Happy Birthday, YouTube: Digital moms’ friend

My brothers and sisters and I recently went to clean out my aunt’s house following her death. She had no children and our mother was her only sister. So, it was our responsibility and a welcome opportunity to visit a part of the life our mother lived. We found the old cassette tape recorder our mother sent to our grandmother.

Mom would record us and mail the tape to our grandmother, who could play it in her machine.

Long distance phone calls were expensive. The idea was that audio & photos helped her share her children across the miles.

My mother is gone more than 30 years. She was no electronic pioneer but would be excited by today’s video version of sharing her children’s milestones immediately: YouTube. I can hardly believe the video sharing service is only 5 years old.

Look at how much that baby has grown in 5 years. This blog has linked you to youtube to share ideas. I have checked youtube to see what the heck my kids are talking about; they name a performer, movie or band [pop culture when I’m not popping] and I search it on youtube. I hear the music, see what they look like and what they’re wearing [call me old school, I still judge a book partially by its cover]. People post video resumes to get jobs, propose marriage. I’ve used utube for entertainment, to see the Christmas pageant when my niece had the ‘lead” or my nephew’s first steps. After the sudden death of my college-age son, utube kept him alive for us through the web videos he made. Utube has brought laughter into our home, shared ideas we could see & feel and provided comfort in sorrow. In just 5 years, it has become a part of the fabric of our lives. [ I’ve even nicknamed it “utube”; as if the extra 2 letters was too much!]

This is not just a lovefest over youtube. The site still has some growing up to do. Anonymous comments are getting to be a thing of the past online. [Thank goodness!] Most sites now require people to stand behind their comment[s], takes the ‘haters’ out of the process; provides a sense of civil community. Youtube still hasn’t come to that. And they make it harder than I like to flag offensive videos or comments. There’s a lot of trash [but that’s what you get when anyone can post] and that’s the benefit.

On this anniversary of youtube, I encourage you to post video online. You don’t have to become a fancy video producer to share ideas or the moments in your life. Grow your digital life today.

Those ‘flip’ video cameras were all the rage for young moms just a Christmas or two ago. For $150 you could got a pocket-size point & shoot video camera, some could even do HD! [Like you really need that.] 

They were well marketed. Touting plug & play to the internet via youtube. My sister and two sisters-in-law got them. And I waited for their videos to come; which they never did. One of them told me last weekend her camera burned out early and it hadn’t backed up to the laptop as expected so a year’s worth of video was lost.

I resisted the urge to get one and only because I had just bought the latest Sony Handycam (with HD).

1. Any modern video camera will do; video camera, pocket digital camera, even cell phone.
2. If it came with a book, read the book about loading video. Your husband never will. So, you need to do it. But do it right. Directions for electronics are written in step-by-step for even the most basic user. The catch is: don’t just sit with the book. Gather the camera, the laptop, the book and make sure there is a small test video on the camera. Here’s mine:  MOV05688 .  The best way to learn is by doing it, step-by-step.
3. Repeat. The more you do it, the easier it will become. I think Stephen Covey coined the phrase, “21 days to a new habit” and I have always found this to be true. If you post one video a week for a month, even if you don’t post again for 6 months, it will be easy and quick because you’re in the habit.
4. Don’t try to break new ground and learn a new skill at the same time. Don’t try to learn to post with the first ‘flash mob’ video you are choreographing at the preschool. Keep the production simple and focus on learning to post: baby’s first steps in 30 seconds. Waving to Grandma for 30 seconds. A funny little dance.
5. Charge the camera every night, next to your cell phone, so it is always ready to go. I carry mine in my purse all the time.

Let me mention the pocket digital camera, or even your cell phone. What’s the right camera to use? The one you have with you will produce the best results; because it is with you! You don’t need a fancy HD camera, you don’t need to shell out $150 for a special camera. If you use your digital camera, you’ll need the USB cord, if you are using your phone, just email the video to your youtube account.

6. Go to http://www.youtube.comand sign up. They’ll walk you through the basics. But take a few extra steps:
a. Click on our name in the upper right-hand corner.  Then click on “Account”, then “Privacy”.  Adjust.  I set mine so that people can find me by my email address. But you can choose to share only with family & friends. I’m disallowing advertisements but making stats on my videos public. Do what makes you most comfortable; remember their defaults are generally the most public settings.
b. Click on ‘activity sharing’. I chose NOT to connect to my twitter account or facebook page. But you can. I may do it later. This means you post a video and it also shows up on the other social networks you select.
c. Click on ‘mobile Setup’ and they’ll give you a unique email address you can add to the contact list on your phone. This lets you send a video directly from your cell phone. Easy! Just check your cell phone plan to make sure you have data &/or minutes to do this without additional $$.
7. Make a quick video. Don’t shoot something off the TV or radio, etc. This is a copyright violation and Youtube does pretty good job of protecting peoples’ intellectual property. One copyright complaint & they boot it. Email the video to your youtube account or connect the cord & follow the instructions that came with the camera. Upload the video.

Finally, back it up. You can get a little hard drive of 500GB for about $70, if you watch the sale flyers. You should have one dedicated to backing up pictures & videos. If anything happens to the computer, you have not lost all your memories. Do it today. As an engineer friend once told me, “there are two kinds of computers, the one that just crashed and the one about to crash”. Don’t wait until it’s all lost.

Above all, Midwest Moms, do not fear the video. It is the modern-day version of my mom and her cassette recorder chasing after us to “tell Grandma a story”. But now Grandma can see to share the marvel of your progeny. And it will comfort you with those cherished moments into your old age.