taken to him and he has found an enthusiastic audience, notching up over 430,000 views of his videos, approaching 7,000 subscribers and almost 9,000 comments (mostly positive).
A widower who lives alone and whose real name is Peter, Geriatric1927 was taken aback by the positive reaction from the mainly younger users of YouTube, coming close to tears as he said how moved he was to receive over 4,000 emails, subscribers and video “responses” to his work.
At the VNU Blogs & Social Media Forum back in May, Forrester Research’s Jaap Favier said that the ultimate outcome of social media would be that “no one will have to be lonely anymore”. Seeing the connections that Peter is making on YouTube, I am more convinced than ever that he is right.
I wish it were true, Jackie, that communities such as YouTube help bring people together more than ever before. However, I fear that once the novelty of a 79-year-old posting his own videoblog has worn off he’ll be alone once again.
What makes things worse is that more than half of his subscribers probably still have living grandparents who are crying out for their grandchildren to listen to a story or two.
Craig, just think of the mathematical odds: Out of the 4000+ emailers alone (nevermind commenters), if he makes one true, lasting connection, he’ll be better off than he was. As someone who has made many real and lasting friendships through the innernut, as well as having shed the loneliness of thinking I was the only one to hold certain views (again, thanks to the connections I made with people online), I know it’s not far-fetched at all. Sure, he might not always be the flavour of the day, but very few of us need to be in order to feel connected to others.