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YouTube
More and more people are joining the YouTube craze and posting their own channels. A channel is a collection of videos posted by a specific individual.
What It Is
YouTube is a community website based on posting videos. You can create videos for your blog, home movies, or post select bits from television shows that you want to share with everyone on the internet.
A variety of users can be found on YouTube. Some people are using it to create video blogs, linking it to their MySpace accounts. Others are up-and-coming stars who are trying to make themselves known. The rest are everyone and anyone in between just hoping to make you smile, attract your attention, or make you aware.
Some videos are specified as 18+ and if you are not of age you are not allowed to view the video, but you do not have to be 18 to join the website.
To Join
Signing up is free, which is a great way to attract new users. Persons under 13 are prohibited from joining or accessing the site.
Advantages
The advantages of YouTube are:
- It’s free(!),
- you can easily share videos with people via the internet by uploading them instead of trying to send the file directly,
- and you can meet new people based on their videos posted–you never know who you might find that shares your interests!
Disadvantages
The only disadvantage of YouTube is that you are not allowed to post complete television episodes or movies. Anything copyrighted is not allowed to be duplicated.
Most people get around this by posting a television episode in a three part set, cutting it into five to nine minute segments. But, anything created solely of your own imagination and skill is allowed to be posted in full (minus anything with extreme sexual content such as pornography).
Rating: 5
YouTube is a great way to find videos of the things you’re interested in as well as meeting people who share your interests. It’s a growing community that’s fairly safe and fun-loving.
Overall, I give YouTube a rating of 5 out of 5. You name it, they’ve got it, and I have no complaints.
Copyright 2007, Ashley Curiel.