YouTube keeps changing, and you have to change with it_Ryan Higa.
Imagine, it’s 2004, the ghastly Tsunami in the Indian Ocean has laid wrath on thousands of cities and towns along the coast. Hundreds and thousands of people are dead, valuable infrastructure, and remnants of the past obliterated.
You start to wonder how the situation looks and feels and try to get a sense of the condition; the news reports and print content cannot give you a palpable understanding.
So naturally, you went to the internet and started searching for content and, in this case, video content on the disaster and soon realise what a drag it is to find meaningful videos. Wouldn’t it be great to have a platform primarily devoted to audio-visual content shared by people worldwide with search capabilities similar to google?
Well, someone was indeed taking stock of the situation, namely three PayPal employees-Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim. By the end of February 2005, they had created an online video-sharing platform called YouTube, which immediately started to garner the public and giant corporations’ interest.
By the end of 2006, Google acquired YouTube for a whopping $1.65 billion, and in retrospect, it was probably one of the most successful investments ever.
Podcasts, Citizen Journalism, YouTube Celebs, Apocalypse are all catch-phrases associated with YouTube. The impact of the content-disseminating feature of YouTube is such that it has toppled governments, educated a generation of knowledge-hungry youth, drawn attention to pressing issues, and in all sense, has become the favourite pastime of bored individuals.
Consider for a moment the times we are living in; Coronavirus has crippled us into a state where we are forced to live indoors while being mere spectators to the immense wreckage of both human lives and economic infrastructure. However, we know more about the Coronavirus and its impact than a regent doctor during the 1918 Pandemic of Spanish Flu.
Thanks to YouTube and, in general, social media. In developing nations such as India, the USA, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc., where primary education is of substandard quality, students have found the company of a very reassuring teacher on YouTube.
Engineers in India will swear that watching tutorials and lessons on YouTube helped them pass the dreaded semester exams instead of dispassionate professors’ dry lectures.
But before we all get Hunky-Dory, we should remember YouTube has a sinister side too. By its very nature, it attracts people from all quarters of the society, including ones who peddle nefarious propaganda. There was a time when passionate journalists would travel thousands of miles, traverse harsh terrains, and risk their life for a mere sound bite of a renowned terrorist.
These days terrorist organisations such as ISIS or the Islamic brotherhood don’t need a quirky CNN journalist willing to risk his life to peddle their propaganda; all they need is a phone/laptop, broadband connection, and a YouTube account. Fake news has been in the news lately.
Although it would be unfair to YouTube if we expect it to verify every video for its authenticity and integrity, nevertheless, it is indeed a thorn in the flesh for them. YouTube’s recent Apocalypse and demonetising policies have come under heavy criticism and have raised allegations of political correctness and impartiality.
In part, YouTube’s massive popularity could be attributed to advancements in auxiliary technologies such as broadband speeds, connectivity, streaming quality of the content, Artificial Intelligence, etc.
The necessity for an efficient online video sharing platform gave rise to the invention of YouTube; now, the question is whether its impact is positive or negative; regardless of the answer, one can conclude it has indeed changed the world.
Thank You for Reading!