Positive and Negative Impacts of YouTube.com on Society
Aly Miranda
TBS Staff Writer
If you ever need a guitar or piano lessons but don’t want to pay for them, you can go to YouTube. If you want to watch an episode of your favorite TV show that you missed, you can go to YouTube.
YouTube.com is used to upload videos of just about everything and anything. There are music videos with lyrics, TV show episodes, movies and so much more. Since Feb. 14, 2005, when it was first founded by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley (advisor) and Jawed Karim, YouTube has developed into a clear leader in online video sharing. It’s located in 22 countries, across 24 different languages. It’s used so much that the site exceeds 2 billion views a day. Twenty-four hours of video are uploaded every minute of every day. YouTube is very powerful and helps out people in a lot of ways for a lot of things.
Most people, especially teens, use YouTube to listen to music, to see music videos or to have a laugh while watching funny videos. People also use YouTube for educational purposes such as learning music or fixing things. They also use YouTube to catch up on TV show episodes.
YouTube allows people to see what others post up. For the people who post videos up, a YouTube account is only for the person’s safety as well as to manage what they post. The account also requires the person to be 18 years or older, for safety reasons. All the videos that are on YouTube can be shared on Facebook and Twitter, which makes YouTube even more popular. Not only can someone post up videos of music or shows, but they can also broadcast themselves live, which is YouTube’s logo.
Since this site has billions of videos of so many things, it’s not a very safe place to be at times for kids. Yes, there are accounts and warnings for those who want to watch something that may be inappropriate, but it doesn’t stop anyone from posting a video that is inappropriate. Another thing is that since this is a live broadcast place, young people under 18 are in some videos or even on the site, watching certain things that they shouldn’t be. Kids like to have fun and watching funny videos on YouTube is part of it, but not everything that they consider funny is appropriate for them. There is some inappropriate content or unnecessary language that isn’t blocked by YouTube, since it’s a free place for people to watch things they look up.
Not everything is safe, especially an Internet site with so much power of uploaded videos. Not everything is as free either. YouTube.com has both its ups and downs, but no matter how much of either one, people with access to it will get on and watch whatever it is they’re looking for and they will also share it.
