8 ms·
Wagies donating to millionaires is probably the funniest thing i can imagine.
by swarnie 5y ago
Wagies donating to millionaires is probably the funniest thing i can imagine.
- msie 5y agoI was watching a streamer the other day and she was doing some stunt because another streamer promised her an iphone 13 pro. But now I realize she could buy hundreds of them! Argh. Here i am waiting two months so i could afford to put a down payment on one.
- freeflight 5y agoI don't think it's funny, I think it's sad because most of it comes from the emotional exploitation of parasocial relationships. Something we used to scoff at in places like Asia, now even casual relationships are utterly commoditized and we taught a whole generation of young humans how that's the most normal thing in the world.
- ttctciyf 5y agoPersonally, I do it once a month, to avoid donating to a billionaire. YMMV.
- meheleventyone 5y agoIsn't that the basis of the economy with the increasing wealth gap and so on? It's not really materially different to paying Disney millionaires to go watch the latest Marvel movie.
- swarnie 5y agoMaybe if viewed in a cynical way yes. At least when i donate to blue origin i get something tangible delivered to my door. Where is the value exchange in being one of 10k people building a faux-relationship with a hot tub streamer?
- kdmytro 5y agoMoney transfer does not necessarily mean mutually beneficial transfer of value. Another example of this is theft.
- input_sh 5y agoSame as with paying to see a Disney movie: entertainment. It's just a bit more interactive, since streamers are a bit more likely to interact with you after you give them money.
- MMS21 5y ago>since streamers are a bit more likely to interact with you after you give them money ohwee! the streamer might read out your username along with a scripted line after a 5 dollar subscription!1Eleven
- input_sh 5y agoIs there a point you're failing at making? In my mind it's no different than, say, voting for contestants on talent shows, or paying a camgirl, or pay-per-view WWE events. Same thing targeting a different demographic.
- meheleventyone 5y agoI mean it's not cynical (at least not anymore than your initial comment), it's what we're doing and why I used another entertainment option as a point of comparison. Of all the things on Twitch the value of Hot Tub streams seem very upfront and I think it's pretty telling that there are vanishingly few successful streamers doing it and that for all the hot air people spew about its a very niche part of the site.
- TwoNineA 5y agoI "donated" 75$ to see my favorite band two years ago.
- swarnie 5y agoYou "purchased" a "service". Without the payment the service wouldn't be accessible
- slightwinder 5y agoTo be fair, the number of millionaires is overall pretty low in numbers. Just some few dozen worldwide. Most top-streamers "only" earn as much as upper middle-class or less. Compared to other sketchy businesses, this seems relative ok. Be aware that those numbers are before taxes and are not including expenses, which can be quite high in the top league.
- FartyMcFarter 5y agoI have donated to some chess streamers who make fun + educational content I enjoy. I'm fine if that makes them millionaires or richer than me.
- Lamad123 5y agoBillonnaires couldn't exist without such donations!
- zouhair 5y agoIsn't this what we do when we go see a movie or a sports event?
- matheusmoreira 5y agoYeah, it's so absurd it's hilarious. Seeing people make millions of USD for playing games and mentioning others in a live stream made me seriously rethink the value of my own work.
- warent 5y agothis is a tired old complaint and anybody could say the same about pretty much any job that pays more than their own. Telling blue collar workers you work in tech usually gets a nearly identical reaction to what you just gave. etc etc.
- matheusmoreira 5y agoYeah, and what's wrong with that reaction? I'm supposed to just accept this stuff? The blue collar workers are right too. They should be getting paid a lot more. Certainly not less than streamers. It's not fair and I refuse to accept it. Come to think of it, advertisers seem to be a major cause of these distortions. They distort the value of activities that happen to have an audience. Yet another reason to block ads: help restore balance to society by ensuring people are properly rewarded for the actual value of their work instead of how many eyeballs they can summon.
- nlitened 5y agoWhy wouldn’t you start a business, and pay blue collar workers what they deserve?
- matheusmoreira 5y agoBecause that's not the field of work I chose for myself. I do see construction workers on a daily basis though. I also know the owner of a construction company, he's part of my extended family. The wealth disparity between the workers and my family member is obscene. There's no way I'll ever believe they couldn't be paid better wages.
- tisthetruth 5y agoWealth concentration on the twitch model is worse than paying a company. A company does trickle down some of the profits to it's employees. Vs one person on twitch. Then you have the wisdom pov. This money is going to somebody who is most likely less wise, mainly due to age and lack of education and experiences. The quality of the content that is being rewarded and wether its a good influence for society or for the minds of the young consumers is also highly questionable. Just pop open the YouTube home page and then think about what someones mind will be made up of if they consume that linkbait garbage for a considerable amount of time. Then add the echo chamber effect of the internet. It's not a pretty sight. Yet here we are. As a simple heuristic. Look at the view count of the noble minds video vs SSSniperWolf.
- youerbt 5y agoI don't get what's so funny about it. In streaming case, for whatever reason you want to make a donation to somebody, not doing it because they are richer than you seems very strange to me.
- pradn 5y agoIt somewhere between "paying to not see ads" (mechanical) to "being a fan and wanting to contribute to them" (parasocial). I don't think most people care if they're a fan of a millionaire - see sports and entertainment celebrities. Looking at things reflexively through a wealth-inequality perspective is done only by a minority of people.