Have you ever done a TED Talk in front of a large audience? Well, I am going to this Friday! And in order to do that, I have to prepare. So keep on reading if you want to learn how I prepared for my TED Talk.
Once I finished my essay on answering my main inquiry question, I transformed it into a script. I copied and pasted my information from my essay into my script. I had to change my script a lot so it would fit the time limit. Capstone TED Talks had to be five to six minutes. The first time I timed my presentation, it was four minutes and thirty seconds. And so I had to add more to my script to make it more than five minutes. After I changed my script a few times, I finally got it to five minutes and twelve seconds. Success!
Here’s my script:
Slide 1: Hi. I’m Alina. For those of you who watch YouTube, have you ever wondered how it’s changed over time? Well, I did. So today, I am here to talk about YouTube. My main inquiry question is how has YouTube evolved over time? Hope you enjoy!
Slide 2: First off, you might be wondering, what even is YouTube and what does it allow you to do? Well, YouTube is a video-sharing website. People can watch, upload, and comment on videos. YouTube offers a wide variety of videos. There are videos posted from all different kinds of people. The site allows people to add keywords or tags to videos. Tags used on YouTube help people categorize, organize, and search for videos on specific topics.
Slide 3: YouTube makes it simple for most people to present videos to the world. The site allows people from all over the world to share videos with others. YouTube has all kinds of videos. For everyone who uploads a video, others have an opinion about it. People are allowed to comment on videos and share them across the Internet. On YouTube, people can also rate the quality of a video.
Slide 4: YouTube was founded in 2005 by the American Graphic Designer Chad Hurley and two computer scientists, the Taiwanese-born Steve Chen and the German-born Jawed Karim. Since YouTube first came out, it has become the #1 place for video content online, attracting over one billion users.
Slide 5: There is a new “play all” button for playlists coming out which will make it easier for people who like to watch playlists on YouTube. A lot of “bug fixes” are coming out as well. Many people have reported that comments were not loading for them. But that is an issue that has been fixed.
Slide 6: During one period of time, YouTube videos only worked on computers. Now, people are able to watch videos on computers, tablets, smartphones, and more. This is another example of how YouTube has changed.
Slide 7: When you search for a video on YouTube, the algorithm decides which videos it will show you and in what order based on what people watch and what they don’t watch, how much time people spend to watch a video, how new a video is, how often a channel uploads a new video, the likes of the video, the dislikes of the video, the “not interested” feedback, how much time people spend on that platform, and how quickly the popularity of a video increases or doesn’t.
Slide 8: You may not believe this, but YouTube is actually struggling to make money. YouTube still makes money, but not a lot. In fact, YouTube’s CEO Susan Wojcicki said that YouTube is “still in investment mode”. However, when YouTube does make money, one of the ways they do is when people pay them to play their ad before a video. YouTube was far from making money when Alphabet Inc. bought it in 2006. Google decided to buy YouTube because it had a problem with how many videos it offered.
Slide 9: Keeping the people who watch YouTube a lot as content creators is a challenge. Buffering is another challenge YouTube faces. People can only watch videos once it has fully buffered (loaded). Older electronics and places where the internet is bad can cause slow loading. Videos that take too long to load can make people frustrated and leave the site.
Slide 10: Copyright issues are still a problem. YouTube tries to protect copyright, but as more and more people upload videos, YouTube struggles to secure permissions fast enough. Another problem is that YouTube must also keep people watching after the click on their first video link. To make this happen, YouTube tries to predict what kinds of videos people will want to see. But the problem is that YouTube doesn’t know exactly what people want to see. As much as that is a problem, another serious problem is that most people skip the ads before videos which results in YouTube videos making almost no money at all.
Slide 11: Overall, YouTube has evolved over time in a few major ways. One way is that a lot of “bug fixes” are coming out. Many people have reported that comments were not loading for them. But that is an issue that has been fixed. Another way is that YouTube has became available on more devices than just computers. Before, YouTube only worked on computers, but now it’s changed. A final way is that YouTube used to rank it’s videos by how many times people have watched them, but now YouTube ranks videos by how much time is has been watched for. And that is how YouTube has evolved over time. For more information, visit my blog at blogs.scarsdaleschools.org/ayang26. Or, scan this QR code. Thanks for listening to my presentation!
After finishing writing my script, I started my slideshow. The images on each slide were based on my script. Making the slideshow was easy since I already wrote my script. It only took me one hour to make my slideshow. And of course, once my slideshow was done, the next thing I had to do was to rehearse. Everyday during Capstone, I would partner up with someone and we would practice our presentations over and over.
Overall, preparing for my TED Talk took a lot of time, concentration, patience, and most of all: effort. But it was also a great experience. I can’t wait to present on Friday!