Fullscreen: A YouTube Giant From the View of a Teenage Girl

My partner and fellow teenage intern, Edward, and I pose for a photo at the nearby YouTube Space.

According to a survey conducted by Millennial Branding, 77% of high school students are either extremely or very interested in volunteering to gain work experience compared to 63% of college students. People in my generation are more interested than ever in gaining work experience to supplement their college applications and resumes, and I’m no different. But when I tell curious family members and friends where I’m interning this summer, I’m usually greeted with blank looks. This doesn’t come as a surprise to me for several reasons- one, “Fullscreen” is hardly a household name, and two, most of my inquirers are well above the age of 30. The majority of adults (that I know) don’t care about YouTube, but ask any teenager if they know who Jenna Marbles, Tyler Oakley, or Nigahiga is and you’re bound to get some sort of reaction, whether it be favorable or critical.

Part of Fullscreen’s mission is to manage and empower promising YouTube stars, among other things. My generation, the millennials and Generation Z to be exact, spends more time on YouTube than any other social media platform. The concept of television is basically dead to us. The majority of entertainment and television shows can be found within the far reaches of the Internet, on websites such as Hulu, Netflix, and, of course, YouTube. People all over the world are flocking to the video-sharing website for almost every conceivable reason, and so the fact that there’s a company designed specifically to monitor trends and create more of them is kind of incredible. I like to think of Fullscreen as the Warner Brothers or 20th Century Fox of the 21st Century – it’s cutting edge and is producing entertainment in numbers and ways that have never been done before. Or at the very least, it’s modifying the way society chooses to access it.

As a teenager who doesn’t have a lot of experience working with big companies, being set up with Fullscreen was something of a culture shock. I use social media just as much as any other teen, but I never really gave much thought to how interested large brands are in these types of networks. My first week, I sat in on an innovation workshop where adults who barely knew anything about specific social networks and apps, such as Snapchat and Facebook, attempted to explain them to their coworkers – networks that people my age use every day and would have no difficulty describing whatsoever. I also met some of the business’s major leaders and had the chance to sit down with them and ask them questions about how the company works and how it was set up. Indeed, this internship has given me many opportunities that I wouldn’t have had otherwise, and I’m having a blast learning about how rapidly society is evolving because of new technology. Fullscreen is definitely taking advantage of the waves of new technology that are continuing to change the world, and I’m thrilled to be riding those waves with them, even if it’s only for the summer.

A sign in the lobby promises a bright future to those who look upon it.