YouTube: the video sharing site that was created in 2005 that has only become more and more prevalent in every day life. Its benefits are obvious. Want to watch the new Katy Perry music video? Need an instructional video on how to boil water? Or do you just want to watch random people v-log all day about makeup tutorials and how to contour correctly? Well then YouTube is there for you any day of the week, at any hour. However, watching a quick five minute video is not where the danger sets in. That is the safe zone.
If you have the will power to watch one, maybe two videos and close out of the browser than you are far stronger minded than I. If you are like me, and majority of YouTube addicts, you will find yourself alone at 3 am watching a video of broccoli being thrown at a mailbox, or something along those weirdness lines.
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It starts off innocent, you obviously do not want to end up wasting your time watching pointless videos, but you get sucked into the black hole of YouTube where there is no escaping. You go on to YouTube because someone at work mentioned how funny Amy Schumer was on Jimmy Fallon. Naively, you think you will be on there a few minutes. Simply watch a quick video and move on with your day. Sadly you are just beginning on your binge watching session. Fast forward 20 minutes, you find yourself watching the best singers of America and Britain's Got Talent auditions. After getting goose bumps one too many times from the Susan Boyle audition where she shocked the judges with her powerful voice, you begin to dabble into army homecoming videos. After an hour of hysterically crying from soldiers surprising their worried mothers, fathers, spouses and children you decide you're going to wipe your teary eyes and click off of YouTube. But something catches your eye, in the middle of the night you begin watching "9/11 conspiracy videos" and by this point you won't be closing the browser anytime soon. It's 3am. You are exhausted. You have invested so much time so you at least need to end on a relatively high note. That is where you finish your YouTube binge session, watching a piece of broccoli getting thrown at a mailbox. You don't know how you got there and you know there is no going back. You know what you did.
The sad part of the YouTube black hole is that ending up there again is inevitable. You think it is a one time thing where you spend hours watching video after video. But, sadly that is not the case. YouTube is like the Beyond section of Bed, Bath and Beyond. If you get lost in there, you'll be there for hours.
YouTube is a magical place, just use it with caution.
