Everyone on Periscope Is Livestreaming Loneliness
If a tree falls in a forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Self-isolating due to the growing concerns about the current Covid-19 outbreak has led some to pick up a new hobby, try their most ambitious baking project, or catch up on their watch lists. But the mix of free time and internet access has led me down the rabbit hole of livestreaming, quasi-connections, and our collective loneliness.
It started as I was lazily browsing the app store for anything that might keep my attention for more than 10 seconds. I went through apps I used to have downloaded on my phone and saw one that was so buried in my memory that I mistook it for a game and decided to try it out again. However the app wasn’t a mobile game, it was Periscope, a live video streaming service that launched in 2015. The concept was simple yet revolutionary — Periscope gives users the opportunity to broadcast whatever they’re doing, wherever they are. Even though the concept of “going live” seems commonplace now, Periscope (and the others that came before it) were ahead of the curve in envisioning what live broadcasts can do for social media (live stories for Instagram and Facebook weren’t completely rolled out until late 2016).
