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Clive Thompson on How YouTube Changes the Way We Think

December 30, 2008
by Clive Thompson
Contributing Writer, Wired

Clive Thompson

Two years ago, a YouTube member named MadV—who silently performs magic tricks while wearing a Guy Fawkes mask—put up a short, cryptic video. He held his hand up to the camera, showing what he’d written on his palm: “One World.” Then he urged viewers to respond.

The video was just 41 seconds long, but it caught people’s imagination. Within a few days, hundreds of YouTube users had posted videos—shot on webcams, usually in their bedrooms—displaying their own scrawled messages: “Don’t quit!” “Tread gently.” “Think.” “Carpe diem.” “Open your eyes.” And my favorite, “They could be gone tomorrow!”

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