Every so often, just for a larf, I like to look up what the most viewed videos of all time on youtube are.  If you just google it, you'll find several sites that post these stats.  As far as I am aware, there is no real-time counter like the world population or US national debt clocks.  It's just lists of the top ten or twenty most viewed videos as of the time of posting.  I haven't thought about it in a long time, though.  Been busy.  Last time I checked was... oh, about eight or so years ago.  Sometime in 2014 sounds about right.  I remember it because I was living in a different house at the time.  Back then, the most viewed video of all time was a pop music video by... um... I wanna say Lady Gaga.  If not her, somebody similar.  It had about 350 million views.  That was mind-boggling at the time.  I think every single video on the top ten list was a music video intended for adults and/or teens.  Mostly pop.

You know what the most viewed video today is?  You're never gonna get it.  Oh wait, I guess I gave it away in the title and picture.  Yeah, it's a children's song called Baby Shark Dance.

Thar she blows, but ye be warned, tis not for the faint of heart:

Yup.  That's it.  Over 10 billion views.  10 billion.  That's billion with a B.  The view count is 1.25x the population of Earth.  Just try to wrap your head around that for a second.  And keep in mind that most people in the world probably haven't seen this video.  I mean, think about all of the people in the world for a second.  Think about every person who would have no interest in this video, and no reason to even know it exists, not to mention all the people who still live in poverty and don't even have access to the internet.  I think it's safe to assume that the majority, probably vast majority of all people on Earth have not seen this video, and it still has significantly more views than there are people on the planet.  That's wild and kinda scary.

Circa 2014, the most viewed video had ~350 million views.  Now, just eight years later, the most viewed video, which was uploaded after that, in 2016, has 10 billion.  Actually, it's 10.47 billion.  The insignificant decimal amount, the change, is 470 million, more than that video from 2014.  It's just insane.  It's hard to even comprehend.  This dramatic increase definitely speaks volumes about us, doesn't it?  I realize that there's more people on Earth today than in 2014, but not that much more.  That surely can't account for much of the difference.  This change says something significant about our habits.  We're spending way more time online, and it's continually increasing.  And obviously, the fact that the most viewed video is now for young kids says something else of consequence.  In fact, a lot of top viewed videos are now for kids.  In 2014, I believe every video on the list was a pop star music video, and now at least a third in the top twenty list are for little kids.  It's just blows my mind that this kid's video has more views than Earth's population, and there are many more on the list in the billions as well.

What is happening?!  Obviously, parents must be parking their kids in front of these videos everyday and just playing them on a loop to keep them entranced and shut them up.  This ludicrous amount of screen time can't be healthy.  The fact that we're online, and that kids in particular are online that much more than just eight or so years ago is staggering and quite frankly a little frightening to me.

So far I've mostly just been talking about the sheer view count, but let's talk about the actual content of the video for a second.  "Baby shark, baby shark, do do do do, mommy shark, mommy shark, do do do do"?

...   Seriously?

That's what gets 10.4 billion views?  You're sh*tting me.  That's just sad.  I mean, why can't the most viewed video at least be something good?  Okay, now, don't get me wrong--I'm not ripping on it just because it's for kids.  I mean, look where we are right now.  I love cute, colorful, girly kid's stuff, but, well, I mean, this shark thing is just stupid.  I'm not saying it's stupid just because it's for kids.  No, I'm saying it's stupid because it's stupid.  It's devoid of any kind of real talent or creativity or cleverness.  It's just empty, pathetic fluff.  I didn't even make it all the way through!  I only made it as far as daddy shark before I couldn't stomach any more!  I mean, something can be intended for kids and still be good!  Obviously.  Duh.    But this... this is garbage!    Why is it so freaking popular?!  Why would any kids want to watch this when you could watch any song from freakin' MLP G4?!  Or Littlest Pet Shop?!  Or freaking anything else?!  Ugh.    I don't get it.

Okay, okay.... okay.... so that paragraph was just my little silly rant and opinion.  I mean, y'know, I'm not trying to dump on anyone who actually likes this, but I don't understand it.  And here's the thing--I realize it's for a younger audience than FIM, but there's plenty of content for little, little kids that's not so dumb.  I think Sesame Street holds up well and isn't such a cringefest.  Mr. Rogers was a daily staple for me as a really little kid, and I actually watched a bit of it recently for some context before watching the recent documentary, Won't You Be My Neighbor?, followed by the Tom Hanks movie, It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, and I've got to say that, even though I have no interest in unironically sitting down and watching an entire episode of Mr. Roger's Neighborhood today, the show holds up, and is definitely not a cringefest.  The point being, young children's stuff can be good, but this shark thing is, in my honest opinion, a piece of crap.

Well, anyway.... I guess that's it.  Nothing more to say, other than I think we should get our kids away from the screen more.