YouTube vs DeviantArt

Introduction
In our modern age technological and digital revolutions have resulted in a substantial
change and impact on how we live our daily lives. One of the many advancements is
the invention of the internet. Officially the internet was invented on January 1 st in the
year 1983 (USG, 2023). The internet has amplified our interconnectedness in ways
never before imaginable by humankind. As the internet continues to grow in its
coverage across the globe its effects are numerous such as its influence on
communication, education, remote working, e-commerce, and many other fields (Khalid,
2022). Moreover, due to the invention of the internet and websites such as YouTube
and DeviantArt, globalization has taken place and is still in motion and ever-evolving.
Globalization “is defined as the increase in the flow of goods, services, capital, people,
and ideas across international boundaries” (National Geographic, 2022). As a result,
individuals have been given a voice regardless of their race, age, disability, and gender
they are. In our modern age, the ability to express oneself has been amplified. The
focus of this essay will be to shine a light on the advantages and disadvantages of the
two digital content providers YouTube and DeviantArt and to compare them with one
another.

Background
YouTube was originally created on the 14th of February in the year 2005. It was founded
by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim (Hosch, 2019). YouTube is a video-
sharing internet site that is free of charge. Users can create and upload videos online
and share them with the world. Accessibility, convenience, and user-friendly features
are what make YouTube great for video viewing. These characteristics guaranteed
success and worldwide fame. Evidently, YouTube users watch approximately 6 billion
hours of video every month (Global, n.d).

On August 7th of the year 2000 was the inception of DeviantArt. It was founded by
Angelo Sotira, Matthew Stephens, and Scott Jarkoff (Atherton, 2023). DeviantArt is a
pioneer in the field of the arts as it holds a sizable online community. This online
community is composed of a whopping 75 million registered members. Members of
DeviantArt are known as deviants. DeviantArt is a free-of-charge platform for both
emerging and established artists in the following fields artwork (painting, sculpture,
digital art, pixel art, anime, etc…), videography and photography. DeviantArt currently
hosts approximately over 550 million works of art (DeviantArt, n.d.).

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Advantages of YouTube
 Learning (knowledge)
YouTube is the perfect solution that helps make people more equal regarding learning
and education. YouTube users have a plethora of free resources at their fingertips. A
research paper titled ‘YouTube and Education: A Scoping Review’ confirms that
YouTube is a rich, user-friendly, free, and fun source of online learning content.
Additionally, the research paper states that if utilized correctly YouTube can have a
positive influence on students’ learning, skills, and motivation. The paper recommends
that in order to optimize learning via YouTube, teachers should make or select the
content (Shoufan, Mohamed, 2022). Moreover, videos available on YouTube range
from learning different languages such as Italian all the way to more complex languages
such as Japanese. One such example of a YouTube channel dedicated to language
learning is named LangFocus which currently has approximately 1.5 million subscribers
(LangFocus, n.d.). Additionally, YouTube benefits students in the automotive, IT
engineering, financial and medical fields. There is an expert YouTube channel for every
area.

 Talent
Regardless of one’s financial status and ethnic background, YouTube benefits people
who possess talent. Creating a YouTube channel is completely free and thus has
enabled countless individuals to garner worldwide fame and earn significant monetary
gains. One such example of an individual that has risen to global fame is Justin Bieber.
In the year 2007, Justin Bieber’s mother uploaded homemade videos, in which Bieber
sang popular rhythm-and-blues songs along with songs playing the guitar and this is
how he was discovered by the singer Usher. Amazed by Bieber’s natural vocal talent,
Usher assisted Bieber in signing him to a recording contract by the end of 2008
(Cunningham, 2019). Numerous other world-famous singers such as the Weeknd,
Alessia Cara, and Lana Del Rey have achieved such a feat through YouTube (Farrant,
2023).
 Environment
Our modern-day lifestyle and the current trend of consumerism have come at a great
cost to the environment as it is suffering, and such suffering is increasing as the world
population increases. The YouTube website enables activists to voice many different

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important causes worldwide. Those who champion the causes of the natural
environment have been given a platform and have made more and more people aware
of the devastating effects modern ignorance and human greed have caused. One such
current problem that plagues this blue planet is deforestation. Deforestation is the
intentional removal of forested land to make space for animal grazing, agricultural
practices, and the harvest of wood for manufacturing, construction, and fuel. One
consequence of deforestation is the decrease in biodiversity in tropical forests that are a
sanctuary to a significant number of animals and plant species (National Geographic
Society, 2022). Two main examples of YouTube channels that have been given a
platform are UN Environment and WWF International, their content ranges from the
restoration of natural habitats to the consequences of global warming and deep-sea
mining. YouTube enables people to make a difference in the world by making people
aware of numerous online petitions concerning the conservation of the natural
environment that they can sign and by making donating money to an environmental
cause easier (WWF International, n.d.).

Disadvantages of YouTube
 Palestine
However, YouTube is not perfect and very far from it. In our modern age globalization
has taken place and thus has enabled us to take off our rose-colored glasses when we
are exposed to news such as that of the genocide that is taking place currently in Gaza
in the country of Palestine. One main example of where YouTube falls short is the
removal and restriction of content that supports the Palestinian cause. The YouTuber
Hassan Suleiman known as AboFlah’s content regarding him expressing his opinion on
Palestine and more specifically Gaza has been taken down by YouTube unrightly.
Moreover, YouTube has given this Arab Muslim youtuber a warning in the form of a
strike. If this youtuber manages to be given three strikes his channel will be deleted off
the famous platform. This specific youtuber boasts a massive following of 34.3 million
subscribers and thus he will potentially have a substantial loss in both personal and
financial terms if YouTube decides to delete his channel permanently. In reaction to
YouTube’s action the YouTuber AboFlah has uploaded another video as an act of
righteousness and rebellion and by that throwing caution to the wind. In this video he
passionately and proudly announced to his massive online following that he only cares
about the innocent Palestinian civilians of Gaza and that he will keep his head high and
his voice loud even if that means his channel gets deleted (AboFlah, n.d).
This is evidence that YouTube is biased, unfair, discriminatory, and prejudiced. People
from all around the world have the right to voice their opinion and views, especially in
this context where bringing light and awareness to the issue could potentially save
hundreds if not thousands of innocent civilian lives. When people are made aware of the
horrors taking place in the Gaza strip they have the ability to lobby towards a cease-fire

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for example. The genocide taking place in the Gaza strip is a war crime, deleting online
content that showcases such a war crime fuels the dehumanization of the innocent
civilians in Gaza. As of today, the Health Ministry has declared that the Palestinian
death toll has exceeded a whopping horrifying number of 10,000 individuals since the
outbreak of the Gaza – Israel conflict. This disturbing number includes over 4,100
children and 2,600 women (AlJazeera, 2023).
 YouTube Search Algorithm
Moreover, YouTube’s search algorithm is biased thus some content appears to shine
brighter than the rest. This aspect of the world-famous digital platform is what needs to
be fixed so all YouTube channels have what is the closest possible opportunity of
equality in terms of exposure, viewers, and raking in subscribers. Absurdly, content that
is pushed by the YouTube search algorithm is a mix of hate speech, fake news, and
misinformation. Thus, it is evident that YouTube must prioritize fixing its search
algorithm to enable equality and to shield people from offensive content (Tufekci, 2019).

Advantages of DeviantArt
DeviantArt is a platform free of politics, which makes it accessible to everyone
regardless of the nationality they carry. Thus, this platform allows for the proliferation of
a diverse community of artists each with their own unique style (Salah, 2012). Artgerm a
Malaysian national is one example of an artist who is famous for his natural and lively
drawings with over 1.2 million followers. Other notable artists are GENZOMAN, Craig
Mullins, and Tyler Edlin. Evidently, DeviantArt enables and amplifies the valorization of
both the art and the artist (Krambs, 2023).

Moreover, DeviantArt supports aspiring artists regardless of their characteristics who

want to earn a living by selling their art online. To many artists being a professional
artist is what dreams are made of and DeviantArt makes this dream a reality. With
DeviantArt, artists can now sell their artwork online and reach a global market. Thus,
DeviantArt, an online community built for artists, is one of the ideal platforms for artists
selling art online (Nevue, 2023).

Furthermore, DeviantArt does its best to aid the artists from being lost in a sea of
competition by creating the ‘recommended for you’ function on its official website. The
‘recommended for you’ function enables users to find art that is similar to art they have
searched on the DeviantArt website. Thus, making users happier through this user-
friendly function, which ultimately increases the number of users and makes an artist’s
ability to reach their targeted audience more efficient and effective. This function helps
mitigate the effects of a potentially biased algorithm on the DeviantArt search page
(DeviantArt, n.d).

Disadvantages of DeviantArt

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With millions of artists active on DeviantArt it may be easy to be lost in the sea of artists.
Unfortunately, now with the commonness of AI-generated Art, an artist’s talent has been
undermined. Due to a seemingly endless number of complaints by the users of
DeviantArt, the art platform has now stated that as of the 12th of June 2023, deviations
created using AI tools will need to be labeled as “Created using AI tools”. Moreover, the
DeviantArt browse settings have been improved to allow for control of how much AI art
they experience while browsing (DeviantArt, 2023).

Moreover, DeviantArt is lacking in the diversity of art because Digital art is what is
predominant. The majority of DeviantArt is designed for digital artists who utilize more
modern art forms such as digital painting on softwares such as Adobe Illustrator. In
contrast, traditional art forms such as oil painting, acrylic painting, photography, pencil
drawing, and sculpting are not art forms that are expressed effectively on the DeviantArt
website. This specific issue of accessibility is what makes the aspect of equality come
into question. Thus, one can note that DeviantArt is not as user-friendly as should be
(Alyssa, 2021).

Comparison
YouTube and DeviantArt are two platforms with a gigantic amount of users, however, in
terms of numbers YouTube is the winner as there are 2.5 billion active users.
Additionally, YouTube is more personalized and enables users to add a human touch to
the content that they publicize on the media platform. YouTube may give users a
greater competitive advantage in comparison to DeviantArt as videos are more
dynamic, lively, and interactive (StreamCharts, n.d)
Furthermore, YouTube has a wide range of content thus there is something for
everyone. Whether it is cooking, reading books, art, gaming, or beauty tutorials
YouTube has it all. While DeviantArt only offers a platform for art, videos, and
photography. Also, YouTube is the second-most popular search engine after Google.
Both platforms are amazing in their own way however YouTube is the better choice if a
user’s goal is fame, interaction, and recognition.
Moreover, YouTube is once again first when it comes to monetization as it offers a wide
range of options. This motivates users to upload videos of high quality, periodically, and
catered to viewers’ tastes. While DeviantArt does allow artists to get commissioned for
their artwork, YouTube offers the best of both worlds. This is true because a YouTube
channel can offer users monetary gains through the number of viewers and subscribers
in addition to the possibility of commissions for their artworks.

Conclusion
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Evidently, both YouTube and DeviantArt enable individuals of different ethnic
backgrounds, individuals who are disabled, people of different genders, and people of a
range of ages to share their art, work, and their stories. This will increase the
representation of a diversity of people in the media and the arts. With the passing of
time, modern diverse representation will challenge stereotypes and misconceptions.
Moreover, it can be said with confidence that both online platforms are amazing
however, YouTube has more to offer for everyday users and channel creators.
Evidently, DeviantArt is predominantly composed of digital artists while YouTube offers
a wide range of art channels ranging from watercolor, oil painting, Prismacolor colored
pencils, to digital art. Additionally, YouTube not only showcases such art forms but also
offers art tutorials. This aspect of YouTube increases accessibility when comparing the
two platforms YouTube and DeviantArt. Ideally, one must try both and then decide
which of the two platforms is better suited for them or to use both simultaneously to
maximize the competitive advantage given by website use. This all depends on every
person as we are all different in tastes and likes and dislikes.