Practicum 6 - Sasha

I found an article today (http://www.altamirano.org/technology/online-video-market-remains-underserved-u-s-latinos-eagerly-waiting-to-consume/) that explained some of the habits of US-Latinos on the Internet. One statistic stated that a 2009 study showed that "the most popular online activities of US-Latinos were: watching videos (58%), uploading photos (68%), downloading music (47%) and visiting social networks (40%)." Based on the findings of this statistic I planned to spend some time watching online videos that other Latinos are also watching to try and figure out more information about the activities that Latinos partake in online. The same study that I mentioned above also found that Latinos are using the Internet because "new technologies help this group stay connected to what they consider to be most important: culture, community, friends and family-in both the U.S. and their home countries." I mentioned the point during my presentation in discussion, that I felt that Latinos on the sites I have been visiting display the norm of demonstrating pride about their origin and I believe that this quote helps to compliment that idea very well. It is important for Latinos to demonstrate their pride in online spaces because they feel that their culture and community are very important topics in their lives.
I turned to YouTube after reading this article to try and watch some of the videos that other Latinos might be viewing. While I was searching around for videos, I noticed that there are many videos that are either music videos or are videos of Latina artists recording their music. I noticed that these videos have many view. One of the videos I watched was a video of the recording of a song and was called "Sorriso Maroto - Ainada Existe Amor em Nos [OFICIAL]" and had 16,375,117 views. Based on my experience of living in Mexico, I also frequently remember my house brother or my house brother's friend playing music videos on YouTube or playing videos the native dance. I plan on doing more research about online videos to try and figure out what other topics are popular among Latinos to view.