I haven’t blogged in a while.
Kinda got bogged down by life, but I’ve had the itch, but didn’t want to write just to be writing.
I had to be inspired. You know what I’m sayin’?
Anywho…
File this under “rant”.
Remember when Ustream came out?
Everyone was so excited about being able to see their favorite artist, entertainer, comedian or speaker streaming live from an event.
The appeal of Ustream was the fact that you could see live events without actually having to attend.
Since Ustream, there have been many more copycats in its wake trying to replicate that appeal of Ustream with varying degrees of success.
Take for example Meerkat (now Houseparty), which purported to offer users the ability to stream events live directly from their mobile phones.
While streaming in the correct orientation was somewhat of a challenge, and getting people to tune in to your stream while your stream was live was also somewhat difficult, it did reinforce the belief that live streaming was a thing of the future.
Where Ustream had opened up something that people were really interested in, Meerkat took it one step further with their mobile app.
Then came Twitter which also offered a live streaming option in the form of Periscope.
And we all know how that went…
Does anyone actually use Periscope?
These live streaming forays were all followed up, of course, by Facebook Live, which is by far one of the more popular live streaming applications out there.
There are others out there too, like Instagram, but they’re all ‘also-rans’ so I’m not going to devote too much time reviewing each one.
Suffice it to say, if you’re trying to live-stream anything, you’ve got options.
So what does this all mean?
It means that people who have no business streaming their business to the world are all over my feed with their foolishness.
That’s what.
Every workout, walk down the block, shopping trip, bar mitzvah – every mundane pieces of peoples’ lives are being streamed and broadcast live as if anyone gives two shits.
Why am I getting notifications that “Jerome is now live!”?
I don’t give a fuck!
There’s double entendres at play when you say something is live.
The obvious connotation, is that there’s something happening right now, in real time.
The other, is a form of slang, which implies that an event is exciting, engaging, ‘poppin’.
But nine times out of ten, Facebook Live events are anything but.
And I’m just going to put it out there, turning in a circle to give a panoramic view of your setting, walking around to create a sense of movement or holding your phone high above your head in your outstretched hand does nothing to make your stream any liver.
What has live streaming actually accomplished?
Deepened the cult of narcissistic personality that grips today’s society?
Giving folks a misplaced sense of importance?
Generating a glut of bad videos?
Do you Facebook Live or live stream yourself?
How many people have actually tuned in?
How many people have watched after the stream ended?
Few to none, I’m sure.
You’re probably thinking, “if I keep it up, more people will tune in.” Right?
Wrong.
No one cares about your live streams.
So stop.
You’re embarrassing yourself.
Stephen Chukumba 