Introduction
A few days ago, I decided to limit my screen time. So I did what most of you will do. I set up a 30 minute timer on all of my social media apps and I promised to stick with it.
At night, I looked at my phone’s digital wellbeing panel with pride. I was sure that I followed the timer this time around while using my social media apps. Surprisingly, my screen time was over 6 hours and most of it was spent on YouTube.
I remembered that I was scrolling shorts on my YouTube app in an attempt to be more disciplined (Oh! the irony). This begs the question, “Is YouTube a social media platform or not?”. Let’s take a look at the conclusion I arrived at after brainstorming for a couple hours more (My lack of discipline is astounding).
Qualifiers of a Social Media Platform
The biggest qualifier for labelling a platform as a social media is the exchange of views and ideas with different people. This exchange can take place in the form of sending photos and videos to your friends and family, or by posting a comment on their new post. There are other different forms of digital socialisation such as posting a story, liking a comment, and using different emojis to express your feelings.
By this definition, we can label Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and even LinkedIn as social media platforms. Some of them are used for private conversation, while the others are used for showcasing your life, skills, or your memories. What’s common between all of them is the exchange of ideas, emotions, and opinions in the form of different mediums.
Is YouTube a Social Media Platform?
Now, comes the million dollar question on your screens. YouTube is a video sharing platform in the simplest of terms but here’s the catch. Users can leave a comment and others can react and give their opinion on the said comment.
Oftentimes, the discussions are nice and fruitful while sometimes they are not. We will be analyzing if these interactions can help us label YouTube as a social media or not. In textbook terms, an exchange of information is taking place between different people.
However, this exchange of information is a significant yet small part of the platform as a whole. The main source which attracts viewers to YouTube is the existence of creators and the content they make. People are glued to the platform in search of information, entertainment, or a combination of these two elements.
This distinction makes me of the view that YouTube cannot be labelled primarily as a social media. It possesses a few elements such as creator and viewer interaction, and viewer to viewer interaction, but it is not the whole story. Even the monetization strategy primarily revolves around the video content.
It is fair to say that you will not go to YouTube to find out what your friend is doing. Nor will you use it as a medium to stay connected with your peers and family. This small distinction makes me of the view that YouTube is not a social media but a video sharing platform with added bells and whistles.
Social Media or Entertainment or Learning Platform
Some of you may feel that if YouTube is not a social media platform, it must be an entertainment platform and you will be right. A lot of you may also use YouTube as a learning source whether it’s for your classes, an upcoming entrance exam, or for self studies. This can be useful for labelling YouTube as a video sharing platform catered for audiences seeking entertainment, knowledge, or leisure during their idle time.
I am also of the opinion that the content creators on YouTube (regardless of the genre) have carved out a niche for them which makes the platform a viable medium of entertainment. Viewers visit the platform in search for their favourite creator’s new upload. This leads to an equilibrium effect where the viewers derive pleasure from consuming media while the creators generate profit to sustain their passion.
Conclusion
There you have it folks, YouTube has elements of social media but it’s a video sharing platform which caters to different audiences around the globe. It would still be a good idea to keep a watch on the time you spend on YouTube. To be fair, I have yet to master this habit myself because of the sheer usefulness of YouTube in my personal life.
I know some of you may still feel that YouTube is a social media platform and it’s completely fine. You will have your own reasoning which helped you arrive at that conclusion. At the end of the day, it’s a small difference and YouTube as a platform is a big part of our lives.
Also, you can visit my debating guide I made recently. It may come in handy during one of the YouTube comments section debates which often happens. Feel free to let me know what you think in the comments down below.