Day 22: Learn 5 things you didn't know about YouTube.

Throughout January, The Social Path is running daily tips on how to improve your social life — online, at least. Click here to learn more.

Watching and sharing videos is the single most popular social activity on the Internet. And roughly two-thirds of that clip consumption occurs on YouTube.

But strangely, few people bother to look under the hood and see what YouTube has to offer, both in terms of viewing and hosting video.

So to help you know your YouTube, here are a few fun facts that might make your video experience a little more useful:

Did you know you can...?

1. Find out if your clips contain copyrighted material.

Simply log in and go to your Account Settings. If any of your clips include known copyrighted material (ie, if you set your wedding video to the tune of "Danger Zone"), you'll see a note that says: "You have videos that may contain content that is owned by someone else. Please review these videos."

Don't worry, this doesn't mean some record label knee-breaker is going to come after you. It doesn't even  mean your clip is going to get yanked off YouTube, but it does let you know that you're at the mercy of the copyright holder. So make sure you have a backup copy of these videos on your hard drive just in case they get pulled. (You can download your clips back from YouTube in the My Videos section.)

YouTube does generally operate under a "three strikes" system, so if you've been notified of a copyright-related takedown on your account in the past, you might want to check whether your account is "in good standing." If you're not, you'll see a description of videos that have been removed:

2. Specify which type of ads you want to see.

Advertising is an inevitable aspect of YouTube, a server-crushing megasite that requires massive investment by Google just to stay afloat. But hey, at least you can decide which categories of targeted ads you want to see.

Just go to Ad Preferences and deselect any categories you never want to see ads for:

You can even add more specific categories of ads, like "Dancing" or "Wildlife" by clicking the "Add interests" button at the bottom of the list!

What good is this feature? To be honest, I'm really not sure, although I suppose it could make the ads you're forced to watch seem a little more palatable. But I'm guessing you'd rather....

3. Opt out of targeted (cookie-based) advertising.

If you're tired of Google tracking your video habits and using them to hit you with related advertising, just hit the big blue Opt out button on the Advertising Privacy page.

The bad news? You'll still watch ads. They'll just be generic messages aimed at anybody, not someone with your interests or viewing habits.

Personally, I like seeing local ads on YouTube clips, and I don't get too worked up about tracking cookies, so I'm still opted in. But it's worth knowing that you always have the option.

4. Force YouTube to show you HD when available.

Luckily, YouTube defaults to a viewing option that sets your video quality "dynamically based on the current connection speed." So if you're on your grandma's dial-up, YouTube will load clips at low resolution.

But if you're a quality-first kind of person, you might want to go ahead and force all videos to top quality, even if it means waiting a bit longer for them to load.

5. Link your YouTube activity to Facebook or Twitter.

First off, let me say I doubt that your friends want to know every time you rate a video or subscribe to a channel, so you might not want to blast the entire YouTube firehose into your other social networks.

But if you're selective with your picks for favorite videos, or you just want folks to know when you've posted a new clip, YouTube's Activity Sharing options might prove useful.

These tips are just a small sample of the options available within YouTube. I hope they've at least inspired you to poke around within the site a bit more and learn how you can make the world's most popular video site answer to you.

Estimated time needed: 10-20 minutes.
Benefits: A streamlined and personalized YouTube experience.