Younger generation gets to enjoy 100 hours in spotlight

Andy Warhol famously said everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame but the YouTube generation are enjoying 100 hours in the spotlight.

A new study has found that under-35s, dubbed the Millennial Generation, will upload 100 hours of footage of themselves onto video sharing sites during their lifetimes.

The figures, which come from a YouGov poll of nearly 5,000 people, come as YouTube celebrates its 10th birthday.

They show the video craze is growing so rapidly the volume of video a person features in is increasing 20-fold for each generation.

Grandparents now in their 60s and 70s were filmed in an average of just 15 minutes of video, and Britons in their 40s and 50s appear in an average of five hours compared with the 100 hours of today’s 20-somethings

If the trend continues, by 2040 Britons will put up 2,000 hours, equivalent to 83 full days, of footage capturing moments of their lives, on the internet.

Weddings, the birth of a baby and nights out had people reaching for the camera most often.

The latest figures from YouTube show 300 hours of video are being uploaded to the web every minute in 2015, with one billion people around the world using the service.

A third of Millennials watch videos online every day, while 12% make a clip at least once a month.

Weddings are the most popular event to film, with 76% of Britons recording the big day.

University graduations are filmed by 68% of Millennials and 57% of the wider population. A further 47% said they have posted a video to get their voice heard by a big company or brand, either to complain or praise the firm.

Channel Mum and Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard said: “Fifteen minutes of fame isn’t enough for today’s youngsters, but simply what many post online each and every week.

“Where once videos were saved for only the most special of events, now they are used to capture everyday actions and share them with friends. Forget talking, phones or even texts, videos have become the way the new generation communicates.”

The findings were backed up by Cambridge University lecturer Sarah Wood who teaches the world-famous university’s Online Video Culture course.