By Eliot Kim
South Pasadena High School, Grade 10
11/8/10 — Many households in the United States might have a television, but more people seem to consider whether a television is necessary while they won’t think twice about the need for a home computer. Youtube, Roosterteeth, Hulu, and Netflix streaming are the culprits to this murder of the dominance of television.
With Hulu Plus and Netflix, subscribers can watch their favorite television shows and movies by streaming directly onto their monitor, which takes away the need for watching a network series such as The Simpsons and Wipeout in the living room. With Netflix streaming, a viewer no longer has only the option to overpay for Blockbuster movie rentals by paying one low monthly rate for Netflix and getting DVDs shipped to your door and by just watching the video on your computer.
“Why would anybody want television when I could just turn on my computer and do the same thing for less?” asked high school senior Davy Li.
While Netflix and Hulu may be the two powerhouses that might have been the muscle, Youtube is the mastermind of this operation with millions of people on the site daily and popular people on the site making monthly salaries for popular, entertaining videos on the site.
“Youtube is an excellent website where I spend multiple hours a day just watching videos,” high school sophomore Derek Wang said. Many teens like Wang have helped to propel Youtube to its current popularity by being active viewers and users. Even major media networks like NBC have channels on Youtube where clips of the newscasts are uploaded.
Many of the site’s users create videos and make a new kind of living by earning wages through this blogosphere because they have acquired followings of thousands, even millions of people, making this a new frontier of “the American Dream.”
Roosterteeth Productions is a website from the creators of the hit web series “Red v. Blue” based on the popular Halo game series, which received great feedback from its audience by connecting with them through funny quips and weird situations. With their success, the founders of the company took advantage of the popularity by selling DVDs and t-shirts connected with the show. With Xbox live and the Playstation Network, even gamers can now play with their friends over the internet instead of by themselves.
Although social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter defer teenagers from their televisions by offering them many pages and sites to visit for interesting content, videos, photos, news, chats, and games. With the increasing rise of Internet media, questions about how to manage and maintain this sphere continue to circulate, especially as it pertains to teens and children. And major media vehicles like television could be casualties of the world wide web.
