Kittens and mummies and rednecks, Oh my!

Rednecks and archaeologists have different definitions of
the world "excavation".

Youtube is one of the most commonly used websites for entertainment and procrastination, but many interesting educational videos can be found amongst puppies, kittens, and Korean pop music stars. When sifting through youtube videos, it is more important than ever to question and analyze everything that comes up. After I plugged "archaeology" into the search bar, the variety of videos that appeared was incredible. One of my personal favorites had the be the "Redneck Archaeologist Show" (with the emphasis on redneck rather than archaeologist.) It featured more explosions and beer bellies than  artifacts and excavations. A person looking for good information on archaeology should stay as far away from this youtube channel as they can, but it represented the many different definitions of archaeologist held by the general public.

On the other end of the spectrum were the full length, 45 minute to an hour long national geographic documentaries that are available for anyone to watch, anytime, for free. While I could call in to question the legitimacy/accuracy of National Geographic's documentaries, it won't change the fact that this is an extremely valuable resource.

The videos that I found to be the most valuable to the field of archaeology sit somewhere between the ridiculous and the educational. I found numerous compilations of the top ten or twenty "most incredible archaeological finds". These videos ranged from two to ten minutes of quick video clips and bits of  information on a number of interesting archaeological finds. Because they are short and interesting, people casually browsing youtube are likely to watch them. Five sentences and a few interesting pictures are all it takes to inspire a random person to want to learn more. I googled a few of the finds myself while watching compilation videos. While the number of inaccurate "archaeological" videos nearly cancels out all of the educational material on youtube, the websites true value is sparking interest in the people who weren't looking for it.

youtube.com