YouTube, first created in 2005 by PayPal employees Chad Hurley, Steve Chen, and Jawed Karim, is playing an important role today in defining current pop culture, politics, and social media on a global scale.

YouTube has managed to successfully create and pave an electronic town hall where people all across the world can voice their thoughts and opinions on their feelings, government, the police, or authority in general. The site also offers a massive volume of different enlightening videos such as tutorials, eBooks, or religious and anti-religious content.

With a quick search, a viewer can find video interpretations of Twilight, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Bible, or the Book of Mormon. Access to this content is allowing 6 billion people every day learn something new about our world and connect in a way that wasn’t available before.

Not only is YouTube a gateway for new ideas, but it’s also a career path for many people today. YouTubers, such as PewDiePie, have grossed as much as 12 million dollars from simply sharing videos of himself playing and commenting on video games. Other such as Michelle Phan, who began posting makeup tutorials in 2007, has gained millions of followers for her videos. Since, becoming a Youtuber, Phan has developed a new beauty line, EM Michelle Phan, which launched this summer. Becoming a YouTube sensation, requires nothing more than having access to a computer or mobile device. Vlogger Luzu stated, “The greatest thing about this is we are defining a lot of things. The way people consume content is changing.”

YouTube has generated a platform that is both enjoyable and easy to use. Teachers, parents, and teens can all easily look up videos and share it with friends and family. With one click of a button thousands of interesting videos about science, math, and history can be found and shared in classrooms. These videos have changed teaching in such a way that students no longer need to depend primarily on teachers. If they miss a lecture, or even don’t understand a teacher, students can go home and watch instructive videos and catch up with their studies. The student can simply rewind the video as many times as they want, unlike in a classroom where teachers have to constantly repeat themselves.

Being that some students are audio or visual learners, educational videos on YouTube are an amazing benefit, because they allow students to take advantages of animations and sounds as they learn. It would not be surprising if students saw these videos as a replacement for their textbooks in the near future. YouTube is even investing in “YouTube Kids”, which allows for entertaining safe and educational videos to be viewed by younger viewers.

News stations, such as CNN and Fox News, have even featured YouTube viral videos many times to discuss political and social issues. YouTube is playing a major part in many of our lives even if we don’t realize it. YouTube is slowly revolutionizing the way we all view, examine, and retain information completely.