Addicted to YouTube

In the yesteryears, anyone who wanted to be famous would go through so much lengths just so they could get noticed. For aspiring singers and dancers, they'd join numerous contests and hope they win so that in the end, someone from a known company would get them as talent. Oh yes, it was a very long process way back then. For others, it takes years before they can get a contract.
And then, there was YouTube.

In 2005, three employees of PayPal -- Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim -- were hanging out and talking about a party they had attended the night before. They wanted to share some videos they took at the party with friends but had no idea how to get it online. And so, the idea was born (http://smallbusiness.aol.com/start/startup/article/_a/watching-youtube/20061012165509990001).

Founded in February of 2005, YouTube was created as a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips (http://en.wikipidea.org/wiki/YouTube). The site allows people to see first-hand events happening around the world, find videos on their interests and hobbies, and discover things beyond one's imagination. Surely, YouTube has enabled people to become "broadcasters of tomorrow" (http://www.youtube.com/t/about). On November 13, 2006, Google Inc. closed the deal with YouTube to acquire the company for US$ 1.65 billion (Reuters, 2006).

Nowadays, anyone you watch on YouTube can be a celebrity with just a click away! The video-sharing website has made an impact on society in many ways. For some registered users of YouTube, internet fame has led to unexpected results and crossovers into entertainment avenues. Take 16-year-old Filipino singing sensation Charice who attracted the likes of Emmy-award winner Ellen DeGeneres, queen of talk Oprah Winfrey and renowned songwriter David Foster. With just one video posted by YouTube user FalseVoice, Charice has evolved from a second runner-up in the Philippines' singing contest Little Big Star into a worldwide phenomenon who had the privilege of singing duets with Andrea Bocelli and Celine Dion.

YouTube has also become a means of promoting bands and their music. An example of such is OK Go which got a huge radio hit for Here It Goes Again (Vargas, 2007). Many "ordinary" YouTube users who posted their weblogs on the site were instantly discovered by people like Justin Timberlake because of their innate abilities to entertain viewers, reaching hundreds of thousands of viewers.

As great as YouTube may be to many of us, the site has continuously been criticized for failing to ensure that its content adheres to the law of copyright. Despite the warnings in YouTube not to upload TV shows, commercials and other videos without permission, unauthorized clips from television, films and music videos are still uploaded (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube). YouTube was also reported used by teenagers who record fights on mobile phones, with these people saying, "This is YouTube material!" (USA Today, BBC.com) As a result, YouTube has been blocked in several countries, including China, Thailand and Brazil.

Recently, YouTube has become an outlet for advertising for political candidates. CNN aired a debate where questions where selected from those submitted by users of YouTube.

JaN