YouTube. What kid hasn’t heard of this site? In fact, many people would say that it’s almost un-American to not know about it. So, what happens to make this site one of the most popular websites out there? What is it even? And, with almost everyone with access going to here, what makes it so time consuming?






Well, as a normal (well normal enough) teenage girl in highschool, I think of many things, but not everything stays in my mind. That is, except one. Music. One thing I can’t live without is music. My parents, being normal middle class citizens with a family to take care of, are more worried about the news. With YouTube, both of us are satisfied. YouTube is one of those kind of sites where you can find almost anything. Music videos, news, lyrics, etc. They’re all there on one site. In fact, YouTube is the 4th largest website, and the largest video website in the world, beating even Facebook and Hulu. It holds over 40% of the video streams on the internet, and over 15 hours of feed is uploaded every minute. The average adult spends 15 hours on the internet in a week, and with video viewing increasing by 35% every year, over 1/3 of this time is most likely spent on YouTube. But what about this makes it so popular? Why isn’t Yahoo! just as popular? Well, my reasoning for this is the fact that many American citizens don’t have the time to read through an article. Most American teens are slow readers, so looking up a video and watching it takes maybe 5 minutes, while reading an article can take up to half an hour for some teenagers. YouTube has over 3.5 million people visiting it everyday, and can be found in most countries. With the way it's building on itself, in the next few years YouTube is expected to become the number one most popular site in the world.






My opinion on video streaming on the internet is more for it then against it. I am against pornography being uploaded, streamed, and even in pictures. IT IS WRONG. I prefer YouTube for my video watching because, as an all ages site, it tries to keep the “bad” videos off of the site. But, even then, it can be found on there. I am one of those people that sees the media as not always truthful, and not always reliable. I generally skip watching the news and just look it up for myself, or, in the extreme cases of morning boredom, I watch the news then look it up myself again. My number one place to check for news? YouTube. There are usually news channel videos, “eyewitness” videos, other people’s take on the news, and videos that wouldn’t be shown on the news. YouTube is one of the places I can find music I like that isn’t censored, and many other types of videos. I like the fact that YouTube has TV shows, music videos, music lyrics, uncensored thoughts, and is generally clean, user friendly place. YouTube, in my opinion, deserves its place as one of the top 4 sites in the world, connecting many people across the globe.






With teachers using YouTube for news, students using it as a resource occasionally, teens looking up music on it, and adults using it for their news, music, and more, YouTube is all around one of the most used sites. It is one of the sites that EVERYONE knows the name of in America, and a site that most people in America have visited at least once. With its wide selection of content, cleaner than most environment, and its user friendliness, YouTube is definitely a site I recommend to anyone wanting videos. YouTube well deserves its spot as number 4 on the charts.