YOUTUBE: From Obscurity to Domination
Introduction: A World without YouTube-
What was there before YouTube? Where did we go when we wanted to see a seven year old’s post dental anesthesia-induced confusion? Where did we go when we wanted to replay Zinedine Zidane’s infamous head butt, in his final moments of the 2006 World Cup? Or when we wanted to witness the rise of 13 year old musical sensations? Since the creation of YouTube we have been part of countless culture revolutions and shocks. YouTube has connected us and allowed us to share in each others victories, as well as tragedies. YouTube is a phenomenon that has managed to seep into almost every facet of our lives, from simple entertainment, to humor, to politics, even education—YouTube has captured America. When somebody has something, no matter how obsolete, to share—you can bet that YouTube is not far, waiting to monopolize. In the following paragraphs we will focus on YouTube’s influence on social communities, the media, business endeavors, and education.
Background: The Rise of YouTube-
In 2005, at a dinner party, three PayPal employees were shooting digital photos and capturing videos, at a loss for what they should do. They wanted a place to share what they had filmed, but realized there was no cohesive site on the internet available for this sole purpose. They decided they needed to start some type of video sharing service, and after many difficulties Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim managed to develop the site of YouTube. The alpha in February 2005, the beta was launched in May 2005, and YouTube was officially launched in December 2005 (Sahlin, & Botello, 2007). As the site is relatively new, there is no doubt that the takeover was incredible. The site’s creators made wise choices by widgetizing their tools, making their video players embeddable on other web pages, and tying into the popularity of personal expression sites like MySpace and blogs (Gannes, 2009). YouTube managed to receive a whopping of a loyal following, the founders gained press, and eventually they got cash, 3.5 Million. And then Google came calling, buying the company for 1.65 billion (Weber, 2007).
Potential Benefits: YouTube’s influence on today’s world-
As demonstrated in the previous paragraphs there is no doubt in YouTube’s ever expanding influence. First we will focus on the website’s social influences. In today’s world, when something strange or amazing happens, we don’t stare in awe—desperately trying to capture what we witness to memory—instead we pull out whatever multimedia device we have on hand, and record what we see thinking, “Dude, this is totally going on YouTube.” And this is the core purpose of YouTube. The website was created to share anything and everything we wanted with our friends and family and ultimately the world. The variety of videos posted on the site is vast. Today, the most viewed video of all time is Justin Bieber Featuring Ludacris’s “Baby” with 351,306,767 views. Bieber, now one of the most recognized faces and hairstyles of this decade, owes his original recognition to the site. At 13, he uploaded various videos of himself singing and playing the guitar, gaining a loyal fan base through the site, and soon after was discovered and signed by Grammy award winning artist Usher.
In fact, after 5 years the site has overseen many individuals’ rise to fame and success. In 2009 Britain Got Talent oversaw a certain 47-year-old eccentric cat owner who stunned the audience into silence with her spectacular rendition of “I dreamed a dream” (Domino, 2010). What no one expected was the uproar the video caused on YouTube, earning over 100,000,000 views and being the most viewed video of 2009. In 2006 millions watched Gary Brolsma thrash about to an obscure Romanian pop song, "Numa Numa.” And in April 2006, comedian Judson Laipply captivated YouTube with his “Evolution of Dance” inspiring others to post videos of their dancing abilities. His video has 153,929,422 views to date, and continues to be immensely entertaining (Domino, 2010). However its not just individuals being recognized for their talent, in 2007 a mother thought it would be entertaining to post a video of her two sons Charlie and Harry playing around with each other and with that she delivered the sensation “Charlie bit my Finger!”—a video that has garnered 237,322,756 views along with countless hours of laughter (Domino, 2010). Another parent cashing in on their child is that of David from “David after the Dentist,” a hilarious video of a young boy struggling to understand his surroundings after going to the dentist and receiving anesthesia. The 2009 video has now earned the family a healthy reward and was the second most watched video of 2009 (Horowitz, 2010).
YouTube is not only a haven for individuals with unknown talents, celebrities and artists are now gaining publicity through the site by means of video-blogging—child-star Selena Gomez posts weekly blogs of her life. Artists currently post music videos through their record labels—the most watched video of all time to date is (as previously mentioned) Justin Bieber ft. Ludacris and the second most watched video is Lady Gaga’s, “Bad Romance.” In the past couple of years YouTube has gone from being an escape into the nonsense of watching children be silly and diet coke and menthols explosions, to being bombarded with music videos, movie trailers, and even advertising commercials. This deviation is not necessarily a bad thing, as many of the original YouTube material is still available and thriving.
Aside from the recognizing individuals for their entertainment abilities, YouTube has even aided in calling attention upon violations of the Constitution. In September 2007, a forum with Senator John Kerry was held at the University of Florida. After loudly questioning Kerry about his ties to President George W Bush, a student Andrew Meyer was arrested and Tasered by police. The video soon made YouTube and depicted a difficult scene of Meyer screaming, "What did I do?" and, more famously, "Don't Tase me, bro!" The video highlighted many important questions regarding freedom of speech and police brutality. There is much debate on who was at fault, some believe that Meyer was exercising his right to free speech, while others believe he was a prankster who resisted arrest and got what he deserved. Although, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement ruled the officers involved in the incident were justified in their actions, this is the latest and most public occurring in the debate over the use of tasers by law enforcement personal (Spriggs).
YouTube also aided in Barrack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, with Will.I.Am’s “Yes We Can” a viral video that captured the YouTube world with 21,243,925 views. The decision to allow the campaign to go viral was a sound one and Obama’s campaign members have to thank YouTube. Through the use of the website, campaigners were able to spread the President’s message faster and with far more coverage than the original concession speech which followed the New Hampshire primary (Wallsten, 2010).
Focusing in the final arena of YouTube’s domination we will discuss its influence in education. Teachers from all over are utilizing YouTube by posting lectures, study aids and homework help through the site. Even professors from George Mason University are benefitting through YouTube. Professor Surina, a Statistics professor at GMU regularly posts videos that help students with her MINITAB assignments, the videos are extremely helpful for all that view them. In many nursing programs, YouTube is used to illustrate theoretical content, involve students, and inspire innovative teaching methods. YouTube stimulates active learning and brings new relevance and applications to the nursing curriculum (Agazio, & Buckley, 2009). A well known professor of Carnegie Mellon University, Randy Pausch, gave an inspiring lecture known as “The Last Lecture.” This lecture was filmed, posted, and eventually gave rise to more appearances by Pausch before he lost his battle with pancreatic cancer.
Further required research:
Today, YouTube alone comprises approximately 20% of all HTTP traffic, or nearly 10% of all traffic on the Internet (Cheng, 2007). This is major success for a site that was created a mere five years ago. Since the site is so new there are constant improvements being presented, as the founders continue to keep up with the newest trends and add tools that would further interest their supporters. There is also some concern due to the liberties allowed in the comments section of the site. Most of the videos allow for comments and these comments often turn into intense arguments about themes ranging from race, religion, sexuality and even violent threats.
Conclusion: There is no doubt that YouTube is an Ingenious marketing machine. So many businesses’ have cashed in on this fact. The expansion of YouTube is immense and the site just continues to dominate. In such a short time, the site has achieved beyond what was expected. YouTube has everyone aware that viral videos are the future.
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