We all want to learn new things and expand our horizons; in fact, one of my New Year's resolutions is to learn to cook some new dishes for friends and family. Thankfully, learning new things doesn't necessarily mean that I have to take a class or spend hours upon hours reading or studying. With 5Min, I can learn how to make a vegetarian shepherd's pie or a beef Wellington in just a few minutes.
5Min is a video site that specializes in how-to and instructional videos made by people with knowledge of their subjects. The best part is that all of the videos are short-form; none of them are longer than five minutes long.
Five minutes is all it takes to learn how to cross-stitch, to fold a t-shirt, or even to seat dinner guests. The videos at 5Min help you learn at least a little about a specific topic, and while you may not be able to learn everything there is to know about everything in five-minute snippets, you can certainly get started. The point of the videos at 5Min aren't to make you an expert, but to help you learn enough to get involved with a topic, teach you a quick tip or trick, or give you enough information that you can fill in the blanks on your own.
5Min videos are all created by the user community. The site staff and administrators provide the framework for the service and might contribute a video or two on their own time, but the bulk of the content is provided by 5Min.com users. Each user gets a "studio" where they can upload their videos in their areas of expertise. The service was founded on the principle that everyone's an expert in something, so everyone is invited to participate and share their knowledge with the rest of the community.
The topics at 5Min range from the arts, business, fashion, food, games, parenting to even sports and technology. You can find videos on how to check your HOSTS file for spyware on one page, and on another page you can learn about how scientists use DNA fingerprinting to catch criminals.
If you're not looking for a brain buster, you can head over to the Home category to get 10 Feng Shui tips for your home, or the "fashion" section to learn how to properly tie a do-rag. If the topic of the video is just too broad to cover in five minutes, you might find a series of videos on the same topic, each taking you through a specific step.
The beauty of 5Min isn't just that the videos are all short (the average video is about 3-4 minutes, and sticks very closely to a specific topic), but that the site reaches out to everyday people to share their knowledge with the world. You'll find videos on topics you didn't know you wanted to learn about, and after only five minutes, you'll find your life that much richer.
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