WATCH AND LEARN

I was on YouTube the other night, and as one does, I started watching videos on the potential impact of 5G networks on human lives, and hours later, found myself watching a documentary on wildlife in the Serengeti. I eventually stopped, but then I got thinking. I started thinking about how the concept of learning something by yourself has gone through a change with the Internet being around and well, I started feeling really good about these times that we live in.

The big question to ask here would be whether watching a ten-minute YouTube video on say, the Age of Reptiles, teaches you the same things that attending palaeontology lectures at your university would, or a week at the library could. The answer is simple, it won't. But if those were the only methods to learn new things, not many people would learn new things. Visual platforms like YouTube are vital here, as a bridge that allows you to test the waters before jumping in. Few of us ever jump in, but even then, our meal-time entertainment comes with small packets of knowledge, and you can never have enough of that stuff, right?

It's beautiful that we live in a time when a CS major can study palaeontology when he sits down with a bowl of beef korma and naan in his hands. And on that note, Eid Mubarak, everyone! Eat responsibly.

– Azmin Azran, Sub-editor, SHOUT