Youtube University

Is there any social media app with a "net positive" impact on our mental well-being?

The royal society for public health found that 4 out of the 5 most popular social media apps had a "net negative" impact on mental health for people aged 14-24.

Instagram had the most net negative effect, followed by Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter. The only app that had a net positive effect was YouTube!

There are a couple of things that make YouTube a university, first, it allows you to:

1. 🧠 Gain knowledge about a domain like Psychology or Philosophy
2. 🔧 Gain skills that are hobbies like learning the piano or soccer tricks and/or advertisable skills like design, programming, writing

Second, the ability to switch between videos for free allows students to keep changing videos until they find the best teachers, unlike other sites where you buy a course and stick with the same teacher regardless if you like them or not.

YouTube’s model creates an incentive for teachers to make quality content for people to stick around and makes it easy for students to know who are the best teachers since they usually are the ones with the highest number of views/subscribers.

I have been a student at the YouTube university for a long time. I watched lectures and debates that are a few hours long -something I rarely do in person, but with the library of content on YouTube, I can find the things that interest me the most and happily sit there and watch for hours.

Some examples:

1. CS50: Harvard's free intro to computer science course. Arguably the best (free) intro to computer science course available.
2. Free Photoshop Course by Daniel Scott: Best instructor I ever had

YouTube is the only app the research above found to have a net positive effect. I think that this is because YouTube is not a "social media" app. The other apps focus on the number of likes or followers the users have, but on YouTube, the user doesn't need to advertise themselves as they do on Instagram, and they don't compare their performance to others, they just are. That is my theory.

💭 Quote of the week

“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.” (Mark Twain)

Have a meaningful week ✨,
Laith