YouTube, is the most popular entertainment and knowledge platform on the Internet, where millions come together every day to watch various types of videos. YouTube is considered one of the most prominent cultural and social phenomena in the modern era. It is not just a platform for watching videos, but it also represents a huge community for creators and viewers alike.

Since its launch in 2005, YouTube has witnessed tremendous growth, becoming a place to host diverse content that includes everything from entertainment and music videos to educational tutorials and creative content. Thanks to its ease of use and universal accessibility, YouTube has become an essential destination for many people to express themselves, exchange knowledge, and discover different cultures.

This article explores the origin of YouTube, its development over the years, its role in changing popular culture and disseminating knowledge, and its impact on the daily lives of individuals and societies. It will explore how YouTube has become not only a source of entertainment but also a platform for learning and social impact, and how it forms an integral part of the lives of millions around the world.

What does YouTube look like?

You can access YouTube simply by visiting its website www.youtube.com, or by downloading and using one of the dozens of apps for each existing device, from phones to tablets, up to smart-TVs, and televisions produced in the last 5 or 10 years with Internet access.

Youtube will immediately show us the most popular videos of the moment in our geographical area, but will insistently ask us to log in through our Google account.

By running it, we can create our channel, upload our videos and keep lists of our favorite videos. It tries as much as possible to record our behavior, which is a useful option to improve our experience on it, and to “profile” us better, show us the advertisements most similar to our interests, and therefore, make more money.

Some features

YouTube doesn't just show us videos. From a technical point of view, over the years YouTube has implemented subtitles – also automatic – 3D videos, videos of different formats, and live videos.

The videos can be saved in private or public lists to be kept for later review, they can be shared on social networks.

Another crucial feature is the possibility of “embedding,” that is, “embedding” videos on other sites – including those of our Catholic parishes or institutions. If we record – or send directly – a celebration, conference or activity with young people, we can publish it on YouTube and then “embed” it, copying the code of the individual video on our site, so that it is visible to everyone.

On YouTube, we are always invited to click “like” or “dislike” to rate the video and to comment. But be careful: the comments section of the platform, no one knows why is not exactly one of the most polite places that exist.

YouTube would like us to never break

If it was just a video sharing technology platform, like there are dozens of them on the web, it would never have been this successful.

One of the reasons for YouTube's boom is that it has evolved both by following happy intuitions and by listening to what users want. Many of the innovations are due to the thrust of the base, if we can say so, others instead depend on the impulse that Google gave it after having acquired it and transformed it into one of the flagships of its galaxy.

The real formula for YouTube's success is literally that “one video leads to another”. With the “suggested” videos selected by the algorithm or the videos we find on the home page, as said before, those that have had the most success, the most suitable to our tastes, or simply the most “fresh”, we would like to never take our eyes off them. You enter to watch a short video, and you stay for hours.

What video do we find on YouTube?

Anyone can upload a video to YouTube. The person passing by on the street can do it, the giants of world entertainment, the media, and celebrities can do it.

But how are these videos made? It can be said that there are dozens of genres of videos on YouTube. There are music videos, excerpts from television programs, and summaries of sporting events. In short, things we were already seeing.

However, compared to the origins of Web 2.0, at the beginning of the 2000s, the connection speed and devices for audio and video recording within everyone's reach, have pushed more and more people, even literally children in their bedrooms, to register, to edit videos, upload them and share them. Alongside “traditional” genres, if we can say so, YouTube itself, also thanks to the “contagion” and emulation of tens of thousands of people all over the world, has favored the birth of new languages ​​and ways of making videos.

The most common, which seems the most trivial but instead requires a lot of expertise to work, is the “video-selfie” mode: a person, in front of a webcam, who for a few minutes talks to us about a topic: the review of a film just seen at the cinema, a political event, the last Juventus match.

These technically simple videos intercept our need for storytelling, to hear someone speak. And in the great sea of ​​YouTube, it is possible to intercept who talks about what interests us and who does it to capture our attention.

In the end, the accounts are made in large numbers. There are dozens of variants of the model just described, with the help of images, videos, skits, and sketches: all often born “artisanally”, but on Youtube, given the success of the numbers,

The most beautiful or professionally made videos do not always get more views: the dynamics that make a video successful are many, first of all also “technical” reasons, such as the ability of the videos to be “captured” in the recommended video stream. to users, one of the main factors to be able to get more “views”

The Youtuber phenomenon

In the middle of the great sea we were talking about, some small fish have managed to emerge and become bigger and bigger, intercepting the attention of millions of people. This is the case of the Swedish Pewdiepie, or the Italians Yotobi, Shy, or Cicciogamer89, young people who started from their bedroom and turned YouTube into a very profitable job.

We often hear about them as a new class of people, sometimes with the skepticism and accusation that characterizes the greatest youth phenomena. In reality, a “YouTuber” is just someone who uploads videos to YouTube and becomes a huge success. That’s it.

So there are sports YouTubers, music YouTubers, gamers, politicians, philosophers, doctors, and economists of all genders, ages, social backgrounds, and political orientations.

Technical adherence to an instrument is not enough to describe a person. Certainly, however, the “Youtuber” as a category of thought is a novelty, especially as a cultural agent who interacts with his audience without mediation, without editors or directors to direct the editorial line.

YouTube is a money machine

It has captured a large portion of the commercial market, crowding out advertising investments from traditional media such as newspapers and television.

But it starts again – at its sole discretion, with rules that can be allowed to change every moment – its “partner” users, that is, the people who upload videos, have a certain number of registered users and views, and the more they are viewed the more they earn.

These are also very important figures. So yes. Although the overwhelming majority have some “shortcomings”, there are those who have made millions of dollars. A fraction, however, compared to what YouTube puts in turnover.

in conclusion

Over the years, YouTube has become not just a video-sharing platform but a mainstay for digital consumption and social networking. It has revolutionized the world of media and entertainment, making it an integral part of the lives of millions around the world.

Through YouTube, individuals can easily express themselves and share their talents and opinions, whether in the field of art, education, or even fun and entertainment. It also allowed viewers to access diverse and interesting content that meets their interests and enriches their knowledge.

But this massive success also came with its challenges, as the emergence of a lot of inappropriate and misleading content raised concerns among the public and organizations, prompting the company to take steps to combat this problem and enhance trust in the content provided.

However, YouTube remains very popular and plays an important role in shaping internet culture and social media. It will certainly continue to evolve and change to meet the needs and aspirations of its users, making it an integral part of the future of online media and entertainment.