One of the misconceptions I want to confront about Youtube is that it is "trivial". People think of it as a place for mindless parodies, free music, memes, pointless vlogging, and of course the champion of Youtube triviality, cat videos. This was extremely prevalent in the early stages of Youtube. No one took it seriously as a base for media and ideas. People used the example of FRED, a previously popular Youtuber to point out how unimportant the videos on the site were.
I think that this idea no longer applies at all to the modern Youtube. There are some amazing ideas, art, and philanthropy that is coming out of Youtube moment by moment. I have already talked quite a bit about the role of Youtube in fostering the growth and inclusion of everyone into creativity and imagination. There are countless people who rely on Youtube for their success such as Pentatonix, Justin Bieber, and many other artists and forward-thinkers. The part I haven't covered as much, but I still think is an extremely important facet of Youtube, is philanthropy, or doing good deeds.
The two types of philanthropy that are most common on Youtube are awareness and charity. Many vloggers have paired up with charities and ask for donations as well as coordinating events to raise money, volunteering, and awareness for these charities. It is absolutely wonderful that these people who have become famous through Youtube, subsequently use their fame to help those around them. Some examples that come to mind are Pewdiepie's "Charity:Water Campaign" which brought attention and money to help provide clean water to developing countries, Tyler Oakley's support for "The Trevor Project" which is a suicide prevention hotline, and Jack and Finn Haries who have dedicated their whole channel to charities including "The Rainbow Center" which helps poverty-stricken children find good education and a positive outlook on life, a charity called "Comic Relief" which helps raise money for poor areas and encourages activeness in young American children. One of the more recent was "The Rickshaw Run" in India that raised $100,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust which supports teens battling cancer.
Charities are so important to the fabric of Youtube that there is an annual Youtube event created by John and Hank Green (I actually really enjoy watching one of John Green's Youtube channels called "Mental Floss" that looks at common misconceptions and the joy of knowledge and he also has a wonderful book called "The Fault in Our Stars"). These two brothers had a huge following of subscribers and many connections throughout Youtube. They decided to set up a huge Youtube-wide charity project that all Youtubers could participate in for their respective charities called "Project for Awesome" or P4A. This not only raised a huge awareness for a variety of different charities, but also made charities an integral and continuing part of Youtube. They continue to inspire new people every day, as they have competitions for who can make the best promotional videos for their respective charities. This has reached all the way to the schools through NaNoWriMo or the National Novel Writing Month.
John Green said himself about how glad he is to be on Youtube, "It reminds me of what online communities are capable of ". I believe that Youtube is no longer a website for sharing dumb videos. I believe it is a creative platform for people to present their ideas and creations, while also becoming a vehicle for the common people to create huge positive change in the world.
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