YouTube has become a huge part of the internet culture since its creation. Henry Jenkins, a professor of communications, wrote about nine ideas about what will make growth of YouTube, about 5 years ago when YouTube was still young. Today we can look back and see how right Professor Jenkins was.

The 4th entry of Jenkins states that YouTube will greatly depend on the ease of sharing through social network sites. People can surf YouTube, but find the real ease of sharing through sites such as MySpace and LiveJournal which help spread the popularity of both the shared video and the site. Today, we see this is very true. As I was was writing this article, I checked my own Facebook page – and in the news feed section, there were 3 links to YouTube Videos, one of which was from me to a friend. How easily popular videos can spread is very obvious as there are many videos that have gained fame because of widespread sharing (they could be termed Meme, if my internet vocabulary is correct). Some examples of videos that I have seen spread through Facebook: a comic 1-minute Hamlet, this Russian man singing something, and the legend of Leroy Jenkins (whose name I found ironic for this article). These videos, and many others have been shared by YouTube, and the ease of sharing through social media sites have most definitely helped the growth of YouTube, although the popularity is heavily dependent on the presence of videos on the site. The freedom of what can be uploaded to YouTube is key to is continued usefulness to users, and should that be limited, the fact it is easy to share will not matter as much as content.