New, improved YouTube spruces itself up

 I’m sure if Shakespeare were alive today, he’d be doing classic guitar solos on YouTube. Peter Capaldi.

Not all that long ago, watching YouTube was considered a harmless way of passing the time, if you had precious little else to do. Nothing of earth-shattering importance was ever seen on this free-to-air channel, but we could watch highlights of tennis or cricket matches played eons ago, interviews with actors and other celebrities, most of them no longer with us and sundry miscellaneous titbits of no great value. What is more anyone who thought he or she could sing or play an instrument would post their amateur efforts on YouTube for all their friends and relatives to post appreciative comments. Facebook and Instagram have taken over that dubious role now. The quality of the grainy film clips also left a great deal to be desired, but we surfed avidly to pass an idle hour. When it came to current affairs, we had few options but to suffer the daily cacophony dished out by the half-a-dozen or so mainstream news channels anchored and panelled by the same old faces, who went hammer and tongs at each other, representing rival political dispensations (with a distinct tilt towards the ruling faction), such that making sense of the proceedings was a non-starter.  It is significant that the same anchors and panel members continue to plague our small screens even today. Most of them are older but not wiser.

This is where many of us have discovered the new, bright and polished avatar of YouTube. A much-needed metamorphosis. Many of the former news anchors in the established news channels have deserted their posts and started their own vlogs on YouTube. They are not fettered by time constraints. Tact and diplomacy are not a sine qua non, as they express themselves freely without let or hindrance in a relaxed atmosphere. What is more, the transmission quality is, by and large, outstanding and the level of discourse of a high standard. You Tube has also become smarter. With increased viewership, they push for advertising revenue from corporate sponsors and conversely, offer ad-free incentives to viewers on a graded subscription model.

The result is that, irrespective of whether you wish to follow Fox News, CNN or ABC to get a balanced perspective of the relative merits or demerits of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, you can surf to your heart’s content and stay up to date. The same applies to the Indian political scenario. Any number of vloggers have opened up their own channels to entertain us multilingually to hold forth on the BJP’s chances in Maharashtra and Jharkhand assembly elections against the I.N.D.I. Alliance’s struggles to maintain unity amidst a disparate set of self-serving political persuasions. The discussions are conducted on a no-holds-barred but, by and large, civilised lines. Former celebrated news anchors like Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt and newer stars like Smita Prakash and Sree Iyer have found a niche where they are the captains of all they survey and we are treated to informed and intelligent dialogues, yet free to make up our own minds on any given issue. In fact, Sree Iyer, sparkling vibhuti proudly smeared on his forehead announcing his Shaivite credentials, speaks to us every evening all the way from Washington, if the static White House backdrop is any indication! As the poet Wordsworth had it in a totally different context, ‘The world is too much with us.’ Any invitee to their shows is grist to their mills, be it Anand Ranganathan, Mani Shankar Aiyar, Abhijit Iyer Mitra, J. Sai Deepak, the warring Poonawalla brothers, Ramachandra Guha, the side-splitting ‘Scoop Raja,’ R. Rajagopalan (who will always commence his peroration with a shloka in Sanskrit), retired civil servants – the world is their oyster.

Also, choice of entertainment is unlimited. If music is your bag, watching high quality recorded concerts, pop or classical of the best and brightest from the western world, or from India’s stars in the classical or popular musical firmament, you are spoilt for choice. The same applies to sports, theatre and much else. However, one must not lose sight of the fact that YouTube also contains a great deal of rubbish including porn, tutorials on ‘how to make a bomb,’ and a great deal of sinister and undesirable propaganda. One can only trust to an individual’s discretion and parental guidance and supervision to ensure their children are not led astray by the free availability of hours of trash. Ah well, hope springs eternal. It is a strange conundrum, the nature of the beast. So much good and so much bad to be had, often in the name of free speech and freedom of expression – a subject the Americans are particularly partial to.

In the final analysis, one can only hope that the management of the YouTube channel, whoever pulls the strings, has seen the dangers of freedom to air going completely out of whack, and will take such steps as required to ensure that a modicum of control is exercised. One is not suggesting that Big Brother should be policing us round the clock, but a striving to achieve an optimal balance between good taste and a runaway freefall into a morass of filth, needs to be achieved. Good taste is subjective. I may think Big Boss is putrid while others may love it. Live and let live, I say. I do not come from a place of prudery, but in general, pudeur comes naturally to most Indians, though the startling sculptures in Khajuraho and Konark and the fact that India has given the world the Kama Sutra, may judge us all as hypocritical contrarians. What can I say? It is what it is.

As I sign off, it is time for me to switch on to YouTube and savour the culinary delights from the kitchens of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver. Jamie’s Classic Spaghetti Carbonara anyone? And for dessert, Nigella’s Guinness Chocolate Cake would finish things off nicely. Happy viewing.

Published in Deccan Chronicle dt. 23/10/24.