You walk into class while everyone is talking about the Britney Spears MTV Video Music Awards disaster and how they “cannot believe she made such a fool out of herself on national TV,” and you immediately start to panic. You missed the awards show because you had to work, but you hate being the only one that can’t give input on celebrity gossip. After pouting for a second or two, it hits you like a Mike Tyson knockout punch…YouTube.com. You pull out your laptop, watch the performance, then comment right along with everyone else.
For those of us who do not YouTube, it is a site where people post videos for their own and other people’s enjoyment. On YouTube.com, you can watch an assortment of clips ranging from a random girl singing in her living room to Beyonce’s latest music video. But what is its real purpose? Does it even have one?
Created in February 2005 by Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim, YouTube quickly grew into a popular site that was purchased by Google Inc. in November of last year. Since its creation, YouTube has become a widely known and used site that allows people to share videos they feel everyone should see. By simply joining the free Web site, anyone with internet-access can view and comment on millions of videos; members can even add their own.
So if billions of people post their videos, is there a sole reason why?
Maybe YouTube is a place for people to express and share a piece of themselves. If you have a dance performance on tape that you are proud of, you can put it on YouTube and share it with the world. If your baby just took his first steps and you want everyone to know, then put it on YouTube.
Or maybe YouTube is a place to share funny mishaps. People post videos of themselves dancing around their living rooms. They put up clips of themselves acting like superheroes in homemade costumes. You might even find one of a stranger falling off a curb and rolling into a pack of school children.
Is YouTube a way for people to send a message? It was for Chris Crocker who has become semi-famous for his video where he was in tears, telling everyone to leave Britney Spears alone. The video was even shown on the Jimmy Kimmel Show.
YouTube could be entertainment for when you are bored or you and your friends are surfing the web, looking for a laugh. It could even be an exciting new tool used by an educator to give out a homework assignment. Or as sweet revenge. Maybe it’s a complete waste of time.
Perhaps it is one of the most innovative websites in the world. Time Magazine must think so since they awarded them with “Best Invention of the Year.” Entertainment Weekly might agree because they made them the first Web site to receive “Entertainer of the Year.”
Overall it seems that YouTube does not serve just one purpose. It has numerous purposes based on the user. So if you have never YouTube-ed, it couldn’t hurt to check it out, right?
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1 comment:
Perhaps the best point made in this column is that YouTube has no single reason for existing, exactly.
It's owners might disagree, but for people looking at videos and posting their own (or reposting) there are as many reasons as people looking and posting.
Nice start (though I still have problems with using 'you' in columns) by giving one way that this video service is useful - helping people catch up with popular culture.
In some ways this column reminded me of how the Daily Show provides TV news to a group of people who can't watch 'real news' but get a pretty good dose of what's happening through the satire of the program.
On YouTube, the wildly circulated pieces sometimes provide information (and maybe some truth) not found in mainstream media.
This column could have used a better wrap-up paragraph, but if it was being read by someone unfamiliar with YouTube, it would work.
Each time I read, as in this column - about how popular YouTube is - I ask myself the same question: Why didn't I buy stock in Google?
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