this was a project i did last school year for film and media studies. this was for my media studies class. please excuse the awkwardness of the video, but i am very proud of my work overall. thank you! i will include my reflection below! link to video: https://youtu.be/wPW5V3bhUJg

written reflection: My case study for Assignment 2 is a critique of the current internet and nostalgia that people participate in. When initially beginning this project, I thought of it as something more surface level, but it helped me look at the internet in a different way. I began to understand my case studies a lot better in the process of making the video as well.

In the process, my own video became a lot like my case studies. For my case studies I used four YouTube videos, intended for comparison and to exhibit the “old internet” with the new. My two old videos were “Scary Maze Game” uploaded by ryanjyn2008 and “future gen. consels wii2 ps4 xbox720?” uploaded by videogameaf. My two newer examples I used “New Console Leaks” by cooper2723 and “Elden Ring DLC Dialogue Found…” by Rozzroid. I chose these specific videos because they all follow prominent trends that were on YouTube that many people remember.

I used three pieces of theory in my research. These were:“Artificial influencers and the dead internet theory” by Yoshija Walter, “Finding the future in digitally mediated ruin: #nostalgiacores and the algorithmic culture of digital platforms” by Maria Gemma Brown, and “It’s Just the Internet! Appropriation in Postinternet Art” by Elisavet Christou and Mike Hazas. All three of these pieces overlap with their focus on the internet, but all offer different contributing reasons for why people feel nostalgic on the internet. However, these pieces changed my arguments. Initially, I didn’t consider the dead internet theory as part of my study, but Walter’s work changed my opinion on this. Along side Walter’s work I used a video titled “The Dead Internet” by a creator named Jules, which helped narrow this theory down to a YouTube perspective. Christou and Hazas work helped me expand my horizons and understand the overlap of internet and art. This allowed me to include examples of some artists on social media, specifically Ardbet and Cyde.wav, and observe the videos included as pieces of art. This influenced how I began to see my video itself and how I wanted to present my ideas. Seeing the other videos helped inspire the look and feel of the final product of my video.

When making my video, I was inspired by the videos being used themselves, the look and feel of older computers, and YouTube. I tried to include some staples of videos, for example ‘Unregistered Hypercam’ and typing out on the Microsoft Notepad. This gave the video an older look and helped make the tone a bit more lighthearted. I had taken a screenshot of my desktop and made it dated looking, with a taskbar from Windows XP. I wanted the video to imitate old tutorial videos many people recall in their childhood. This project let me partake in a fun trend and create something while also looking at the internet critically. This video essay project went in several different directions I did not expect.

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