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The parasocial nature of it is a bit concerning and (to me) deeply weird. I went to a presentation by a couple of streamers at an event a few months ago, aimed
by Nursie 4y ago
The parasocial nature of it is a bit concerning and (to me) deeply weird.
I went to a presentation by a couple of streamers at an event a few months ago, aimed at people wanting to learn a little more about it or get into it themselves. They referred to the people in the chat as 'chat' but warned never to use that word in the stream, instead have a cute name for it. One always called them her "besties" which helps give the impression they are friends. But they aren't, they're the audience, they're people she doesn't know and doesn't want to, and they're the income source either directly or through being paid to promote stuff to them.
I came away feeling the whole thing was weirdly dirty.
I know that there are a lot of streamers who aren't in it for the money, who hang out and watch each other's streams for fun and game together on the side. That's by nature going to have a very limited audience and that's fine, often these folks do know eachc other and it's genuinely social. And I know there are the superstars who people watch like tv because they make entertaining content. But there seems to be this middle ground of para-social streaming that's not quite either of those other things and just feels wrong.
- PurpleRamen 4y ago> They referred to the people in the chat as 'chat' but warned never to use that word in the stream, instead have a cute name for it. Strange advice. Pretty much all Streamers I know, call their viewers chat. How big on twitch were those people speaking there? What kind of content did they made? Calling viewers by a cute name makes the impression of being more on the abusive side of community-interaction, or having a very young community which does not understand yet the parasocial relation.
- Nursie 4y agoI got the impression they were plugged into whole communities of streamers for whom this is entirely normal. I have no idea how big they are, I don’t think they were aiming particularly young, one was regularly streaming horror games. To me the whole thing is weird in many other ways (why watch other people game?! I could be gaming!) but twitch seems set up for this sort of stuff and it feels pretty unhealthy.
- s1artibartfast 4y agoMaybe I can answer some of your question. I'm a daily twitch consumer, and perhaps worse, a lurker at that. It is basically the same as TV or YouTube for me, neither of which I consume much of. Good streamers are entertainers, and are interesting to watch. It is low effort consumption and relaxing. I learn about high level play for games that I enjoy, even if I watch them more than I play them. Most of my watching takes place as I lay in bed waiting for my melatonin to kick in and pass out.