YouTube: changing our viewing habits

Whatever your interests you can find something on YouTube that will entertain, inform or annoy. Since it began in 2004, the channel has exploded and allowed a large diverse group of people to make a living.

YouTube has connected viewers and content creators. It has allowed those content creators to bypass traditional career paths and find their audience across the globe.

It has shown that you can produce high-quality content on a modest budget.

You can watch long interviews with politicians, commentators and economists that avoid soundbites and because of their lenght would never make it on the news channels.

You can watch children’s entertainment, videos on TV shows long-forgotten and a host of other stuff.

Grace’s World is a perfect example of this. The show was created by Australian Grace Mulgrew. She has been producing ten minute videos since 2012. The videos are short sitcoms about a family who happen to be Barbie, Ken, their children and family and friends. The episodes are often insightful, capture what it is like bringing up children and hilarious. If Grace had pitched this idea to a TV network it is likely they would have turned it down or altered the concept beyond recognition. She didn’t have to though because YouTube meant she could create her stories and put them out there for the world to find.

The 2.72 million subscribers is testament to Grace’s talent. One other important fact is that Grace is a teenager.

YouTube has changed how we consume content. It has changed how it is produced and allowed people who would never get a shot at producing what they want the chance to do it and the opportunity to find an audience.

It is unlikely it will replace traditional television shows. But it sits alongside those shows and its content creators can hold their heads up just as high.

Actions, of course, speak louder than words. So, here is one of Grace’s shows. Judge for yourself.