Forget Gen X, Y and Z. If you’re comfortable with producing and posting videos of yourself for all the world to view, you’re a member of a more important group: Generation V.

Cheap (aka free) online video is the hot application. But beyond adding a dimension to informal online communications, the broad availability and adoption of this technology, and the enhanced emphasis on the visual, will bring about profound change, and not all for the better.

We once thought interpersonal video communication would be something delivered by the phone company (remember “the phone company”?). We’d put the baby in front of the phone so grandma could say hello. The original videophone was generally configured in a network of two nodes — the most exclusive, secure, closed network ever designed. The environment was totally non-threatening. Grandma wasn’t going to mock the baby for being “lame” or “not getting it” for posting a poorly produced video.

But with the democratization of the medium, the proliferation of tools for creating and sharing video, like YouTube, Seesmic, Utterz and Flickr Video, and the new ways in which video is being used, everything has changed. Despite protestations that video is just another element of “authentic conversation,” video is actually subject to harsh criticism from technologically sophisticated but often ill-mannered media consumers.

Therein lies the problem. We see video as media, not informal communications, and it is critiqued as such. Video places youth and attractiveness high on the scale of personal attributes. Our concept of a “good communicator” changes.

Consider Inez Sainz, sportscaster for TVazteca. This is the ultimate in superficiality. The story is content free. The storyteller is the story. For some reason, her “credentials” as a reporter are no longer relevant. But she sure is videogenic. (Note the photographer totally disinterested in the athlete, aka “the story,” his camera instead pointed at Sainz.)

I’m not saying that you have to be Inez Sains to compete in the world of online video. I only use this example to illustrate the extremes to which our obsession with attractiveness has already been taken. And if you’re a member of Generation V, you have a career and life advantage. You’re comfortable in front of a camera, reasonably photogenic and well spoken (or simply don’t care that you’re not), and secure enough in your own identity and worth, that the idea of posting a video for thousands to view does not result in a state of paralysis.

And if you’re not a member of Generation V, you should be aware of the implications. Everyone likes young attractive people. The very word “attractive” implies that. Scientific studies have actually defined beauty and our biological tendency toward the beautiful. Symmetry, for example, is a biological indicator of attractiveness. It is natural for us to like attractive people and to like being around them.

I have ventured into online video. Like many (most?) people, particularly in my “age group,” I don’t like the way I look and sound. I can accept that I am not hot. Video is ruled by youth. Those of us who are over 30 need to understand this, but that is not the same as ignoring it. I know I have to become more comfortable with all of this, and honestly, it puts even more pressure on me to be well-informed and to make my points clearly and convincingly. Because I have nothing to distract with.

I believe and hope eventually interpersonal video will be so commonplace, that it will no longer be seen as media, and will be evaluated on the basis of its content and the purpose of the communications, with appearance offering just one of the many dimensions used to evaluate people and their messages.

Tags: generation v, online video, seesmic, utterz, flickr video