For me, YouTube is often used as a form of entertainment. A few years ago, I decided to stop watching reality TV because it felt it was too “fake” and “trashy.” I didn’t like what was being offered to me on TV so I turned to YouTube. It was there where I fell in love with watching video bloggers (“Vloggers”.) For some reason, the fact that people produce, film, edit, and upload little moments of their life for my viewing pleasure completely fascinates me. Although the content is obviously produced with the intent of gaining views, I find that getting an insight into real people’s lives is more interesting to me than the mass-produced reality television that I was used to. I tend to watch travel vlogs and couples/families who vlog their lives together. An example of this is Jamie and Nikki – an Australian couple that vlogs their life. Nikki a South Sudanese former model and her husband a popular videographer record their life and post one to two videos per week. Vlogging has become so lucrative in the YouTube industry and the couple has gained enough subscribers that Nikki, who was studying nursing, is now able to take some time off following the recent birth of their daughter and Jamie is able to focus more on growing their channel instead of constantly on tour with musicians as their videographer.
In addition to watching video-blogs, I also watch sermons on YouTube. There are so many great churches but it’s impossible to visit them all on a Sunday. Some churches have YouTube channels and they regularly upload videos from past sermons, bible studies, and certain events. YouTube is a great way for me to be able to catch up on sermons that I might have missed. Constituents can go back and re-watch a message that they found particularly interesting and people who don’t even live in the area can stumble upon a sermon to watch. Over the summer, I found a clip to a sermon on Facebook (embedded YouTube post). I was so interested that searched for the church and found them on YouTube and went back and watched the entire sermon series.
Another thing that I use YouTube for is finding choreography. I am a group fitness instructor and I teach Zumba and Cardio Hip Hop classes at the gym. Sometimes I create my own choreography and routines for class, but when I’m feeling bored with what I’ve currently created or uninspired, I’ll turn to YouTube. Other instructors will post their choreography to certain songs and people can watch them, practice on their own, or even incorporate them into their classes. In addition to learning choreography, when I don’t feel like leaving the house I use YouTube for my workouts. There are tons of amazing trainers and fitness professionals on YouTube that have work outs uploaded. All I have to do is press play and I can get a workout in without even having to leave my room, pay for a gym membership or even buy a workout DVD from the infomercials.
Some of the other things that I use YouTube for are hair, makeup and beauty tutorials. If I don’t know how to do something, I will search for a video on YouTube that will walk me step by step on how to do it. I’ve learned how to do smokey-eye make up for a night out, how to fishtail braid my hair, and also how to reset my iPhone – all from videos that I’ve watched on YouTube.
Finally, while I mostly lean towards Spotify, sometimes if I can’t find a song that I like on there, I will play it on YouTube. However I prefer not to because the effort it takes to make a playlist is way more tedious than on other systems like Spotify, Pandora or even iTunes.
YouTube has definitely become more of a part of my daily life. It is way more accessible than watching a show on TV and often times I don’t have the time to watch a 1 hour tv show or the patience to sit through all of commercials. It’s an instant gratification in terms of entertainment.