YouTube May Be Evil, But Thanks for the Memories
August 14, 2008 by Kristina Chew, PhD
Filed under Health
Change of scenery, change of routine—-that’s all part of vacation and, as recounted here, why Charlie’s first three days at the beach house were full of more sorrow than smiles. We’re back in the swim (big-time—-Jim’s been calling Charlie “the torpedo” for the way he propels himself through the water, in the moving waves and all).
We came down here with a minimum of “stuff”; just enough clothes (mostly swimsuits, of course!) and beach towels; laptops (Jim is in the final, final stages of finishing his book and I am trying to dig into mine); a few books (wish I could say “a nice stack,” but going to the beach with Charlie means being as active as him; no relaxing in a beach chair with something cold to drink and “summer reading”); random necessities (my coffee maker). I brought Charlie’s laptop, too, though his interest in it—doing jigsaws, listening to music and looking at photos—fluctuates and is generally not too great. I was able to get his laptop connected to the internet and first showed him some YouTube videos of the Wiggles, as he requested. I got up and when I looked over, Charlie was clicking away. And then I heard a certain familiar theme song and that voice that can never be forgotten……………
Yes, the purple dinosaur.
Charlie had clicked his way to what’s probably an infinite trove of Barney videos on YouTube. He found all of his old favorites, all from the videos that were long since consigned to the garbage because, when Charlie was 7 and I turned them on for him, he watched for a few seconds and head-banged on the hardwood floor.
So there he was, stretched out on the beach house couch, with “Shapes and Colors” and “The Treasure of Rainbow Beard” playing; he occasionally put his hands over his ears. He still needed some help with the mouse and, perhaps in his eagerness to watch The Purple One, had twelve tabs opened to different YouTube videos at once. I restarted Firefox on the laptop and Charlie clicked the videos on.
And amid all that talk about triangles and dancing in a circle and the green growing round and the banjo music, and Charlie intently working the mouse, I felt a very super big huge warm sigh well up inside of me.
I can guarantee that there are an infinite number of Barney clips on Youtube…my daughter found her first one about six months ago, and it’s been non-stop ever since. I was almost terrified to see just how competent she is at searching youtube to find what she wants- it’s definitely an unexpected talent.
For some reason I don’t think that I’ve ever seen her quite this happy though- she puts her headphones on and belts out the songs, and she’s definitely re-visiting the videos that she used to watch 9 years ago. Although the volume of her singing does get a bit much every once in a while, I think that we’re all so thrilled to see her so happy that no one has had the heart to ask her to tone it down a bit.
Now *that* is a super-de-duper image; Charlie kicking back with Barney on YouTube. Hey, at least he knows what makes him happy!
Wow, glad he’s got the old mouse thing going! He sounds like he knows just what he wants to see.
I wish my son would only watch something as sweet and easygoing as Barney. We had to ban You Tube not only with his perseveration at watching commercials over and over, but then, the items that pop up when he does find something decent to watch. Somehow, weirdos out there always make things into something bad, like with “Toy Story”. Of course then the language carries over too.
I hope you enjoy the rest of your vacation. We are going to a lake house this weekend with friends and part of me is excited, part of me anxiety ridden over whether we should bring the computer or not.
It makes me wonder…our kids learn so much from videos. Maybe he is teaching himself, with a new understanding of language! Get ready for a language spurt!
So little of what Ben watches is idle on t.v. It’s always mechanical engineering, history, or humor.
To me, for someone who is visually oriented, watching t.v. can be like reading a book. In that case, we’re well read around this house…
Have fun this summer!
Ah, vacation! The Purple One would be welcome on my laptop too but alas Tom prefers louder stuff from the Diz or CN mostly (heaven help us).
Oddly, he has not yet discovered YouTube EXCEPT for the “laughing babies”. (If you have never seen the clip of the little guy in a high chair laughing hysterically whenever his dad or mom make a funny sound, check it out when you really need a laughl! I think it’s called hahaha.)
Enjoy the beach!
had twelve tabs opened to different YouTube videos at once
Sounds like hubby and my oldest. Hubby can easily have a dozen different tabs (or more) open when he’s working/playing on the computer. My oldest, when allowed to use the computer, will open a dozen program windows and only use one of them. No idea why as he knows which program he actually wants to use. Thankfully he doesn’t yet know that YouTube exists.
So glad to hear that Charlie is settling into his vacation!
Barney is very popular around here. It’s something all three boys can share, which makes me like him, too (well, almost).
What kind of laptop does Charlie have? I need to get one for our household and not sure where to start. Matt picked out a barney DVD at Target yesterday. The kids seem to be getting older on that show. The camp pics this year were thru a Costco CD so when Matt touches the screen that means he wants to see them again. I finally got them on flickr (autismfamily) is the ID.
Nick started on you tube with funny videos like the show on ABC, then cat videos, then dinosaur stuff and big cat stuff, jack hanna things and thanks to history channel new show called Jurassic fight club dinosaur drawing once again and watching videos.
He wanted to be a paleontologist, maybe UC Berkley will be in his future. I want to move to Monterey since the weather is best for my skin. Since they are in 6th and 7th grades, we have some time to figure it out.
PJ taught himself how to use Youtube very early, he mostly used it to look for Teletubbies videos. The problems started when he realized that there were Teletubbies episodes in Youtube that he did not own, and worse: they were incredibly hard to find.
Later I got him his own AppleTV, which has the added bonus that it can browse Youtube directly. I set him with an account that says he is under 18, so at least the worst part is filtered out (Youtube doesn’t have real content ratings filtering).
The best part is that he keeps exploring and finding neat stuff. He ran into a lot of videos explaining how to make animal sculptures with balloons, and so far has mastered a bunch of them.
The only real annoying part is when he decides to watch the same video nonstop for a half hour or worse, but at least he is only watching educational content, and he is actively digging for it, not just browsing and picking up whatever shows up. I have even caught him watching Thomas the Tank Engine in Japanese, plus he also uses it to learn songs (his current obsession is the English version of 99 Red Balloons).
The other great thing about the AppleTV is that if your child ruins lots of DVDs like PJ has done since he was a baby, it will immediately save you money. Simply rip the DVDs and put them into iTunes, then put the DVDs away. If your hard disk ever crashes, then your loss is the time needed to re-rip the DVDs. If you bought it directly through iTunes then you would be wise to keep a second copy elsewhere, because you can’t re-download a show for free.
He can navigate through a list of movies or TV show, pick an individual program and forward and rewind it just like a DVD. If in the right format you can watch these shows in most recent iPods and in all iPhones.
@Bonnie,
Monterey sounds sweet! Charlie has a first-version Apple iBook. It’s gotten (ahem) a bit beat up over time. I like him having a laptop as he wants to lie on the couch or on his bed in a “particular” way and he can use the laptop then—but not a big desktop!
@Pedro,
I didn’t know you could do all that with Apple TV! So many frustrations with sticky DVDs could have been avoided……..time to start making up the Xmas wishlist.
I could use the Red Balloon in English, French, etc.; thanks to Charlie fiddling on YouTube, am adding some more Spanish words to my vocab.
Oh yes, YouTube plays here everyday as well. My some is now hooked on elevator videos. ugh