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technology

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AlphaGo is a program developed by DeepMind, a British AI company acquired by Google two years ago. This program secured his win with an astonishing 3 wins streak against 18 times world champion Le Se-dol in the game board of Go.

The ancient Chinese board game of Go has long been considered impossible for computers to play at a world-class level, despite similar breakthroughs in other games like chess and checkers. Go’s simple rules and elaborate possibilities have made it one of the most sought-after milestones in the field of AI research.

Sure, supercomputers have beaten chessmasters at their own game before (most noticeable the loss of Kasparov against IBM DeepBlue), but due to the extremely complex nature of the 5000-year old game of Go, this was an unprecedented upset that experts had predicted wouldn’t happen for another 10 years.

This particular yet very simple game consists in placing game pieces called stones on a 19×19 board, and the objective is to cover more area than your opponent. What is really incredible in this 3rd win is that this tricky situation, known as ko, that didn’t come up in the prior two matches, occurred. The program easily dealt with it, further confirming its superiority.

“To be honest we are a bit stunned and speechless,” said DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis. “AlphaGo can compute tens of thousand positions a second, but it’s amazing that Lee Se-dol is able to compete with that and push AlphaGo to the limit. We came here to challenge Lee Se-dol because we wanted to see what AlphaGo was capable of, and his amazing genius and creative skills have done that.”

DeepMind’s AlphaGo program has gone further than anyone else by using an advanced system based on deep neural networks and machine learning, which has seen it overwhelm Lee over the course of three games. This is History been made.

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I was thinking today I would murder my boss today, or that guy at the pub that insulted me. This would all be in the virtual reality, of course, it’s just a game, it’s just for fun, and it won’t affect me. Or will it? The possible futures starkly portrayed in the movie Gamer, The Lawnmower Man, along with many others, show what could happen.

Games have gone from simple blocks on digital screens to almost life-like creations in the space of a few decades. Now with these life-like creations converted into brain fooling virtual worlds, how will this affect our minds in the long term? The human race as whole has a history of violence and gamers are no exception. The basis of almost every game is to kill something. MMORPGs all involve killing everything in your local vicinity. The most popular eSports are people killing each other. You can see from a glance on Twitch.TV or Steam at the huge popularity of Hunger Games based survival games and military shooters. People that play these games are especially passionate and defensive about their game of choice, some to the point of fanaticism.

I asked on several forums what people found attractive in player versus player games and there was quite a varied response.

From extremes, “To be able to kill people without consequences.” and “Hell, getting that feeling when you get shot at or hear shots at you. I love the adrenaline.”

To be sports-like, “Because PVP is competition. Just like a football or basketball game is.”

The philosophical, “As a human we are born aggressive, otherwise the world wouldn’t have more bullets than people.”

And the common excuse for stress relief, “I like to take out my anger out in game rather than someone in reality.”

This isn’t one of those articles about how games incite people to violence. I don’t believe that’s true and it has been proven so.

But what will a life-like virtual reality kill feel like in the future? Would it be any different from a real life one other than no real world consequence? Virtual reality is already used in the conditioning of soldiers. Soldiers I’ve spoken to can’t stand games like Call of Duty or Battlefield, not the ones that have seen live action and killed people. Only a small minority would want to relive those kinds of experiences.

Immersion is a big part of first person shooters, so how fast will lines become blurred between the real and the virtual? Will you lose your compassion and empathy? This could be true for people that seek out situations in games where murder and torture are common. I’ve often read stories about players in the survival game Dayz captured and force fed rotten food or even bleach. How will this play out in hyper-realistic virtual reality? How would a victim of this feel afterwards when unplugged? Could it even go to the point where it could be judged as a crime if someone experienced trauma because of the experience? Will we see the rise of virtual reality police in the future? I can see this happening as we’ve already seen the law forced to evolve to prosecute people for written words on social media.

There are great physical and mental benefits to playing certain games. The benefits VR will have for the disabled, education sector and other commercial applications in medicine will be ground-breaking.

But as we move forward into this new world, I do think we need to get smarter on what we create and define as entertainment as we force fed yearly spam from profit-hungry executives at the top developers.

A huge hype storm is being generated around virtual reality to a point of frenzy. I think health effects, physical and psychological, are being overlooked and avoided by the developers and in general by gaming journalists.

A lot of more questions need to be asked before we put those goggles on which may evolve our race into something darker and hungrier in the future.


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The Irish economy is on the up. After several years of turmoil, 2015 saw a number of positive reports from finance minister Michael Noonan that things were starting to look better.

Indeed, as the end of the year approached, Noonan predicted an annual growth rate of 6%. This is a figure which has seen the European Commission forecast the Irish economy as the fastest growing in the European Union as of the beginning of February 2016.

While austerity measures have certainly helped to turn things around, one of the main reasons Ireland has recovered is because of the willingness to go shopping. According to a report by the Irish Times, there was hope among the Irish retailers at the start of 2015 thanks a buoyant festive period.

Retail Fuelling the Irish Recovery

 

Outlets such as Tesco saw growth of 1.1% in 2014, while stores such as SuperValu took control of 24.5% of the Irish market over the course of the year. That growth in 2014 not only gave retailers something to smile about, but contributed to the upturn in fortunes noted by Noonan towards the end of the year and now there could be more hope on the horizon courtesy of Google.

The buzz among tech experts in early 2015 was the introduction of Google’s buy button which basically allows consumers to make purchases directly from the search page.

Could this be a good thing for Irish retail? Well, if the online retail sector embraces Google’s buy button and it allows people to purchase items with fewer obstacles in their way, then it is a positive thing according to experts at the Greenlight Digital agency.

In fact, as well as making it easier to purchase items (because it removes the number of steps a consumer has to complete to get their product), the new buy button could, according to Pouros, “help smaller retailers to better compete with larger operations”.

We Love to Shop Online

Now, for most shoppers the process of finding an item online and completing the purchase isn’t an issue. A 2014 study by the analytics experts at Formisimo found that six out of ten Irish consumers followed through with their purchases after adding an item to their basket.

This fact not only ranked Ireland ahead of the rest of the world when it comes to being fervent shoppers, but it means that we’re always ready to make a purchase online if we spot a deal. Of course, with many retailers located offshore, there’s always a concern that online purchases won’t contribute to the economy.

Indeed, in an article outlining the ten things we love and hate about online shopping, journalist Conor Pope asked the question: “If you buy from big international retailers, where does the money go?” Fortunately, the advent of Google’s buy button could help negate the problem of Irish money going overseas if it allows local retailers to compete with the big boys.

Tech Could Help Boost the Irish Economy

Indeed, if it is the case that smaller retailers can better compete with larger companies (i.e. because people will make purchases from the search page and not be swayed by fancy websites), then more of Ireland’s independents can tap into the country’s love for shopping. Naturally, that would then keep more of our retail Euros within Ireland’s shores and, therefore, give an extra boost to the economy.

Online retail may have caused the demise of many small businesses over the years, however, if smaller retailers are able to adapt and embrace features such as Google’s buy button, then technology could have the opposite effect in the coming years.

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Could Half Life 3 be coming out of its coma?

Earlier this week Valve released its very own VR Performance test on the 22nd Feb and now gamers are talking about the fate of a possible Half Life 3 game being developed. This is because in the source files used in the aperture VR demo there is a file named “core vr portal_2imported left4dead3 hl3″.

According to Valve News on YouTube there are other various files left in the folders that also contain possible hints. This also leads us towards a Left 4 Dead 3! Valve News Network runs through this latest “leak” but I think they could be getting their hopes up too much, as Half-Life 3 rumours tend to normally disappoint, so I would also say don’t get your hopes up either.

Half life 3 is a sort of mythical beast at the moment in the gaming world. It’s been rumoured for years and every so often we are teased with a small piece of news or gossip (I understand the irony of this news story I am posting too). Fans go wild for a while but to their disappointment game developer Valve has kept gamers guessing since the release of Half-Life 2: Episode 2 back in 2007, and over the past 9 years we have all been let down… regularly.

For those who have never heard of Half Life or never played it, it can be downloaded via STEAM here. To check whether your PC is ready for VR content Valve have what you need right here to find out. Valve state: “The SteamVR Performance Test measures your system’s rendering power using a 2-minute sequence from Valves Aperture Robot Repair VR demo.

“After collecting the data it determines whether your system is capable of running VR content at 90fps and whether VR content can tune the visual fidelity up to the recommended level. For machines that are not VR Ready the tool can help determine whether capabilities are bound by Graphics Card, CPU, or both.”

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Picking apart the stigma of online dating and the quest for something more.


Whether you like the idea of online dating or not, it is hard not to accept it as a concrete part of modern day society. You can’t sit on the tube without an advert promising you that the love of your life is just a click away screaming in your face. Even if you’re not actively looking for your other half it is intriguing to see what the web is going to throw out and tell you is your perfect partner.

How do you find your other half when you don’t even know what you like yourself? Questions upon questions asking you what your favourite colour is, to what your diet consists of. It is hard to figure out why so much information is needed to make love appear. I think this is where most people’s wariness grows for such websites because it forces you to take a look at yourself and genuinely think what IS my favorite colour? If I were a dog what WOULD I be?

Then you look at the complete other end of the spectrum at an app where you swipe yes or no to someone based on a first impression of his or her face. It can feel shallow. It can feel bad but it can feel great. After those first few days of staring intently at some strangers face, hoping there a screen away doing the same, you get a little cocky. Your matches start to pile up and you can afford to be a little more picky, after all with one click you can unmatch and have nothing to do with these people.

It is hard not to get hooked on an app that relies so little on how you are as a person. This is not to say it cannot work, and perhaps this is our future. A first impression based on innocent and pure attraction really does have the potential to blossom into a promising relationship.

There is, and always will be something charming about meeting someone in the corner of a coffee shop where you both reach for the same cup or maybe you bump into each other and he picks up your books and you stare into each others eyes thinking ‘he’s the one.’ For a lot of us, this is a pipe dream, which can resort to 3am sessions on Tinder (nothing good will ever happen after 3am on Tinder) but then why if so many of us are on it, do we scoff at others who use similar?

I have downloaded Tinder on two separate occasions in the space of a year, once back in my hometown Cornwall and once since I’ve lived in London. My first impression of Tinder was tarnished when I sat in an apartment on a second date and the man returned to the room stark naked and looked at me as if this was a normal occurrence, so I swore off it for a whole year but 2016 came around and I left a relationship and friends coaxing me to just go for it. The app hadn’t changed much in a year and soon enough I was back into the habit of swiping through people so quickly as if it was a game and I was winning.

Within a week I went on a date with a nice enough man who was in London for the weekend, we met at Leicester Square and said we would take it from there. Naturally, we ended up at a Wetherspoons two minutes down the road and we got talking, we got laughing and suddenly sitting with this stranger in front of me came so naturally. It was like having a drink with an old friend. It felt good.

We ended up walking across the Thames at about 10pm on a Sunday night when the river was calm and the London Eye blinked back at me and it was like something out of some sort of romantic comedy where you stare into each others eyes and kiss for the first time and maybe there are fireworks and the credits roll. Except the words that came out of his mouth were: “So, shall we go back to yours?” and the night was cut short and I went home alone.

But the moral of the story is what else was I going to do on a Sunday night apart from binge watch The Office. Instead of sitting at home, I had walked across the Thames and counted the landmarks like constellations in the sky. Surprisingly I did not see the gentlemen again but I went home that night content and ready to take on Tinder. I went on a few other dates and I was whisked around London from day dates in Camden Town to drinks in Covent Garden, I was going to places that without these dates I probably wouldn’t of even thought about going to.

I think the stigma behind online dating is outdated, for the first time in our lives we can wake up one morning with no plans for an evening and by the same night we are out looking up at the stars! There is something charming about this idea of a complete abundance of traditions - we are growing into a society where it is socially acceptable to meet up with strangers online, and that’s okay!

What is more okay is that you don’t have to fall instantly in love with these strangers; you can go on these dates and just be happy with the night spent. There are a million little ways to find the one, and a million other ways to have a good night out and now more than ever, online dating is one of these options.

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MeowChat is a very unpopular social networking site, and it's unpopular for many, many reasons.


If you’re a long-time Facebook user, surely you’ll remember the annoying MeowChat invites that caused you to get over one hundred notifications per day inviting you to join. If you managed to ignore them and decided not to join, be glad you didn’t.

What is MeowChat?
MeowChat is a social networking app for iPhone and Android where you create your own profile and post photos - the layout is a lot like Instagram, except you are being connected with complete strangers. You click on ”random chat” and you are connected with a complete stranger who is either near you or anywhere around the world. You ”fave” (follow) people and chat with them, too.

The one good thing I can say about MeowChat is that the layout is quite good, the design of the whole app is rather attractive. It’s not the creators of MeowChat (Minus) who have turned the app into the garbage that it has become, really, but rather the people who use it.

MeowChat is supposed to be a way to connect with different people and to meet new people around the world - because, let’s be honest, what’s better than meeting new friends and getting to know someone from a different country who has a completely different lifestyle to you? It’s fascinating. So, the intentions of MeowChat were pure and good. However, I’m sure Minus did not expect MeowChat to become what it is today. Of course, there are some things they could improve on, but most of it comes down to the users who have turned the social networking site into something that it isn’t supposed to be.

So, what exactly is wrong with MeowChat? Well, I can think of two main things that are completely wrong with the app, that Minus haven’t done enough about:

The app is a pornographic/dating site.

There’s nothing more annoying than signing up for a new app in hopes that you will meet some new friends and filling out your profile to find that all the majority of the people on that app want is someone to have a flirty chat with. Scrolling down your page, all you can see is naked photos that MeowChat should ban and remove.Almost every message you get is asking for naked photos or asking if you’re single, because all the people are interested in on this app is someone to satisfy their sexual needs. Sure, you meet one nice person every once in a while, but it’s rare. And you have to go through all the strange people before you get to the nice ones, which can be very annoying!Have MeowChat done anything to stop this from happening? Well, they have tried, but there’s only so much they can do. It’s the users of an app that turn it into something that it’s not, MeowChat have nothing to do with how it has become. Of course, the app is made to speak to strangers, but it’s meant for you to connect with and meet new people, I highly doubt this is what Minus expected MeowChat to be.

The app has some horrible people on it.

I have used Meow Chat for over a year now as I have met some people on there and it’s a good way to promote my writing and also quite a good time waster. But the more I think about it, the more I realise that I have met more horrible people than nice people on the social networking app. Now that I think about it, every single post I have uploaded has had at least one person comment something sarcastic or nasty - if it’s not a sexual innuendo, it’s a nasty comment. That’s in my experience, anyway. You’ll find mean people everywhere, sure, but a lot more often on MeowChat. So, have MeowChat done anything about this situation? No. In fact, I have come across a man who posts disgusting posts everyday including racism, sexism and jokes about mental illness. I have sent four emails to MeowChat complaining about the man and I have reported him twice and also blocked him - I never heard back from them. They never did anything. If that was Twitter or Instagram, he never would have got away with it. He would have been banned. But people can say what they want on MeowChat and get away with it.

I can’t say I’m the only one who regrets using this app; when I look around the Internet, not many people have nice things to say when it comes to the social networking app. I have recently deleted my account because of all of the issues and the people on it.

I’m not saying any of this is the fault of the people who created MeowChat, but I am saying that if you are thinking of joining this app - don’t. Nothing good comes from it. If you’ve already downloaded and signed up for the app, what did you think of it?

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In the world of the First Person Shooter, who reins supreme? A comparison of some of my favourite series.

The First Person Shooter (FPS) formula is a simple one; at its core a good FPS combines adrenaline-fuelled action, an extensive weapon selection and deadly vehicles. Gamers are spoiled for choice in the genre; there are tons of great titles around. The run and gun gameplay of Call of Duty, futuristic thrills of Halo or sheer scale of Battlefield, there’s something for everyone for the modern FPS fan.

Call of Duty (COD) is one of the genre’s most popular franchises, making the leap from the world war periods to the modern day in 2007. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare reinvigorated the series, receiving critical acclaim (and remains as a personal favourite.) Recent releases have traded the modern day for a near future setting; Advanced Warfare introduced fresh gameplay dynamics like the Exo-Suit, making for a much more fluid and fast flowing experience. Black Ops broke new ground with the zombie mode, a game type based on wave defence of increasingly hostile Nazi zombies. That game type is a tradition continued in the most recent COD games and attracts a massive following.

COD distinguishes itself from the other FPS on the market with great story driven campaigns, the vehicle and stealth levels have become as integral and demanded for these titles as a dizzying weapon array. Online matchmaking is not a realm for the faint of heart, frustration is guaranteed for the ill prepared.

As this guy shows:

Halo entered the fray with Combat Evolved. Released in 2001 by developer Bungie, this was a game like no other at the time. The mix of gameplay and a genuinely gripping story was a winning combination and the series has gone from strength to strength.

Halo 2 has proven to be a defining moment for online gaming; the dedicated server let gamers go from match to match easily. Although the dedicated server is considered commonplace today it was a crucial leap, and we are all grateful for it.

The newest instalment, Halo 5: Guardians, has proven to be the most polished version of the series to date. The Spartan Charge and Ground Pound add to your arsenal and have been used for a tool to access certain areas of the map. Vehicles, weapons and flanking opportunities rewards those players willing to explore.

Guardians depicted The Master Chief as never before, defying direct orders and pursued as a criminal. Spartan Locke was the one charged with the task and the dynamic was exhilarating.

Online is as good as ever, new game types like Warzone introduce fresh themes. The inclusion of AI bosses and the REQ system raise the stakes on every life you have. The pain of loosing a power weapon before you have used it in battle is excruciating.

Battlefield earns its marks through big maps and destructible environments; why enter a building to take out an enemy when you could bring the building down upon them? A fiercely loyal online community inhabit the Battlefield servers; there is a bitter rivalry with COD fans and often slug it out in online forums to be crowned king of the FPS.

The multiplayer maps of Battlefield are truly enormous. These coupled with high octane game types create a fantastic, although very tough, online experience. Online is arguably this series strongest claim to the FPS crown and is definitely where the series is at its strongest.

Thus far I have neglected the series considered by many to be the pinnacle of FPS gameplay. Released in 1999, I am talking of course about Counter Strike (CS).

The series newest edition, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, is one of the most sought after categories in the world of E-Sports. Competitions are watched by thousands and with prize funds of $250,000 up for grabs it’s easy to see why.

All in all this is a great genre, fast paced and action packed. For me, the Halo series will always be number one. 343 Studios have done a wonderful job with Guardians, it is the slickest and most developed title to date. The Master Chief is an icon for FPS players and should be recognised as such.

Few genres inspire as much devotion as FPS, don’t believe me? Ask Doug.

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Whatsapp is making big plans to be more than just a messaging service - will this change the face of the app as we know it?

WhatsApp is the simple, no fuss messaging service we all know and love. For just $0.99, we can send unlimited messages, photos and videos to our friends and families around the world - no wonder the app has 900 million users, nearly the entire population of Europe.

The $0.99 fee was introduced after around 300 million users had already downloaded the app, however, this still allowed for the generation of revenue. With so many users, even such a small fee could generate millions. But the profit making has a limit; even if the entire population was to buy WhatsApp at a price of $0.99, the total value of the company would be around $7.4 billion, which is undoubtedly a lot of money.

$7.4 billion pales in comparison to $19 billion though, which is how much Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg paid for the app two years ago, leading to some very confused people. One of the reasons cited for Zuckerberg’s purchase is that WhatsApp was, and still is, one of Facebook messenger’s biggest competitors, but this still wouldn’t explain why he would pay so much. The fact that Zuckerberg would pay such a price for a company that seems unlikely to ever make him a return on the money posed the question: what does he plan to do with it?

To make matters even more confusing, last week WhatsApp’s founder, Jan Koum, announced that the company would abandon the $0.99 fee, as it was thought to discourage users, making them turn to alternative messaging apps. So if the app isn’t making any money at all, has Zuckerberg just wasted $19bn of hard earned cash?

Well, it turns out Zuckerberg is a man with a plan. The app will not be introducing third party ads to make money, as many people believed, but will instead allow businesses and organisations to communicate with you via WhatsApp, and charging them for the privilege. As stated on the WhatsApp blog, ‘That could mean communicating with your bank about whether a recent transaction was fraudulent, or with an airline about a delayed flight’, essentially making WhatsApp a platform for other services, an incredibly lucrative idea.

Becoming a platform could be an incredibly successful move for the company, and has been demonstrated by Chinese app WeChat. Currently the third most popular messaging app in the world, WeChat has also developed a City Services feature, which allows users services such as booking doctor appointments, paying electricity fees and booking transportation through the app itself.

Now that Facebook owns WhatsApp, there are also reportedly rumours that WhatsApp users accounts may soon be integrated with their Facebook accounts. Although the benefits of this for users are currently largely unknown, it has been promised to ‘improve Facebook experiences’.

With a continually growing user base expected to reach 2 billion by the end of the decade, and with double the amount of WhatsApp messages being sent than text messages, the app shows no sign of slowing down. Certainly, for the next few years the company will continue to make money, but it is uncertain how well users will take to the new additions.

There is the argument that in fact users are progressively wanting apps to do less, rather than more, allowing for one app per function. If WhatsApp becomes an all encompassing service, rather than just a messaging device, users may switch to competitors like Viber. Certainly, if businesses start bombarding users with spam and junk mail, it’s unlikely they’ll be happy. For now, we’ll have to just wait and see.

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Although gaming can be one of life’s greatest pleasures, it can be frustrating work trying to keep up with the current wave of top titles.

So to save you the trouble, we’ve waded through last year’s releases of shoot-em-ups, puzzle games and blackjack sites to try and guarantee you some top gaming exploits for the upcoming year.

Action games

2015 proved that gamers love their violence as a huge range of titles such as the beautifully-realised The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and the futuristic mayhem of Fallout 4 showed the endless appeal of action games.

And whilst there was a string of successful movie adaptations such as the Star Wars: Battlefront and the critically-acclaimed Arkham Knight, it was the more innovative titles such as Bloodborne that showed the true story-telling capacity of these new technologies that promised a much more immersive gaming future.

Mind games

2015 also proved to be the year that mobile gameplay overtook that of traditional console games, and this trend has led to the rise of many top puzzling titles such as Windosill. Not only did these titles manage to prove themselves perfectly-suited for mobile gaming, but they frequently displayed a degree of imagination and beauty hitherto unseen in the world of gaming.

But sometimes it was the traditional games that fared best. Betway quickly asserted itself as being definitely the best online blackjack site of 2015 for its user-friendly interface and impressive winnings, whereas the likes of Sporcle provided an endless supply of topical brainteasers for mobile gamers on the go.

Gaming innovation

In a bid to carve a niche in the evermore competitive world of gaming, certain releases sought to provide a much greater amount of innovation in 2015.

The likes of Her Story used wonderfully acted video footage of a crime report to reinvent the humble ‘whodunnit’, and Life Is Strange blurred the line between gaming and movies even further through its evocative episodic graphical adventure developments.

Undertale managed to prove that it was a game’s storytelling skills that ultimately triumph over graphical prowess. And with even Minecraft: Story Mode getting in on the point-and-click adventure fun, it showed that gamers will be starting to expect a little more from their games in 2016.

So whether it was gamers seeking a 21st century update to traditional casino games such as blackjack, or even the latest way to achieve a bloodbath via their next-gen console, it proved that 2015 was gaming’s best year yet.

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How alternate media has come to stay

Almost everyone on planet earth knows YouTube, it is easily the most popular video sharing website known to mankind. It has launched careers, it has launched businesses, already established businesses and media cooperations use it to promote their businesses.

You can practically educate your mind through content uploaded by it’s content producers. You can learn how to make a proper Sunday roast, you can also learn how to cook Ofe Egusi (Locust Beans soup - an Eastern Nigerian delicacy). You can learn and polish your artistic skills if you aspire to be the next Picasso or Bruce Onobrakpeya - I’m not certain you can learn how to be the next Psy, songs like Gangnam Style just happen, you can also learn about the modern innovative uses of human waste.

Good Mythical Morning

This channels is operated by two childhood friends and former engineers known simply as Rhett and Link. They are one of the most creative duos of youtube with nearly 10 million subscribers and they make videos about things you never even thought about. Both worked as engineers after graduating from college, but they soon retired and focused solely on making their youtube videos which goes viral on a regular basis. They also include their viewers subtly into their show, by getting them to say their names and country of residence, followed by the popular phrase: ” It’s time to spin the wheel of mythicality”.

Bovi Ugboma & BasketMouth

Bovi and Basketmouth are individual Nigerian stand-up comedians and actors. I decided to merge both because of how closely related their portfolios are. When they are not on a comedy tour, they are making short videos through their respective channels on YouTube. Their skits are in English with an infusion of Pidgin-English. .

Dj Akademiks

I first thought he was the new Dj Khalid of the States when I stumbled across his channel. I expected him to be mixing hits on YouTube, but he is a YouTube personality who makes videos with in-depth analysis on the state of hip hop and all that concerns it. He is very versed with the culture, this can be seen through his sub channel called the War in Chiraq. A lot of people don’t know him yet, but he helped Drill music with free adverts through his contents. He produces commentaries on events about inner city Chicago which he calls ”Coonery”. To my best understanding, he helped populariSe the slogan ”Savage” beyond the borders of the United States which a lot of people use today. He even gave a Chicago rapper a name which the rapper went on to tattoo on himself.

Mark Angel Comedy

You can learn the art of comedy but some comedians are special. I don’t think we all feel the same way but when I see a gifted comedian, they have a particular look which aids their craft and it is mind blowing. Think about those comedians who have only just stepped on the stage without uttering a word, the audience are already laughing. To me, that is a complete comedian. This YouTube channel is managed by Mark Angel, who often stars alongside the young Emmanuela and other guests appearances. They make comedy skits, using everyday occasions which goes viral steadily.

Slow Mo Guys

When the slow mo guys first came out with their videos, it was as if they brought people closer to an occurrence which we wouldn’t be able to see with the naked eyes. Their show first aired on 3rd November 2010. They have amassed over 7.2 million subscribers with 100 million of views. It is science based with a little blend of comedy brought about through the friendship of the hosts, Similar to what you’d find between the hosts of the Mythical Morning Show.

Vsauce

This channel was founded in 2010 by Michael Stevens and it has close to 10 millions YouTube subscribers who have viewed the channel’s contents nearly 1 billion times. This channel is dedicated to answering very complex questions which are philosophical and scientific at the same time. You can dive into a short video on the science of awkwardness or puzzling questions like, did the past really happen?

Watchmojo

This is the 7th most popular YouTube channel at the moment, they have over 10.5 million subscribers who have viewed their videos nearly 200 million times. This channel provides a well put together top 10 list about society and pop culture. You can be educated on topics like top 10 J.cole songs to what happened at Chernobyl.

Gone are the days people disregarded alternative media as a form of entertainment, it has proven that it is here to stay as it continues to generate billions of dollars, pounds, naira, cedis - okayyyyyyyyyy….. You can insert whatever currency you desire as long as you don’t insert the Zimbabwe dollars or the Vietnamese dong.

Some people rarely watch mainstream tv these days. Maybe it is because you can skip adverts on alternative media like a big kahuna. This is why you hear millennials and young adults say ”Netflix and chill” as opposed to Emerdale and brunch. What are your favourite YouTube channels or other forms of alternative forms of media which you enjoy?

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