Vlogbrothers, Nerdfighters, and hopes for my own ability. My first blog in which I actually say something... be kind.
So one of my goals is to start writing more on Tumblr. I tend to over think things so I’ve decided that when the urge strikes I will just write. This is hard because I have a very loud critical voice in my head that tells me all the reasons why I shouldn’t write anything made for public viewing. Okay, this is going to sound a little strange… and also considering I recently started following John and Hank Green’s blogs on tumblr a little bit suck up-y. That is not my intention.
However I just feel moved to write a blog post about The Vlogbrothers on YouTube.
I discovered this channel recently while doing research for a paper I was writing on globalization. A quick search on YouTube for anything on the Silk Road lead me to a series of ten minute videos about world history called Crash Course. While I wasn’t able to use anything from the Silk Road video in my paper (some rule about sources that made little sense to me) the way the videos were presented - quick, fun and funny but not condescending to the audience made me want to see more. I went through World and U.S. History while I really should have been working on the aforementioned paper and those videos lead me to more of John Green’s (the host of the Crash Course history videos and one of the writers.) videos namely The Vlogbrothers. A channel he and his brother Hank Green host.
John Green also writes books for teenagers… I apparently have been living under a rock because I don’t know how books this cool slipped by me.
I am really tardy to the party on this because The Vlogbrothers and the community of the Nerdfighters have been around since ‘07. I don’t want to try and explain it because as a newbie, I wouldn’t do the awesomeness justice, but I will say that I am 30 years old and I wish this kind of thing had been around when I was a teenager because I wouldn’t have felt so out of step.
I love how these videos manage to embrace silliness as the fantastic thing that it is, promote social consciousness, and encourage the viewers to pursue challenges, try new things, and believe in themselves. This is done simply through watching Hank, John, and the Nerdfighters be silly, be socially conscious, and pursue challenges.
I’m not sure how yet, but I really hope that when I finally become the teacher, I want to be I can somehow do that for my students - especially if I can help some kid who felt like I did discover that they are made of awesome!
