After the massive difference in quality recently posted in the 4k bike ride streams (without any enhancement or editing at all) I am no longer interested in producing crappy quality live streams (not unlike TerryB likely concluded). I realize live streaming has a different purpose, I just don’t care about that purpose as much as producing better quality videos with content I care about and without distractions. There’s a reason “outdoor IRL” streaming is niche, because it’s mostly stupid.
I started live streaming because I was lonely. The appeal of having a bunch of people with me virtually is real. I consider my virtual community to be friends. It’s hard to find friends who understand me. But live streaming takes me completely out of the moment and the engagement with the people around me. For example, several times when live streaming I forgot (as did those around me) and I started to engage with those people in the group. Sure the live stream was there to watch what was happening, but not only was I violating the privacy of the people in the group, but I started to violate even my own privacy by talking about things as if the live stream wasn’t there. It’s not like I was able to read what the chat was saying. And if I were a successful live streamer I’d not even be able to read any of the chat anyway and need an army of moderators just to manage all the input. Videos are safer because I control what is happening and what is published. It just makes sense. Higher quality, better control, same engagement, just in the comments instead of in a live chat that gets ignored.
I’ve gone through this before and I might rethink it later. For the moment, however, I’ve decided to use my time to produce better video content over random live streaming content. I’ll still live stream but much less frequently. I’m thinking probably only for a few hours every week where anything goes. My main target platforms will be YouTube and Instagram (Facebook comes for free). All my educational content will ultimately end up on Udemy as well for those who prefer that format.
I’ve been posting a lot to Instagram and plan on contining to post at least one story or reel a day there for those who want to follow me in the social media sense. Most of my Instagram content will be stories which are immediately discarded. Almost all of my Instagram/Facebook content will be about my life and not necessarily educational (think video blogging). Occasionally, I’ll make an actual reel work keeping. I don’t be posting technical content to Instagram at all, for the most part. Perhaps sometimes a topic will happen that is more generally acceptable. I’ll also be replacing Twitter livestreams with Istagram live streams once I figure that all out.
If and when I get back to real-time coding on projects that I’m working on I will live stream that, however.