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Vlogging is a form of blogging through which the main medium is video, short for video blogging. It’s become increasingly popular over the years as a way to reach the masses.

 

In his book, “The Naked Lens: Video Blogging and Video Journaling to Reclaim the You in YouTube,” Michael Kaminsky discusses the history of vlogging. Vlogging began in the year 2000, when Adam Kontras posted a video of himself next to a blog entry keeping his friends and family apprised of his cross-country move from Ohio to Los Angeles to follow his dream of a career in show business. Kontras, who is said to have created the first video blog, posted his first video entry from a nondescript hotel in Springfield, Mo. The blog is still going, 12 years later, and is the longest-running video blog out there. If you’re feeling really ambitious (or conversely, really bored), you can check out the whole vlog here.

 

Over the next few years, a small amount of vlogs started to pop up around the Internet but not many people were watching. It was not until 2005 that vlogging exploded on the scene. It was in that year that YouTube was created — it was also the year Forbes magazine referred to as “the year of the vlog.”

 

With the founding of YouTube, the amount of people creating vlogs and watching them increased exponentially. USA Today estimated in 2006 that 100 million videos were being watched daily. Only three years later in 2009, YouTube was getting 1 billion visits a day. Now, not all of those are vlogs, but the sheer volume is extraordinary. 

 

In 2008, the vlog’s impact could really be felt during the presidential election, when candidates took the vlogging world by storm. Who can forget Will.i.am’s powerful song, “Yes We Can,” woven around a speech given by then-candidate Barack Obama. The video became one of the most watched political videos ever.

 

Since then, vlogging has been increasing in popularity, due largely to the ease with which people can now shoot, upload and share video pretty simply from their smartphone, iPad or tablet. Vloggers use their virtual soapbox for everything from traditional journaling or logging to opinion pieces and information sharing.

 

Some colleges allow you to submit a video submission along with your personal statement. According to Kaminsky, this could become mandatory soon. Kaminsky posits that vlogging is the future, and we can either watch the change or embrace it ourselves.

 

It’s incredible if you think about it. When I was in high school and saw Marty Mcfly videoconferencing on “Back to the Future III,” I couldn’t have imagined that technology was so close within our reach. But here we are. (Now hoverboards, on the other hand, I guess we’re still working on those.)

 

— Chanie

 

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