YouTube first entered our lives on Valentine’s Day 2005.
According to USA Today, the creators of the platform came up with the idea when they couldn’t easily find videos of the infamous 2004 Super Bowl halftime show online. They thought that the world needed a better way to find videos on the web, and thus, the internet’s most popular video hub was born.
If you were around for YouTube’s early days, you probably remember that the website looked nothing like it does now. Since then, the platform has become a vital source of information, a place to find a good laugh, and in its own way, a time machine.
But back in the day, we had this awesome original YouTube iPhone icon to click on anytime we wanted to watch videos…
The Original YouTube iPhone Icon Was Incredible
the original YouTube iPhone icon pic.twitter.com/oXZ7AnxdNf
— Nostalgia (@NostalgiaFolder) May 12, 2024
YouTube Created a Ton of New Celebrities
Because anyone can upload a video on YouTube, it quickly became the perfect platform for creatives to use to showcase their work.
Singers, actors, and comedians all posted to the website almost right away, and if they were lucky, people found their stuff. And if their stuff was good, they got a level of exposure that wasn’t possible before 2005.
Stars like Justin Bieber and Bo Burnham went “viral” right when “going viral” was a totally new concept. As a result, both became massive stars in their respective industries. That type of success via the internet wasn’t attainable before YouTube became a thing.
In an interview with The Second City, Burnham talked about what it was like to be one of the first viral sensations. “Back then, the idea of “going viral” wasn’t a thing… when I started, It was like, this is a place where I post my little skits!” he explained.
Now, major networks are also on the platform, and thus, it’s hard for lesser-known creatives to be discovered by potential fans. Things were much simpler back in the days when the original YouTube icon resembled that old television set, to say the least.