Youtube Takeover

By Jessica Pavia

A change in the world of media has occurred. Now more than ever, people all over the world turn to their computers for entertainment instead of television. The most popular site? YouTube.

According to the Washington Post’s website, YouTube’s official launch was in February 2005; now it has more than 38 million viewers per year.

Not only has the site brought entertainment to its viewers, it also brings fame to many of the YouTubers who upload videos of their own, some even with over one million subscribers. The more subscribers a YouTuber has, the more well known they are in the world of online entertainment.

Some of the most well known “vloggers” are the Vlog Brothers themselves, John and Hank Green. This dynamic brother-duo has helped changed the face of YouTube. Each Tuesday (John’s day) and Friday (Hank’s day) they address each other and go off on a topic that is, more often than not, an informational one. Indeed, this sounds like something that would make no one want to tune in, but they teach in such a unique and amusing way, that you just get sucked in; more than one million have.

There are a few who pride themselves in putting up videos everyday. One of the most watched, who just recently flew past the two million subscribers mark, is DailyGrace. Each day of the week has a theme, going from teaching you something to commenting on comments. Do not be fooled by this rather vague explanation, this woman thrives on sarcasm and is one of the funniest vloggers on the web.

Just as the music world had a British invasion, YouTube did as well. Jacksgap is a channel started by Jack Harries during his gap year before university. Without meaning to, his channel, meant only to document his experiences during this time, grew to have more than two million viewers from all over the world. Now, partnered up with his twin brother, Jack continues to be an entertainment source for so many people.

All these YouTubers and more combine to create, according to Time Magazine’s website, the third most visited site; with Google at the lead, which has since then purchased YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars. A newly-developed website does not normally survive as long as YouTube has. Whether the creators, Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, expected this site to become as large as it has or not, the site continues to grow in popularity each day.