From YouTube's head of culture and trends, an intriguing examination of internet video the world's largest collection of cultural data and what it reveals about us.

Think about it: for the first time in the history of storytelling, human beings have the ability to freely disseminate, with absurd ease, their ideas and passions to the majority of the world. YouTube is the first centralized example of nearly uninhibited creative expression and distribution since the beginning of recorded communication. It is the largest collection of cultural data of taste, of creativity, of emotion--in the history of our species. More than 400 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. And the videos we share have had a huge impact on the world.

Viral videos of politicians have changed the course of elections. Clips from Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, Myanmar, and the Ukraine have inspired outpourings of aid and support from both local and international communities. Footage of the tragic deaths of black men fueled an entire social movement that put a spotlight on relations between the black community and law enforcement. And it's not just the serious videos that have an impact.

The massive popularity of “oddly satisfying” videos indicates our desire for order in an otherwise chaotic world. Videos that highlight the features in elevators are very soothing for people on the autism spectrum. Children love “unboxing” videos almost as much as they enjoy opening new toys themselves. These videos tell us about ourselves, and they're all on YouTube. As Allocca says, if aliens wanted to understand our planet, he'd give them Google, but if they wanted to understand us, he'd give them YouTube.

This book is about a new era of creativity, in which the small ways we react and interact every day have unprecedented power to affect the world. It's about art that we'd never call “art.” It's about creativity that often doesn't seem creative. But what we watch, as a society, deeply matters, and these videos can tell us everything we need to know about the evolution of modern communication and our cultural landscape.