#videosofaffinity

Visual communities are growing in popularity to communicate with peers and consumers.  Is it any wonder? Researchers estimate upwards of 90% of our communications is visual. 

With the increasing time poor lifestyle, our attention is a valued commodity that must increasingly be ‘won’ rather than ‘given’. 

In the case study from Lange (2009) Videos of Affinity are discussed in relation to a time economy where viewers give their attention for a perceived benefit.  Affinity is defined as a natural liking or understanding and feeling of connection.  Videos of Affinity are characterised, not by the inherent entertainment value of the content itself, but by the sense of community and connection between viewer and creator.  Shared interest and a sense of the audience identifying with a community, play a part.

Lange (2009) discusses YouTube specifically; how it allows easy use and enables the study of these social interactions. The YouTube social network is an established network that facilitates connection of people sharing affiliations.  Lange’s case study highlights some of the different affiliate groups from business-orientated networks to small personal factions.  Also discussed was the broad variance of “user-created” and professional content (2009 p. 83). The Videos of Affinity are not limited to any particular subset of these variations - posing the question of who merits attention and under what circumstances? We can think of attention as a type of economy where time is a finite resource and “everyday interactions are filled with constant micro-negotiations for attention” (Ibid p. 72).  Videos of Affinity reach success because of their ability to attract attention through the sense of connection managed through active and ongoing communication.  This seems to be at odds with what is generally thought of being the key to making successful content - being original.  Videos of Affinity may, to outsiders, seem uninteresting but those who identify with the community feel a vested interest in keeping up with the videos.

Social Networks are created between people with connections in some way that is important to them.  This social bonding is the key to affinity.  Videos of Affinity are normally not created for a general audience but a more narrowly defined, niche audience sharing an interest.  Across different social networks, a video may be personally meaningful in a way that provides viewer benefit, despite a lack of normatively valued content.  This can create interaction conflict when users are only given a binary thumbs-up or thumbs-down ability to rate the content.  

These types of creators often walk a fine line of narcissism and creating meaningful human connections.  The benefit for viewers to give their limited resource of time may be different for different viewers.  These Videos of Affinity offer connection and interaction to attract the viewer's attention, but ongoing management is required to retain that connection. 

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