Youtube is a huge platform that seems almost prehistoric at this point. Content has been released on the media giant since it’s co-founder posted the very first video on April 23rd of 2005. The amount of videos on the site is an astounding 120 billion according to Google. YouTube is a widely universal platform with so much content for learning, entertaining, and making money.  There are around 300 million users uploading daily, then there are stragglers like me, who upload very rarely.

I know a lot of people from school who find interest in YouTube because of its instructional videos. I like that teachers use it for instruction as well. For example, science teachers such as Ms. Hubbard and my government teacher Mr. Lawwill use the channel, Crash Course, to teach students enough to pass a quiz. Outside of school, there are plenty of entertainers I enjoy that produce reaction videos, story times, video game walkthroughs, and guitar tutorials.

I know a few people who actually spend time, lots of energy, and money on creating content for people to enjoy watching. To name a few, PapoDavey, ZayFW, Baleb (that is me tehe).  I also know Mr. Lawill, my government teacher, has two song covers on his channel, one “Loretta Dear,” and “I Found You”, each with around 40 thousand views.

I use YouTube for so many different reasons, instead of going on Instagram in the bathroom, I like to watch YouTube. When I’m bored or anxious, looking to learn something, listening to music, watching people play new video games that I couldn’t get my hands on, I like to watch YouTube instead of watching shows to fall asleep. I just listed plenty of reasons to watch YouTube, but to upload is so much more satisfying. I’ve been uploading to YouTube, very inconsistently, since my first days in middle school. I would post video game videos, vlogs, and videos with my dogs.

More recently, I learned to edit my Call of Duty videos on my dad’s PlayStation, and to see them get even 50 views feels like winning the lottery. I love to see my friends’ videos, I love when they watch mine and give me feedback, and I love to dream about one day living off of money earned by uploading my funny, or intense, gameplay.

When hitting certain subscriber milestones, say 100,000, the staff over at YouTube send you a silver play button plaque with your name on it to congratulate you. Pewdiepie is a YouTuber I’ve known about since around 2010, is now holding the most subscribers, with over 100 million in total. Just his growth is so inspiring, maybe some day, when the planets align, and I focus up to upload more, just maybe you’ll see some ginger going by the name of Baleb among the legends.