YouTube vs. Movies By Keefer C.Blakeslee
I want you to ask yourself one question (No this is not a set up for a Clint Eastwood line). How many hours a day do you spend on Youtube? 3 hours maybe even 5. According to Youtube satistics,”Every day people watch hundreds of millions of hours on YouTube and generate billions of views. The number of hours people are watching on YouTube each month is up 50% year over year.” It’s no surprise that Youtube is huge. People go on Youtube to watch music videos, tutorials, movie reviews (*Cough KIDS FIRST! Cough), you name it. If you’re one of the many people who go on Youtube a lot, and chances are you are, then you have a favorite Youtuber that you suscribe to. For instance my favorites are ERB, Game Therory and AVbyte. Maybe yours are Miranda Sings, Rhett and Link or Lindsey Sterling.
Suscriber after subscriber, Youtube has made these people celebrities. I did not fully realize how huge these people were until I volunteered at a gift lounge. I carried around bags full of merchandise from different vendors for people. We had an unexpected guest, Jenna Marbles. For those of you who don’t know, she is a big Youtuber who does comedy videos. I had the pleasure of escorting her throughout the gift lounge. What I did not expect was the whole room going crazy over her. Left and right, people wanted pictures with her and her autographs. This reaction showed me how much people love Youtubers. It got me thinking, which is pretty dangerous, how does a Swedish man playing video games named Pewdiepie become as well-known as some movie stars? First, there is exposure. Youtube provides access to many outlets for exposure – tablets, computers and smart phones. In fact (add smart phone fact): To make it even better, it’s free. This creates a large audience. A lot of the hard work goes into advertising your Youtube page. Second, is social media. People share Youtube videos on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and others. Other forms of media do the same type of method of advertising but where Youtube differs is the duration of the videos. This leads me to the third reason, attention span. People have busy schedules – work, school, family. A lot of people don’t have time to see an hour and a half film or a 22-minute television show. What people do have the time for is a 2 minute video of a cat playing a piano. If you’re like me and watch 50 minute videos of cats, you’re not the norm. Now some Youtube videos are longer but, most of them are 15 minutes at the most. While all these qualities of Youtube makes it strong, I think what makes Youtubers big is that it shows hope. I know it sounds corny but hear me out. Youtubers represent the everyday person who decided to record themselves and upload it to Youtube. When they did this, people started watching their video and generated a lot of views. People enjoy the video, urge other people to like and even subscribe to their channel. Then the person who created the video has a fan base and a reason to create more videos. Do you see where I’m going? Youtubers are fueled by fans. They create videos to please their fans. They communicate with them. This is something that Hollywood stars don’t usually do. That’s what makes them more identifiable. They are like the hometown celebrities.
Youtube is an outlet for artists. Anybody can upload their short films, music videos or comedy sketches. This does not mean you are going to be an over night star but Youtubers show that it can happen and give us hope. They are the light at the end of the tunnel. So are Youtubers bigger than Hollywoood stars. Well I think Youtube has its own community of artists and its own set of fans. Some strive and succeed in becoming Hollywood satrs.
In the end, Youtubers and Hollywood stars have the same goal – which is to create and distribute entertainment. They just go about it in different ways. Hollywood is judged by critics and the press while Youtubers are judged by subscribers and commentators. And, by the way, did you see my latest Youtube video?
