Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/11/livestreams-with-nobody-watching.html
…
Being the sole viewer of a live stream is awkward.
8 Likes
The purity of a livestream with no one watching appeals to me. As an old, though, the idea of spectating someone else playing games still seems weird and pointless to me.
15 Likes
Me, too, but there you have it.
3 Likes
Back in the early lockdown I livestreamed reading aloud from Pale Horse, Pale Rider on an unlisted YouTube stream with no followers.
I enjoyed it, nobody else did. It’s a great novella.
12 Likes
well if i’m ever in a hostage situation i’ll be sure not to live stream my way out of it.
unless I happen to be the captor then I’ll be fine.
3 Likes
ill bet this lady was livestreaming as well
https://ca.yahoo.com/news/granmother-survives-fall-by-eating-plant-141843150.html
This shouldn’t be surprising. Once a few people started making big $$ off of youtube and twitch streaming, every teenager and 20-something thought that all they needed to do to make money from their basement was an HD camera, good microphone, and a twitch account.
The reality of course is that making it big as a streamer is just like making it big in any other entertainment media: acting, singing, professional sports, etc. Success in these industries is a pyramid where there are progressively less and less people that are able to make it to the next level of income. Getting to the very top is about as likely as winning the lottery. So for every PewDiePie, there are 10k+ streamers that will never even see enough profit to pay for their equipment or internet connection, let alone make a living off of it.
4 Likes
Tell me about it
"“Whoever is watching, I hope its not boring. Start talking if you want a conversation. Do you play the Sims or no?”
I can’t leave this person alone now, they might harm themself.
2 Likes
I’ve never understood any kind of sport watching, to be fair.
I constantly flirt with the idea of putting a lot of effort into making some short Youtube videos with the expectation/hope that they would never get any views, as sort of conceptual folk art.
4 Likes
Not necessarily.
Well, I don’t know that I put loads of effort in but I think had someone randomly happened along they would have heard a great story being read as well as I could. It would have sounded good and the point of doing it on a stream for me is that you are broadcasting live and doing it as if there is an audience. Without the hassle of actually drumming up an audience or assuming that one exists for you let alone one that you can monetise.
4 Likes
I write weird, tiny plays each week and put them on Tumblr. I don’t promote it, but I somehow have a few followers. The #plays tag may be how they came across it. Never any comments, only an occasional like. There’s a very real possibility there are not even reading them, but just hitting like to be supportive.
2 Likes
I’m doing this analog style, it’s called living life during quarantine. 
2 Likes
I DJ’d on my university radio station, and just assumed no one was listening, especially when I had the 6 - 9 am “oldies” shift (I could play anything that was more than 15 years old, and I did). The day came that I got a primetime slot, and when I announced it was my last morning broadcast, the phone rang off the hook. It was disconcerting and a little amusing.
6 Likes
I can identify- I did the 2-6 AM slot because well, when you’re new that’s what you get (and the freedom was awesome). Some nights I might have had like 5 calls, but many nights it felt like no one was listening- until one day 3 AM I threw on a random Residents track I didn’t preview that contains portions of “Ten Little Indians”. I lept across the room, switched to the next record, but sure enough 5 minutes later I get a phone call about it. People are up at that hour listening, even to the weird college station.
(Didn’t stay on long enough to get something better because it became apparent that missing half my morning classes the next day was affecting the quality of my education.)
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
