Can YouTube Teach Us Everything?

With most YouTube viewers using it to learn new skills, Kim Willis puts the site to the test.

- Kim Willis

Every minute, 500 hours of video are uploaded on to YouTube, with five billion videos watched every day. It doesn’t surprise me that over half of users use it to master a new skill. When my husband Gaz, 39, and I began doing up an old farmhouse, YouTube taught him how to grout, strip wallpaper, lay floorboards and replace roof tiles. But I wonder, are some tutorials more suited to me, and how much can I really learn from a video-sharing website?

Home spa

Yovana in a YouTube tutorial tells me a DIY face mask can prevent fine lines, increase skin hydration and balance oils. I follow her instructions for a blueberry coconut yogurt mask. The consistency doesn’t match hers but when it drips into my mouth, at least I know it’s edible. When I’ve washed it off, my skin feels fresh, hydrated and smooth for hours.

youtube.com/watch?v= ssO814cK5w0

DIY

I want to be the kind of woman who knows her earth from her live wire. Usually, I get Gaz to do this stuff, but an old lamp has stopped working so I seize the opportunity to follow a B&Q tutorial. I unscrew the flex clamp (also learning new words), loosen the terminal screws and pull the wires away from the pins. I feel like I’m defusing a bomb as I connect the brown wire to the live terminal and the blue wire to neutral in a new plug. Turning the lamp back on, I expect an electric shock, but to my delight, I get light.

youtube.com/watch?v=6EqER6Bqbw