In today’s world, it is easier than ever to access free entertainment on the web. A great way of spending hours is on YouTube. YouTube, a company founded in 2005 has changed the way that our generation views media. You can search for clips of your favorite movies, the most popular songs, and funny or informative videos from your favorite YouTube stars.
Indeed, there have been a multitude of people who have hit rock star status based on a YouTube video going viral. We all remember the hit “Friday” by Rebecca Black and how it was like a train wreck. But there are also good things on YouTube; things worth watching (and not just because of how bad they are.) I am going to share some of my favorite videos and channels to watch when I get some “free time” (read “procrastinating”).
One personality I love is Jenna Marbles.
Back in the day, she had a hilarious video, “How to Avoid Talking to People You Don’t Want to Talk to.” Then there was another video about what to do when that doesn’t work. The former video is really what launched her career on YouTube. Since that video in 2011, she has gone on to gain over 14 million followers, making her channel the 7th most popular on YouTube, and the top channel operated by a woman. She also has a blog, hosts a channel on Sirius XM, and has participated in some videos with the Epic Rap Battles guys.
Another great channel I love is BuzzFeed. You may know BuzzFeed as a popular news website with a multitude of articles, and I’m sure you’ve seen at least one video while scrolling through Facebook. One of their most popular videos is “If Disney Princesses were Real” with over 29 million views. This video takes the unrealistic scenarios depicted by Disney and shows them IRL. This leads to hilarity as Snow White asks Prince Florian, “What are you doing?” It also addresses the unrealistic ideal propagated by so many Disney Films of Disney Princesses marrying men they’ve just met when Charming asks Cinderella to marry him and she says, “I think I left my straightener on…” and runs off. BuzzFeed also has a variety of channels devoted to addressing specific types of videos. These include BuzzFeed Violet, BuzzFeed Yellow, and BuzzFeed Blue, to name a few.
A last channel worth mentioning is Khan Academy. This channel specializes in free tutorial videos on a variety of subjects. If you’re having trouble with a particular skill such as economics, calculus, chemistry, or pretty much any subject where there are problems to be worked, Khan Academy does a fantastic job of going step-by-step explaining techniques. All of their videos are available, for free, on YouTube, but they are also available on Khanacademy.org, and they are organized by topic (Economics, Calculus, etc.)
I would like to point out that YouTube has so many videos that I can hardly scrape the surface in an article such as this. If you can search for it on Google, you can probably find a related video on YouTube. Ultimately, YouTube is about you and your interests. People like Jenna Marbles and literally hundreds of others couldn’t have gained fame without people liking and sharing their videos and subscribing to their channels. If you get a couple hours one afternoon, I would suggest just typing some words and searching for videos that interest you. It’s easy to get lost so view responsibly!