YouTube as Library
Here’s a simple answer: find me on YouTube.
(A Twitch streamer watches Daily Dose of Internet on YouTube, and gets republished on another channel devoted for his reactions)
It’s as though my life depends on it.
On January 14, I spent more than five hours on YouTube, more time than, because I had no class that day. But normally, YouTube is the first webpage that I open up on my laptop when I wake up. Besides doing homework, watching movies and messaging my friends, YouTube is the media that I devote most of my waking time to. It’s like an old friend. I turn to it when I feel bored and want to learn something new. Sometimes, after a day’s work, I would just listen to the talk shows. One of my favorite functions of YouTube, the recommendation algorithm, often throws not only something new from my subscribed channels but also something that I would take interest in, such as a popular video created by Vox. When compared to other media and news consumption activities, getting the news from YouTube is the most convenient way for me. For example, scrolling down my subscription, and just by looking at the headlines of the videos from CNN, CNBC or The Washington Post, I get a sense of what’s going on in the world.
I think that the reason why I love YouTube is because it offers me a sense of community. I can engage with them, see what others are reacting, and talk to people from all over the world, like a forum in the old age of the internet. To be precise, each channel on YouTube is in itself a different community, and with the update of each video, the user’s connection with the channel is strengthened. That’s why updating regularly is considered a good practice in audience engagement, a lesson I learned last semester when I was posting short-form documentaries on YouTube. However, another lesson when we talk about audience is that it’s hard for new channels to gain an audience base, and one reason is that bigger channels secured their audience base already and have the economic scale that’s hard to compete with. As a result, the bigger channels, with more funding and a larger audience base, are more likely to be recommended by YouTube and will appear higher in user searches. Thus, from my experience engaging with viewers on YouTube, the “finding your audience and then your content” method is in question.
Moreover, another reason why I love seeking knowledge from content on YouTube is that I can find content from my subscribed channel posted way before, some going back five years. We know that a piece of old content doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t have value anymore, and that good content has a way of recycling itself and reappearing in a shared media culture. For example, I watch a Hong Kong talk show that’s about history or literature, but their content and opinion doesn’t grow old. Because of YouTube’s ability to store archival videos, it’s a platform not only for news, but also for inspiring and educational content.
Therefore, it’s clear that, at least for now, YouTube is not just rewarding new and fresh content, for which YouTube has a trending page devoted to do so, but also content from before that they think will re-engage the user with a certain channel.
Surfing on YouTube really feels like the world is before my eyes, and that I can improve and educate myself if I could just find the right content. Even though YouTube has ads sometimes, it’s a trade that I would happily pay for.
