YouTube is an extremely popular video-sharing website that has been around since 2006. This platform is so interesting because adolescents of today have grown up with this website and continue to use in the present during their adolescent years.
YouTube contains billions of videos with various types of purposes. Adolescents today use YouTube for a variety of reasons, one very popular reason being tutorial videos. There are a large amount of videos on how to fix your hair or make up a certain way, exercise routines, how to play a certain song on the piano, how to fix something on your iPhone, how to solve a certain type of math problem and the list goes on with a huge range of videos. According to YouTube’s statistics, YouTube reaches more 18-34 year olds than any cable network in the US. These types of videos are very popular among adolescents because it is much easier on the attention span of individuals and requires less effort to simply watch a video rather than read through an article or a website of common Q&As. These tutorials videos alone definitely support teaching and learning among adolescents directly through the video content. Other videos of YouTube such as product videos, Q&A videos, time-lapse videos, fan video reviews or commentaries and even music videos can support learning through the variety of content that is presented in these videos. Not only do a variety of videos exist on YouTube but the user population is huge which involves more than 88 countries in the world. Audiences of these videos can be learning cultural content and norms that may be different than from where the viewer/user is from.
Finally, I think that the greatest aspect of teaching and learning through YouTube is presented through the comment section. After watching any video, any user in any part of the world is able to provide feedback if they wish – positive or negative. Users have discussions in the comment section of videos and can even start a new conversation thread in the comments section. Through this aspect, users are able to share and view opinions of different users, hear different perspectives, and learn from people all over the world. The Internet gives exposure to not only content but also perspectives and awareness to cultural differences that might not be evident in one small town alone of the US. I think it will be interesting to see the new developments that social media forms & technology will take in the future and the opportunities that will be opened for additional teaching & learning through the Internet for adolescents.
Statistics – YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved October 24, 2016, from
https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/statistics.html