YouTube has blurred the line between entertainment and learning. Everyday, I would be in a quandary if I should restrain myself from watching another YouTube video. Some of the videos had uplifted my life enormously such as learning how to cook cuisines from a multitude of cultures, tips on renting a home when I was relocating to the UK, music, motivational talks and toning exercises.
However, I am sure I would also have spent hours falling into the rabbit hole on YouTube, getting emotionally involved in others’ marital woes and relationship problems. I sheepishly justified the time spent as learning from others’ mistakes so that I would not fall into the same pitfalls. I felt like there is no need to watch fictional drama series when people are readily broadcasting their lives and problems on YouTube.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, my default mode of seeking new information was through reading books and online articles. However, there was an explosion of new information surfacing on YouTube since the pandemic. Increasingly, people from different countries, age groups and professions are coming forth to share their experiences and knowledge online.
“I felt like I had traversed the World without even taking a step out of my house. ” Founder, www.One-Eduworld.com
When I created this website in 2017, one of the vision I had in mind was to help teenagers make more informed career choices. My plan was to conduct interviews with working adults to build a library of career information for young people. In the first few years of working on the website, I faced challenges finding people who were comfortable and confident to share their work experiences, including myself. I am still not comfortable sharing my failures and career trajectory now. Perhaps, in a few years time when I have achieved my financial and career goals that I had set for myself since 2015, I would be in a better position to share my story in the hopes of guiding young people, including my future children.
However, there is now an explosion of information on YouTube readily available to anyone who has access to the Internet and does not live behind a firewall. I find that the focus of my work has now shifted to filtering and curating the tons of information on YouTube. I like YouTube videos because we can find videos of longer format packed with useful information unlike Tik Tok videos. I get more variety of videos format on YouTube than other social media platforms.
Overall, while I opine the addictiveness of the platform, I think that YouTube has brought more benefits into my life than woes. I would certainly expose my children to YouTube videos and let them develop a self-control mechanism over time. Without this exposure, I believe my children would be less-equipped to resist temptations when they are older. As Oscar Wilde once said, “ I can resist anything except temptation”. Perhaps, this is the story of our lives.