computer science

Internet checkpoint

Internet checkpoint is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Internet checkpoint rather than just read about it. In short: Internet checkpoints or internet pitstops are a phenomenon that began in the early 2010s, primarily on the video sharing website YouTube. Users of the website used the comment section of uploaded videos to identify that moment in time.

Key takeaways

Internet checkpoint belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Internet checkpoint to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Internet checkpoint from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Internet checkpoints or internet pitstops are a phenomenon that began in the early 2010s, primarily on the video sharing website YouTube. Users of the website used the comment section of uploaded videos to identify that moment in time. Comparisons of this phenomenon have been made to 'temporal landmarks', stepping stones between past, present and future. Videos with music, often in the style of vaporwave or lo-fi ambience would be auto-played to users, with their comments sections used for personal reflections, each comment starting with the phrase "checkpoint". This word being a reference to checkpoints in video games, where the game is automatically saved and respawns can occur.

Known examples

Internet Checkpoint In 2012, a video titled Japanese: "とげとげタルめいろ・スーパードンキーコング2"", lit. 'Thorny Barrel Labyrinth Super Donkey Kong 2' was uploaded to YouTube by a channel named 'Taia777'. The video featured the track "Stickerbush Symphony" along with visuals from the video game Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. Neither the video or channel had any description or profile picture respectively. These videos were often recommended to viewers by YouTube's internal algorithm.

Comment section phenomenon The comments sections of the videos uploaded by Taia777 consisted of viewers writing about milestones, either upcoming or recent, personal or impersonal, usually beginning with 'Checkpoint:'. It is unknown when this started. This phenomenon correlates directly to video game automatic save points, with the viewer taking the place of the character within the video game. Documented examples of these checkpoint comments include:

'Checkpoint: I'm an adult now but I really don't feel like one.' 'Checkpoint: Finally quit a job I hated and started doing something I love. Game saved.' 'Checkpoint: Not too long ago, I graduated from Community College with an associates degree.'

Copyright takedown and archiving Videos containing video game music and visuals were taken down by YouTube in 2021, due to copyright and terms of service violations involving both YouTube and Nintendo. As a result of this action, all checkpoint comments left on Taia777's videos were lost. Some time later, Taia777's YouTube channel was terminated from YouTube entirely. Prior to the takedown of Taia777's video and channel, archive enthusiast Rebane2001 had saved all of Taia777's videos and their comments sections. Following the loss of these videos, Rebane2001 uploaded the archived content to her personal website and released files in ZIP format on Reddit. These were then published onto a dedicated website designed to ensure accessibility.

Thesoundof.love A website was set up by Filipino artist Chiara Amisola in 2022, allowing people to view curated YouTube comments above a corresponding video or still images of album covers when a song is playing. Music makes up the majority of the website's entries.

Commentary

Media coverage The checkpoint phenomenon has been discussed and analysed by multiple outlets. Nicolas Framont writing for Frustration Magazine described the phenomenon as a type of misnomer to Proust's madeleine from Marcel Proust's novel In Search of Lost Time. Framont stated that invitations to create "checkpoints" are "rare", noting that people are "instead asked to grow" and that "looking to the past is seen as a sign of weakness"; he characterised internet checkpoints as going "against this injunction". David-Julien Rahmil of L'ADN made note of the phenomenon being "relatively little identified by Internet users themselves". Quoting a video by YouTuber Daryl Talks Games, Rahmil reasoned that "it was the presence of this video titled in Japanese...which gave birth to this totally organic phenomenon. This idea of the checkpoint will not remain haphazard for very long. Playlists and videos stamped 'Internet checkpoint' are already flourishing on the Web."

Academic research Richy Srirachanikorn examined the phenomenon in an academic study, analysing different parts of the phenomenon individually, including the videos and comments sections of Taia777's YouTube channel. Srirachanikorn defined checkpoint comments as "recycle[d] social time expressions that institutions produce", which "strangers can quickly relate with one another with souvenirs and postcards". Anya Savina, interviewing author Ruby Justice Thélot, emphasised the importance of physicality, explaining from a personal point of view that "it's the materiality of that experience...to understand a memory requires presence. Any attempt for me to separate it from that ontological requirement of being there is essentially a travesty. I end the importance of being online essay with 'You had to be there, you had to be online.'" Describing the regulation of the internet by the large corporations, Framont concluded that ""Internet checkpoints" are part of these islands of resistance and freedom." In 2019, the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision conducted a study, with lead researcher Jack O'Conner commenting on the concept of provenance in relation to YouTube comments, describing YouTube as a "fluid platform", with the argument made that YouTube comments could be "considered worthy of preservation". Using a Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) outline (a hierarchal structure that corresponds to four user tasks), YouTube comments were considered as a "work", it was concluded that FRBR proves a "need for describing 'aggregate works'", which includes comments made by users on YouTube.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Internet checkpoint

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Internet checkpoint claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Internet checkpoint before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Internet checkpoint ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Internet checkpoint

In research: Internet checkpoint appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Internet checkpoint in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Internet checkpoint is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010s in Internet culture, 2010s in YouTube, Human–computer interaction, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Internet checkpoint outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Internet checkpoint in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Internet checkpoint means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Internet checkpoint out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Internet checkpoint in simple terms?

Why does Internet checkpoint matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Internet checkpoint?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Internet checkpoint.