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YouTube More Popular Than Talking, Reading

Columbus, OH -- It's official: in only three short years YouTube has replaced all other forms of human communication. Text messaging finishes a distant second to the Internet video sharing site, followed by emailing, talking, writing, reading, and meaningful glances.

A fifteen month survey conducted by researchers at Ohio State University presents startling conclusions about the evolution of the YouTube phenomenon. The research team's seven minute summary uploaded to the YouTube site late Monday night has already received over ninety-five million hits as of Tuesday morning. Following a brief introductory segment featuring an adorable Jack Russell terrier riding a skateboard, the summary asserts that mankind's traditional methods of exchanging ideas and concepts are obsolete.

"It's easy for most people to see the path YouTube is following," said OSU media analyst Dr. David Hsu, "but to illustrate it, here's our next amazing clip—five thousand DVD cases, videotapes, and books falling domino-style in some guy's apartment."

The English Language Eats Itself

Visitors to Merriam-Webster's Web site were invited to vote for one of 20 words and phrases culled from the most frequently looked-up words on the site and submitted by readers.

Runner-up was "facebook" as a new verb meaning to add someone to a list of friends on the Web site Facebook.com or to search for people on the social networking site.

Merriam-Webster President John Morse said [the winner] "w00t" reflected the growing use of numeric keyboards to type words.

"People look for self-evident numeral-letter substitutions: 0 for O; 3 for E; 7 for T; and 4 for A," he said. "This is simply a different and more efficient way of representing the alphabetical character."

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