Youtube and Assertiveness Social Work Skills

Blogging has been challenging for me, because I'm so out of the loop with the world wide web. Is it even called the world wide web anymore? Anyhow, I'll admit, I've held some stubborn and narrow beliefs that online activities have dumbed us down. And, I assumed the gaming world, chatting online, watching Youtube videos and other surfing the web activities was mostly creating some separation and distance to one another. Well, let me take a strengths based perspective on this. This blogging has opened my eyes to a huge amount of information. When I used the web as a tool and not a form of passive entertainment, I felt charged, connected, informed and hopeful that change was occurring and the world was connecting on some deeper level. I stumbled across a Youtube video on Dr. Michael Wesch's (Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Kansas State University) presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum. This video helped me feel more inspirational about producing my own Youtube project, because it helped me realize this project can help in two different areas of my life. One, it can help me learn to use the web as a tool in community social work practice. This realization is encouraging me to continue broadening my own practices to macro-level social work, rather than the direct practice I've grown comfortable with. And two, it can support and encourage me to broaden my own social work skills with assertiveness. Knowing this, I can step away from my own passive aggressive behaviors related to the problems we are facing in the world and actually create some action and express myself to others and start...hoping for the deeper connection, hoping for more critical thought and awareness, hoping for work to be done for the people and hoping for hopefulness.