My first experience with YouTube happened when I was 11 years old in my math classroom. We were learning about the area and circumference of a circle, and in order to help us remember the formulas, my teacher put on “The Circle Song,” a 3-minute-long YouTube video where someone sings a catchy song that explains the formulas for area and circumference, while images of circular objects flash across the screen. Since that day, I have consistently used YouTube as an educational outlet, and as it has grown tremendously in popularity within the last decade, it is a media platform that is used ever increasingly for educational purposes. YouTube consists of two roles—the viewer and creator, but for this piece, I will focus on the role of the viewer.

Firstly, YouTube videos are unique in that they can range from a few seconds long to several hours. When it comes to adolescents sitting in a classroom, trying to get them to sit through a 48-minute math lesson is difficult enough—they become distracted, restless, or bored, and it is common that many zone out, missing part of what was talked about. One of the great things about YouTube videos is that they can be concise—YouTubers use a time span that is long enough to get the idea and point across, but short enough to maintain the student’s full attention for the entire time. By keeping these video lessons short yet informative, students are more likely to be able to focus on the whole lesson, rather than just a portion of it.

Secondly, YouTube videos allow for a more creative approach to teaching. The videos are visual and artistic, with YouTubers making use of multiple strategies to gain students’ attention. For example, many YouTubers create animations to go along with their videos, whether it’s moving figures that aid in explaining the math, or even reappearing characters that “learn along” with the students. Other videos, like “The Circle Song,” use auditory methods to help students learn. Pneumonics, rhymes, songs and jingles are catchy ways for the students to remember equations, formulas, definitions, etc. These small added components grab the viewers’ attention, and suddenly it’s not only about learning math, but it’s seeing math, hearing math, watching math. This platform reaches all types of learners in that the possibilities of its videos are endless. And—if one video doesn’t work for a student, you can be sure that you can find another video on the same topic, one that uses another approach, one with a different voice, one that may be a better fit for this type of learner.

Lastly, students have the choice to subscribe, like, and comment on or to their favorite videos. This feature gives students a feeling of control and autonomy—they are able to build their own playlist of videos that they like, revisit their favorite channels, watch the content that they need or want to see, and do it all on their own time. The videos are available 24/7, and they can rewind, slow down, speed up, fast forward, pause, restart—all on their own accord.

Of course, with any social media platform, we have to be aware of the drawbacks and possible threats it has to learning. Because of the commenting feature, viewers have the ability to write anything they want on someone’s video, which often leads to bullying and trolling. It is possible to disable comments, but then this eliminates the possibility of interacting with those who really find the videos beneficial and want to share their praise. Thus, it is important that as educators, we teach our students not only how to deal with cyberbullies and trolls, but how to behave on social media platforms when viewing other people’s work, and what online etiquette looks and sounds like.

As today’s youth is surrounded more and more by social media and it slowly becomes a larger part of adolescents’ lives, it is important to think about the ways in which we can adapt social media for educational purposes as well. Reaching our students requires us being able to alter our methods of teaching to make it interesting and appealing to an ever-changing adolescent culture.