YouTube for Entertainment or Informational Use

 Many people are driven by social media and all that it comes with it. YouTube is a well-known app that many people use for all types of subjects like entertainment or informational use. The app is a great source for every type of video that makes it so popular. YouTube is a common app that is compelling and motivational to many people all around the world. To begin, YouTube is often used by many and is very user-friendly, which is one reason it is so compelling. 

“The variety in the ways YouTube is being utilized for not only entertainment but also social interaction in the form of commenting, and seeking and providing information makes the site interesting from a research perspective” (Social Media Engagement 237). This quote shows that YouTube in itself has multiple ways of its use which is compelling to others as it is not just watching videos, but also other stuff included with the app. “The social media platform, YouTube, is a popular Internet platform for information and entertainment” (Compulsive YouTube Usage 129). Entertainment and information are two of the most popular reasons for social media. 

YouTube is widely known to give information and entertainment as it has plentiful videos for either topic and is very fast and easy to use which is another reason it has the ability to compel people into taking part in using it. “Social media provides marketers with an expansive set of tools that enable them to reach consumers directly (Lee and Watkins 5753). As multiple social media platforms give their marketers set tools to reach the consumers, the marketers are using their own persuasive ways to make the consumers come back and consume what the put out. The way YouTube does this is YouTubers influence their audience to come by their clothing and apparel but they way they persuade their audience is by compelling them back to watch more. 

Next, YouTube has a way of being motivational and motivating people into doing things they may never thought they would. “Individual learning provides a strong motivation for YouTube use (Khan, 2017) and videos that are entertaining at the same time as being informative and entertaining might provide even stronger motivation for use (Schneider, Weinmann, Roth, Knop, & Vorderer, 2016)” (Compulsive YouTube usage 130). This quote from the article shows how YouTube and individual learning pair together and motivates people as the videos are informative and entertaining. “Politicians, news organizations, education institutes, businesses, music and film artists, and people from all walks of life use YouTube” (Khan 236). YouTube is a source of everything; it has multiple videos on every topic that persuades people to come back and watch more of “whatever”. 

One could just simply come to watch one video, but the way YouTube is set up and how it works, it is motivational and encourages people to want to keep watching. In the article “YouTube vloggers' influence on consumer luxury brand perceptions and intentions” by Jung Eun Lee and Brandi Watkins, it speaks on how YouTubers (people who make videos and post them on YouTube) literally motivate their audience to buy luxury brands. 

“Using para-social interaction (PSI) and social comparison theory, this study proposes a model that assesses the influence of physical attractiveness, social attractiveness, and attitude homophily of video blogger (vlogger) on PSI; and PSI effects on luxury brand perceptions (i.e., brand luxury, luxury brand value, and brand-user-imagery fit) and luxury brand purchase intentions” (Lee and Watkins 5753).  Para-social interaction (PSI), is an effect where the influencer makes it seem as the viewer is with them and is their friend which leads to the viewer into listening to them so, in other words, the influencer can motivate them for easily. PSI isn’t necessarily bad, but some can take advantage of it if others aren’t careful. 

In Conclusion, YouTube has a significant way of compelling and motivating its users. YouTube is appealing to people as it has many informational and/or entertainment videos. Plus, you can even comment and talk to people on the app which just compels people that much more. The app is also very motivating as it has many ways to motivate the user like how vloggers can motivate people to buy from luxury brands. This is how YouTube is motivating and compelling.