this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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Late Stage Capitalism
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Twitch streamers are the epitome of cringe. Making money off of other people through donations to spend on themselves and accumulate wealth into the bourgeoisie status. How ungrateful that she has to poor-shame her viewers. Like seriously fuck off with that bullshit. Not like penguinz0 is any better. He just makes reaction videos.
maybe it's because I'm an old geezer compared to the average twitch viewer but I honestly don't understand the appeal of these streamers. It must be some kind of parasocial thing
and every once in a while I'll see a clip where some popular streamer is talking, little "donation" messages show up on the screen and I'm reminded that people who are presumably much less wealthy than the streamer routinely donate money to them and it just breaks my brain
It depends very much on the streamer, as a (probably) old geezer compared to the average twitch streamer the really loud and obnoxious ones are just unpleasant and horrible. I like having streaming content in the background when I work though, as an alternative to music or podcasts sometimes. Having someone who isn't hamming things up and is just playing a game they like with commentary is nice background noise, like having a housemate doing something in the background. I like very "low energy" stuff though, so I might not be the best representative of this, and the sorts of people I watch rarely beg for donations, usually just a little message like "hey, this helps me pay the bills, so donate if you've got money to spare" kind of thing. (I am pretty biased though, as I also rely on donations from supporters for my income)
When you stream stuff in the background, is it usually people playing games or is it sometimes like the linked content where the streamer is talking?
Always the games, I've got no interest in most other streamer content. If they do youtube content I'll usually watch that as well, I'm not at all interested in their "lifestyle" or whatever, they're just background noise so I can work without hearing my neighbours arguing through the paper thin walls.
It's wild that there is an entire economy for reaction videos. It's the most uninteresting thing imaginable. Once he was done playing the clip in this video, I had no incentive to watch the rest of it.
An invention of the corporation. Capitalism innovation baby!!!! Easily selfish money shoving sponsorships and ads down our throat!!!
I, fucking, can't stand that guy. Literally does nothing, and makes a career out of it
All he does is speak bullshit in a monotone voice. I really can't stand him either.
I despise these influencer/content creator types that have made it their career. I remember when making videos and streaming was about fun, not making profit. I don't understand how anyone can watch these fake shitbags for hours and spend ANY amount of money on them or their shitty merch. Every time someone showed me videos of such "content creators" I felt pissed off afterwards. Not because of the people showing them to me, but because of the annoying, loud and capitalist nature of the videos/streams themselves. I just don't get it.
Everything gets commodified in this shithole system. Everything.
Influencers feel more egregious because what they commodify is the sense of human connection and community itself.
But if they weren't doing it, the market would 'innovate' some other person or some other method to do it.
It boils down to loneliness, people want to feel part of a community and streamers provide that very easily. It tells a lot about our current state of society when you think about it.
Exactly right!
What is even worse is that her parasocial simps are still gonna support her lol, streamers entire wealth comes from being crowdfunded by their public, if the public actually got mad bc of her attitude they could strip all their income and make her a broke girl.
Reaction videos are the lowest form of content imo. Far lazier and far less interesting than speedrunning, coding streams, reading/discussion streams, etc. (Not that I find Twitch streams generally compelling, either.)
And payments to streamers aren't donations in the sense of charity and don't claim to be. They're tips paid to entertainers, like money tossed into the hat of a street musician. It's a different model than wage work but it's not like a scam or a trick or something.
Using those tips to employ the wage labor of others (e.g., video editors) is exploitation, though.
What is the distinction between that and selling hot dogs you made yourself using store bought ingredients?
Pretending to enjoy video games is work, considering how much video games suck.
peng is just "talking over video game footage" youtube only without the nazism and without the game footage.
He's relatively harmless but if you find yourself watching him frequently you need to get a hobby because that's not a fulfilling way to live.
Harmless but nothing good in the sense of acutely providing something. His monotone voice and everything is beyond boring.
I wouldn't say fully harmless, he does lean somewhat reactionary. I mean, react streamer, it's literally in the job description.
LOL
Right!
Couldn't resist.
It's entertainment. It would be no different from supporting your local music band or theater group if Twitch wasn't the middleman.
Lowest form of entertainment. Lazy content.
I'm not defending react streamers, that kind of content is trash that should be banned. But most streamers don't do that.
Money does change people. It really is a virus. I have had friends literally go from understanding sympathetic people to racist conspiracy theorists right after moving into a suburban home in a wealthier neighborhood