Need Quick tech help? Try Youtube

YouTube is not just for watching cat videos, old movie clips or  the latest America’s Got Talent wunderkind. It’s also a great way to learn just about everything about anything, including how various tech products work.

Here are four of the best YouTube channels with experts who are not only engaging to watch but who know how to make complicated technology user friendly.

CNET  is the authoritative source of all around info about almost every product in the known universe,   It provides  technology news, unbiased reviews, videos, podcasts and software downloads you can trust to be virus-free.  CNET has both a website and YouTube channel with how-to’s that make tech products easy to understand.  Their YouTube channel is updated regularly with clips featuring regular shows, battles between different products, and Top 5’s, all delivered in a professional, easy to understand format.

 Marques Brownlee.   Charming, articulate and incredibly well informed, Brownlee has over a million subscribers and, according to Google, is “the best tech reviewer on the planet.” Like most YouTube reviewers, he talks fast, tells you a lot more than you want to know about whatever he’s reviewing and mentions options that you will probably never use – but he’s fun to watch, and if you’re considering a major purchase he’s worth checking out.  Check out his explained playlist with 46 videos which explain everything from curved TVs to Google Glass to virtual reality.

Unbox therapy.  “Unboxing” is the latest YouTube craze.  Videos of people taking everything from high end electronics to Easter eggs out of boxes are popular with advertisers who pay the unboxers for each click on their ads.   Here’s more about it.   UnboxTherapy is one of the most popular tech channels on YouTube with over 300,000 subscribers.  It’s simple but effective.  A smart guy in a baseball cap takes stuff out of boxes and explains—in plain easy-to-understand English– how it works.  He’s articulate and opinionated and will tell you whether to buy the new iPhone X or the OnePlus 5t instead which is half the price (he recommends the OnePlus 5t).   He also features cool gadgets under $10

Techboomers.  If you have no idea what the other YouTube tech channels are talking about, start with this site which provides a very simple intro to a lot of common tech concepts with easy how-to’s.  Techboomers is a free educational website that teaches older adults with limited computer skills how to use the most popular and trusted websites on the internet, from instagram, to Facebook to YouTube to Netflix.  You get access to over 75 free website and app courses that will teach you everything you need to know to get the most out computing and the internet.

The Daily Awww.  When you’re tired of all that learning, take a break with this nonstop feel good love fest.  Short videos of kittens and puppies and animals being rescued will relieve the stress of trying to figure out how your smartphone works.    Awwww.

Senior Planet has lots of classes in several locations which teach technology to seniors.  So far we’re currently in New York City and New York State’s North Country—with satellite labs in surrounding areas.

Here is a link to more Senior Planet tech articles:  https://cms.seniorplanet.org/tag/aging-with-geekitude/