anonymous p.

YouTube is a (mostly) free video sharing platform, which can be used in the app form or as a website. You can post your own videos, or you can watch any of the millions of other videos available. There are many different types of videos to watch ranging from news to educational content to videogame playthroughs to logic puzzles to videos of the fencing world championships. While YouTube is a great source of entertainment and information, we should be careful lest the near infinite number of videos keep us watching far longer than we should be. We should balance our time so that we don't become addicted. While there are quite a few people who are not concerned with making high-quality videos, many of the video creators on YouTube produce content that is quite skillfully developed; the sound, video, and editing quality are quite good. Additionally, these videos can be inspiring and give us the motivation to become better. One reason that we are drawn to certain videos here is that they can be crafted in a way that really connects with us and seems relatable.
But just like most social media sites, every video is crafted with some kind of message, whether directly or indirectly, intentionally or unintentionally. These messages can be a simple Minecraft video showing us that Minecraft is fun or a video made specifically to tell us why we should try fencing. Some of these messages will contain truth, and others will contain lies. While many people post good videos (example: fencing analysis videos), there are some creators whose videos make fun of people do not respect the dignity of others (example: "funny fails" types of videos); the message they send is that it is alright to make fun of others, and this is not correct. Another kind of message that appears on YouTube is advertising. While ads are a way for people to make money, they are also very annoying to watch. As many of the people here have been saying, ads have become longer and more frequent on YouTube lately which greatly disrupts the videos. Advertisements' messages are much more direct and more prone to deception and lies. We should be aware of all these messages and sort the truth from the lies, not letting the views and popularity of a video tell us what messages are good or bad. Like many sites, YouTube is a tool that can be used in great ways or terrible ways, and we should make sure that we use this tool in a way that is truthful and respectful to others.