I must preface by stating that this is not in any way an advertisement.

I've used almost every form of social media, from Myspace to Facebook. Out of all these forms of communication, I would say Yik Yak had the greatest potential. However, it was greatly limited by the fact there was no diversity in the information being shared. On the hand, Facebook's potential to bring people together was astounding. Sadly, Facebook's algorithms create an echo chamber, where the user only sees a specific niche of information.

I love Instagram because it allows to post pictures and feel like a photographer, I'll post pictures of my meals and feel no shame. Then after having posted superficial images of my food or biceps, I go on to look at the countless memes. Still, after using Instagram for more than 30 minutes, I feel that I have wasted so much time. Twitter became iconic in modern society in the sense that it creates a sense of togetherness. On Twitter, an idea or goal is easily spread because of the use of hashtags. Moreover, due to hashtags, we can simply look up a cause we care about and find a whole discourse on it. For example, if I look up #bestmoviesever, I will find many of the great works of modern and classic cinema. On the other hand, with that comes the potential for a herd mentality.

YouTube takes care of all these problems. YouTube is whatever you want it to be, unlike Facebook your algorithms are not based on what your friends are posting. Although not perfect, because YouTube is not a friends-based platform the suggestion feed is only based on what you click. Moreover, YouTube allows for a wide range of topics, from the sleeping pandas to the big bang. On YouTube, one can learn about complex chemistry mechanisms or how to keep your cat/dog happy. Once I spent 3 hours, looking at funny dog vines. YouTube draws you in, without having you stuck. I remember in High School, I was taking AP world history and I had no idea what was going on. However, one day I stumbled upon Crash course on YouTube.

The last reason why is the greatest is that it's the easiest one to give up on. You never really hear "I need to stop going on YouTube because it's toxic." That is because, unlike Facebook, YouTube does not use tips and tricks to get you addicted.

So now as you go on your phone and are looking for a substantial way to spend your time; go on YouTube and find yourself a Ted Talk about the meaning of life or a Neil deGrasse Tyson clip on the inner workings of the cosmos. And most importantly, If you just want to look at cat videos, YouTube has got you covered.