YouTube Brings Beauty to the Small Screen

The popularity of video is growing exponentially. Through sites like SlingBox and other services that stream online video conventional television is becoming less popular. Like radio, television is threatened by the need to eliminate commercials and pick and choose content on demand. Television shows can be streamed online, downloaded on iTunes or illegally via file sharing sites like BitTorrent. Even though TV reaches over 70 million homes, on YouTube alone, 40 million videos are viewed daily. The beauty industry has capitalized on this trend by having their own TV channels online to advertise their products. Rather than having a television show, companies like Smashbox  take the more economical route by posting tutorial videos on YouTube. Among the thousands of beauty tutorials online, videos put out by large companies have the authority of CNN over citizen vloggers. At the same time, this free access to television outlet puts everyone on a level playing field, giving bloggers, like myself, the opportunity to freely share my knowledge and my passion.