Have You Watched Your Daily Dose of YouTube Yet?

A new Pew Internet and American Life Project survey reports that 19% of all internet users watch video clips online daily, while 57% watch video online at least occasionally. Not surprisingly, those aged 18-29 are "among the most voracious video viewers," with approximately 31% of them viewing online video daily. Additionally, on any given day, young adult internet users "are equally as likely to view news and comedy" videos, though the popular clips from the Daily Show or the Colbert Report blur the lines between the two. It appears that the Baltimore Sun, which re-christened the Millennials "the YouTube Generation," wasn't too off base. Given this new research which validates the popularity of user-generated online video as well as the success of the YouTube/CNN debates, it'll be very interesting to see how online video blends with politics in the future.

YouTube, MySpace and 11 Other Sites Off Limits to Soldiers

Effective today, the Military is banning YouTube, MySpace and other sites on all its networks and computers according to a memo by Gen. B.B. Bell, the U.S. Forces Korea commander. The policy is being implemented to protect information and reduce drag on the department's networks, according to Bell.

Unfortunately, many of the blocked sites are used by soldiers to keep up with their family and friends back home. While soldiers will be able to access the sites from their own computer, the Associated Press points out that DOD computers and networks "are the only ones available to many soldiers and sailors in Iraq and Afghanistan."

The sites covered by the ban are the video-sharing sites YouTube, Metacafe, IFilm, StupidVideos, and FileCabi, the social networking sites MySpace, BlackPlanet and Hi5, music sites Pandora, MTV, and 1.fm, and live365, and the photo-sharing site Photobucket.

Connecticut Creativity

So last Wednesday I blogged about a proposed constitutional amendment being voted on in Connecticut’s General Assembly that would authorize seventeen-year-old citizens who pre-register to vote and who will turn eighteen on or before Election Day to vote in the primary for the general election.

The amendment fell 9 votes short of the three-quarters vote needed to help put it on the state-wide ballot next year. A group of young Democrats accused politicians of panicking and changing their votes to no when the bill looked like it was going to pass. (Lawmakers in Connecticut's General Assembly are able to change their votes as often as they want before they're recorded.)

Well, in a great show of creative user-generated content, Lon Seidman (former campaign manager to Congressman Joe Courtney) and the Connecticut Young Democrats put together a YouTube video berating the flip-flopping lawmakers.



And check out news coverage it got...



HT to Future Majority