Where Worlds Collide: Content Creation, Community Building, and Labor

Today’s post is more of a PSA to folks who enjoy the work of content creators around the internet. One thing that my work and research in and around the livestreaming community has taught me is that there is much to be said about recognizing the humanity of these content creators. While this may seem off topic for NYMG, at first blush, this is very much about thinking about content creation as work and respecting it as such.

Streamers are real live human beings

Mind blown, right? People in this community know more about me than they likely know about other streamers because their streaming and professional lives don’t intersect in the same way. Streaming is a passion for me, not a job. It doesn’t pay my bills, heck it doesn’t even pay for itself. My day job keeps me streaming.

I’m a full time academic, a homeschooling parent, an activist, and a human being. I work about 60 hours a week on those things before I even bring streaming into the mix. Full time streamers are just as busy. They spend 30-40 hours a week actually on stream and most of them spend at least that much time off stream building their brand (working on the channel, talking to other content creators, working on their social media presence, networking with game developers and potential sponsors, and numerous other things). Streaming is extremely difficult. It’s not just pushing start and playing a game.

Sometimes we’re tired, sick, cranky, or even in pain, but we still stream because we’re committed to our communities and sometimes it makes us feel better to be in those communities.

There is a lot of horrible stuff that goes on behind the scenes that you don’t see as a viewer. We are all running multiple bots to catch as many of the horrible things people say to and about us in chat so that it doesn’t ruin your viewing experience, but we still see it. All day. Every day.

Considering all of this know that it is bad form to constantly tell a streamer “Geez you look tired/sick/stressed/angry” because if we are any of those things trust me we already know it and if we’re not it’s just friggin’ rude. Also remember again that we are human beings and that we forge real relationships with other folks in this community so if something horrible happens in said community and you haven’t heard us mention it on stream there’s a good chance that either we don’t know or we don’t want to talk about it so whispering us “Hey did you know Jane Streamer died in a horrible car crash 10 minutes ago!” Is going to be earth shattering and heartbreaking to us on multiple levels. Think about it this way, how would you feel if your mom texted you “Sorry to tell you this darling, but dad just passed away. Call me after work!” Now try finishing your day.

The long and short of it is just be considerate of other people’s feelings and take a little time to understand what all goes into bringing you the content that you enjoy (or mock) every day.