Hello. My name is Annette and I’m addict.
It’s not what you might think. I don’t drink and I don’t abuse drugs, prescription or not. I’m addicted to YouTube and the many wonders it has shown me.
I log on several times a day to see what new surprises it has in store, and oh, the niche wee rabbit holes I’ve gone down at YouTube’s suggestion. My current favourites revolve around ear wax removal, sinus cleaning, manky rug cleaning, tiny house living, the conversion of various vehicles to mobile homes, and the trimming of cow hooves in south western Scotland.
I’m also partial to watching trailers for upcoming movies, lists of scary horror fiction, political videos roasting the right wing here and in the USA, crochet (obviously), before and after plastic surgery, looking at apartments in New York and Tokyo, prat falls, funny animals, mudlarking, writing how-tos, raising birds from eggs, body language, recipes, folklore, all things Scottish, ghost hunting and a variety of esoterica.
My latest obsession is with learning accents. I can’t think of any occasion where I will need to speak like a Geordie, or order from the chippy as a cockney, but here I am, watching videos and driving George mad with my practice.
I went through phases of creating closed ecosystems in terrariums, befriending crows, customising dolls, making jewellery and playing with air dry clay. And the number of videos I’ve watched of life in the 70s, especially Glasgow in the 70s, is quite obscene. Hatching snake eggs was fun for a while, as was upcycling a variety of furniture and analysing body language.
Honestly, all of life is served up in short chunks for me to peruse like some pseud dilettante.
I can understand why I obsess over the ear/sinus/rug cleaning videos. I think they are the digital expression of cleaning out my mouse tracking ball or gunged-up bottle of correction fluid. So satisfying. But snakes? Spiders? Cow hooves? I often wonder what’s wrong with me for watching these things but then I remember that they get millions of views so at least I’m freaky in company. I’m unsure whether this should be a comfort or a worry.
YouTube likes to add to slip something new in every now and again and, more often than not, they present a new topic that’s right up my weirdo street. I considered searching YouTube for videos on people who get obsessed with YouTube but was scared I’d meta myself out of existence.
Today, YouTube offered a 20-minute video on how elastic bands are manufactured. We all know I’m going to watch it. I have no idea what oubliette I’ll lose myself in after that, but won’t it be fun to find out?
Please let me know if you have any YouTube rabbit holes to recommend. I’m interested to find out who my fellow freaks are.
Leave a Reply