wow jesus I'm sorry that's not worded better, but you get the gist - I can't use this platform because it just feels so individual and alienating from other humans; the only content I really like are the cushvlogs and that's about it. At least with Twitter, it's more of a messageboard split oddly and it's normal to just have commentary from randos (and often it's pretty funny if the person has a good sense of humor)
it just feels like shouting into a void and so is everyone else
The only reason it's so popular is because of how alienated society is becoming. In a decent world it would be a fairly fringe pastime. Not that I think watching someone play videogames is weird just the parasocial aspect of streamers
I like it for that reason tbh. I'm not saying this is good but with my PTSD it's nice to have the feeling that I'm not alone without the stress of someone actually being in the room with me. I wasn't watching a stream for a few months cause I had to be away and then hospitalized for mental health reasons and none of the other chat regulars who called me their friend even tried to check up on me on discord and it really drove it home, although I already understood logically. lol
I'm disappointed in how many streamers use this to their advantage and then turn around and say they don't have a real relationship with their viewers when it's not beneficial anymore... ex: "uwu I love this community you guys mean so much to me we're like a bunch of friends" gets them money but the second some poor guy comes into chat unloading his feelings because he was literally told he's part of a real supportive community I'm like oh no he's gonna get shit for this, or at least tweeted about. 😬
The luddites were good actually. Check out their history. They opposed tech/capital development if it disenfranchised the worker, and history turned them into "haha technology bad".
Yeah twitch seems very isolated to me too. I only put it on when I'm feeling kinda alone and just need a "buddy" on my other screen.
Its 100% unhealthy long term and parasocial. I do it ike once every two weeks when both my friends are busy and my gf is up late on the living room doing work
I dislike the part of socialization where I have to think about shit and come up with opinions, so asymmetrical interaction is perfect for me. I also hate having to drive conversations in a direction that interests me, so being able to pick a streamer solves that problem too.
I used to watch really small streamers and we all played the same games, so it was pretty cool.
When they stopped streaming I stopped watching often.
Some places are cool to chat in, I'm in some webcam mtg discords and lots of the streams I watch are just folks from there who stream what they do anyways but just with the ability to do fundraisers or community events. It's not really weird and parasocial being connected to someone you literally play and talk with when they aren't getting paid. Twitch is also pretty decent for just closing the chat bar and watching larger events like esports where the broadcast is big enough that they don't pretend to be pandering to every viewer. Granted thats also because at that size chats are just copypastas and racism so minimizing it is incentivised. The middle of those extremes though are absurdly weird and i agree completely that they can get super creepy or just lost to the void.
I watch twitch channels pretty frequently, but I always thought of it more akin to the radio host's relationship with their audience, but on a smaller scale.
Like the chat is basically just people calling in, the host responding, and a healthy distance is maintained while at the same time just a bit of fun interaction.
I definitely get weird vibes from some channels though. There's a lot of toxicity and general unhealthiness involved with thinking you're like friends with people on twitch or something.
i think a lot of it depends on the streamer and how they have shaped their community. i really only watch one streamer but he tries to keep a separation with his streaming life and his private life.