Roughly half of all adult YouTube users say the site is very important for helping them figure out how to do things they’ve never done before, Pew Research Center reported Wednesday.
The site’s “how to” videos are especially important for younger generations: the survey, conducted between May and June of this year, found 53% of users ages 18 to 29 felt YouTube was very important for learning how to do things, compared to 41% of users ages 65 and up.
Overall, however, around 35% of the entire U.S. adult population holds this view. That means over one-third of the country’s adult population frequently turns to YouTube for “how to” videos, whether that’s how to cook the perfect quinoa dish or how to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
Whatever your task, there’s probably a tutorial: YouTube boasted more than 135 million “how to” videos in 2015. And with 300 hours of video being uploaded every minute (according to digital marketing agency Omnicore), there’s certainly a lot more now.
The company recognizes this focus, too. Just last month, YouTube announced it was dedicating $20 million to a new initiative called YouTube Learning, a program that will support education-focused content creators.
Other reasons for using YouTube—per the Pew Research Center’s survey—included just passing the time (28%), deciding whether to buy a certain product or not (19%), and understanding things happening in the world (19%).
