Guilty Pleasures of the Web

"A guilty pleasure is something one enjoys and considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. The 'guilt' involved is sometimes simply fear of others discovering one's lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes. Fashion, video games, music, movies, and junk food can be examples of guilty pleasures." -From the Wikipedia entry

Isn't it really lame when people have no idea how to start off an essay so they just stick a quote at the top of the page?  I mean, it's such a cliche.  And even worse, starting off an essay with a source as dubious as Wikipedia should practically be punishable by death.  I'll just say it right now so you don't have to - I'm a horrible person. But as I outlined very clearly in my last post, I'm going through a writer's block at the moment and I'm trying to push past it so please cut me some slack.

All potential criticisms of my writing aside (which I have already addressed in a self-deprecating and humorous manner in an attempt to knock the wind out of the sails of any would-be haters), my use of the Wikipedia entry in the opening makes up for what it lacks in elegance by simply being useful.  And that, by the way, is why so many people continue to use Wikipedia, because for all its sloppiness and lack of depth, it also happens to be pretty damn accessible and useful.  I often hate myself for going straight to Wikipedia for answers to my questions because going to Wiki feels like such the stereotypical lazy college student thing to do.  And yet I still visit the site all the fucking time simply because it's easy and offers accessible (if not shallow) information on a myriad of subjects.  So what I'm getting at here kids is that I often use Wikipedia and often feel simultaneously pleasure and despair in doing so.  And in case you're totally dense and not following where I'm going with this I'll drive my point home now by explicitly stating that use of Wikipedia as a source of information is in itself a guilty pleasure for me.  I disparage people for using Wikipedia.  I have heard people speak of reading entries on the site for fun and this boils my blood because I find it to be such a shallow use of time.  Why read an online encyclopedia entry when you can read a book for once in your life, you uneducated cretin?  And yet while I'm may talk shit about the reading habits of others, the truth of the matter is that I visit Wikipedia often, and have even gotten entertainment and worthwhile information from perusing the contents of the site.  So yeah, it's totally a guilty pleasure for me.

Actually when it comes down to it, when I was thinking about writing a post about my guilty pleasures a lot of the examples I came up with were of Internet stuff [insert obligatory joke about tentacle rape porn here].  No, but seriously stuff like watching endless Youtube videos, or viewing mediocre Hollywood fare on Netflix instant, or reading blogs about Godzilla movies are all things I would consider guilty pleasures.  For example, even though it can be fun in a shallow way, there is something particularly pathetic about watching Judge Judy clips on Youtube.  It makes you go, "What has become of my life, that it has been reduced to this?"  And yet on the other end of the spectrum there is a definite pleasure I get out of such activities or else I wouldn't keep doing them.  I think part of the joy that comes from these activities is that they offer shallow fun.  This is pretty obvious.

I watch a lot of random crap on Youtube.  Some examples of the random crap I've watched recently would include a clip of Jaws winning an Oscar for special effects, a trailer for a Japanese comedy entitled Big Tits Zombie, and a nineties Celine Dion video.  While these three videos are all seemingly random works, they are all entertaining in similar ways.  For example, they're all immediately accessible.  You don't need a PhD in literature to understand why Big Tits Zombie is funny or to let the dated '90's pop of "That's the Way It Is" wash over you.  But in a more abstract way I also find these videos entertaining in the fact that killing time in itself can be an amusing activity.  Let me explain this point further.  What I mean is that by watching a seemingly endless stream of pop culture waste product on the Internet I am communicating to myself that I have the free time to waste.  And how luxurious it is to be young and feel confident enough in the time I have left on this earth to be OK with watching a slew of shitty 1990's pop music videos instead of, y'know, doing something worthwhile with my time.  It is a luxury to be able to afford to waste time and it is a privilege I treasure.  Am I proud to waste my time on Youtube watching crap?  Not necessarily, but it's something I'm not going to give up anytime soon.  I'm a sucker for the luxurious frivolity of the whole Youtube thing.