I would say that for every bizarre viral video that suddenly explodes across social media, there are at least three or four that go forever unseen. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo are unimaginably huge. In YouTube’s case, about an hour’s worth of video is uploaded every second. Do the math, and every ten days a century’s worth of video footage becomes available on the platform. So it stands to reason that many potentially entertaining or intriguing bits of content are passed over in favor of massive networks and a select few viral trends. As with any massive resource, there exist online communities dedicated to sifting through the bits and pieces of amateur film in the hopes of finding anything worthwhile. In my own searches (using sites such as “petittube” that index unseen YouTube videos) I’ve found most of this footage is overwhelmingly boring—it may be someone recording their pets or an online game. But the more adventurous among us (mostly on Reddit’s “DeepIntoYouTube” forum) find entire comedy sketches, short films, or absurdist displays that would no doubt become overwhelmingly popular, if only they were in the public eye. It’s an activity both engrossing and somewhat depressing; in hitting refresh, I am hit with a rush of excitement, hoping to find “the next big thing”, only to find amateur sports games, school history presentations shown once a long time ago, or clips of foreign game shows. There was a brief online buzz when someone found Actor Matthew McConaughey’s ignored video blogs, or when strange and disturbing animations attract more than their usual amount of attention. But for the most part, there is the wholly disheartening sense that only you will ever view this video, and except for less than a handful of other people, only you will ever see it. Like all the short stories, video game modifications or mediocre blogs that populate pre-Web 2.0 Internet, these videos will undoubtedly get swept along by the current of constant content, only to one day be seen for the last time.