How did YouTube change popular culture? essay sample

Among all forms of online media, YouTube takes a prominent place. The web-platform has more than a billion users who daily watch hundreds of millions of hours of video. Quite an impressive result for a medium! In the meanwhile, some YouTubers who regularly upload their video content to the website consider it their primary source of income. Most of the money comes from advertising, but the website still concentrates on entertainment rather than promotion.

YouTube was the first-ever platform that allowed ordinary people to win popular attention. Once celebrities and politicians were the only ones to get to people through mass media, but today anyone with a cell phone or webcam can create a video and become a star. Of course, not every video gets viral, but social media definitely promote their users.

The very distinct feature of the internet and YouTube, in particular, is that it succeeded TV for many people. The frequency and number of reviews prove that the website created a severe competition to television that struggles to boost their audience. The amount of online content is tremendous, and people can choose to watch something they are really interested in. Advertisers switched to online entertainment following their audience, and TV industry does not have a great future in this mass online-obsession.

But it is most important that YouTube empowered ordinary people. Streams, fun pages, tutorials, reviews – all of them enhance social interaction. Due to the largest online video platform, we can easily learn, discover, and become famous overnight.