YouTube, as a multimedia platform, has single-handedly terraformed the Internet landscape and created an entirely new form of "fame" within the millennial generation. Many people don't realize that YouTube is still in relative infancy, just having it's first video posted in 2005. In that short amount of time, we've watched this small website used for posting funny viral videos about cute cats or people hurting themselves transform in to one of the world's leading marketing websites that allows its users to earn unfathomable amounts of fame just by putting their face in front of a camera. This is a form of entertainment that was practically impossible just 10-15 years ago but is now quickly evolving in to the leading entertainment medium in the business.
YouTube, as a community, consists of a wide range of different genres like make-up, gaming, movies, comedy, how-to's, and many more. This diversity gives YouTube an advantage over more established entertainment sources like cable television and radio. Your preferences are catered to and you're able to watch whatever you want, whenever you want. With over 300 hours of video uploaded every minute and approximately 4 billion video views per day, YouTube has, seemingly out of nowhere, become a haven for content creators and lucrative ideas to take shape in a thriving, supportive environment that offers constructive criticism and room to grow.
However, YouTube has been used historically to help provoke and bring light to many different social movements like Kony 2012, The Arab Spring, and the Black Lives Matter movement. In late 2011, a small non-profit organization by the name of Invisible Children created a video to help spark public interest in the African warlord Joseph Kony, who had been kidnapping and enslaving children to work as child-soldiers in his army. The video went viral and accumulated a ridiculously large following. Sadly, after a couple public indecencies committed by the organization's manager/leader, the movement ultimately faltered and Joseph Kony has not been stopped. In the early stages of the Arab Spring--a movement throughout Tunisia, Egypt, and other Middle-Eastern nations that aimed to bring democracy to these horribly oppressive governments--social media like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube heavily influenced the effectiveness of these social movements and allowed people to connect, organize, and retaliate. Videos posted on YouTube ignited a flame throughout the Arab region that still burns today as courageous people fight for a just government. Also, videos posted on YouTube within the past 2-3 years have helped bolster the Black Lives Matter movement in to main stream media and in to the homes of people all over the country. Without YouTube, it's almost certain that this movement would've progressed at a much slower rate and may have ended quite abruptly.
It's no secret that YouTube is becoming the go-to source of entertainment for many people. I'm excited to see the future of this multimedia platform because, at this point, it has almost limitless potential.
