For what it's worth, people have been heading to libraries and coffee shops for the communal-work environment for ages, this is just the parasocial analogue to that practice.
Set and setting, not just for drugs!
It actually seems a lot more wholesome that people are wanting a virtual "study pal" as motivation. That's pretty normal and healthy. We're a social species. If this helps people not feel alone and it helps them get started, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with it. I'm sure some people also watch this guy because they think he's attractive, but at least he's giving them a positive stereotype, attractive because he's doing something good for his own development vs attention grabbing and attractive because skimpy outfit.
Greenlit. 12 episodes. Where do I send the check? Do we see them being stung or is that CGI?
But I bet a latex catsuit would prevent stingers, show all the curves, and fall right inline with this concept.
If anyone wants to seriously pursue this, I have the perfect Quebec actress for this role.
Bam, take it up a notch! Sexy french, latex clad, beekeeping.
"Zee bees, zey are my passion mon cheri"
This could seriously work.
The only downside, societially speaking, would be those which fetishize the bees + sex. That's just not going to end well.
maybe just use tiktok for a while, its time. it took a while for my feed to not be cringy but just follow people you hear about (like this article) or that get reshared on other social media sites (all videos have a watermark with the username), and your tiktok feed will warp to stuff like that very quickly
Think of echo chambers/bubbles in politics. People think one thing, then find other people online who think the same. Finding other people saying the same things then reinforces their beliefs. So someone wanting to spend a few hours studying finds someone online doing the same, reinforcing their choice to study.
This is not a new phenomenon in the slightest. Bullying and teasing have been around forever. The only thing that changes are what people will be bullied and teased about, but ultimately it doesn’t impact whether the bullying happens.
Kids will always find a way to identify themselves by what they are not, or single out someone for not conforming, even if it’s completely innocuous or out of their control. Hell adults do it too. Kids just don’t have the ability to couch it in dog whistles or cover it with some window dressing. They will pick on a kid for being different until an adult teaches them to respect differences. That has always been the case.
In aggregate culture is a back and forth of people pushing in new directions or independently discovering existing ones and others following their lead, but it’s the followers who determine what’s normal more than the pioneers.
Put another way the first person to ever make pizza didn’t suddenly transform it into a cultural phenomenon. It was enough people copying the idea that transformed the initial concept into one of the most popular types of food.
That group plus pioneers are most important to entering the mass market of followers.
But even if you add a new group of early followers it also works in the other direction. Stuff most people do also stops being popular because of what the largest groups of follower’s decides to stop doing.
You could turn it around and criticize people for being anti-social in their independence and disrepst for other people's needs and wisdom.
I'm guessing most of this guy's viewers aren't actively just watching him study, but rather have his stream open on their phone or a second screen while studying "with" the guy. Sounds like a great idea and something like this may have helped me back in the day.
This[1] other comment mentions "body doubling" which sounds about right.
I think I'm just way too old to understand the specific allure of streaming random people talking about random, mundane things. My daughter watches a few streamers, and in my view, watching over her shoulder, they are all just bland, boring nobodies[1], talking about nothing in particular. They just talk about their day, talk about video games sometimes while playing, talk about other videos they're simultaneously watching (yes, streaming someone talking while the streamer himself streams another video!). It just seems such a pointless waste, but I think back to the stupid things I liked as a kid and I guess it's no different. I just hope she grows out of it and (with my parental guidance) starts getting motivated to do actual things rather than sit there watching other people do things.
1: I know some streamers have particular interesting or extraordinary talents, but I'm not talking about those shows.
Every time I studied "with" a classmate at e.g. the university library I would end up still just studying by myself, though just knowing there are others around doing the same/similar thing had a positive effect on me.
When I study with someone there’s a real life component. We take breaks together, chat, ask each other questions.
Also, studying in common places can remove environmental distractions. For some reason during finals time I had the urge to clean the apartment.
I can relate to the physical in-person-ness of the experience. I cannot relate to the non-interactive, passive watching of it.
In the article they mention he studies with a pomodoro timer, so I guess he interacts with the "stream chat" during the off time and such.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Definitely not for everyone! But I can see the appeal.
They’re not watching him study, he’s modeling studying behavior and his audience is leveraging that to trigger their own studying. (Mirror neurons are a thing.)
Anyway, my wife explained that the videos encouraged her to focus, no more and no less. She is always comparing herself to others, so I guess this is why it helps her. I think zoom calls are different though. Very strange. I cannot study without silence, and can never study with people around. Horses for courses.
I remember fondly during my college years the times I was studying in silence with my friends. We were bonding over the shared experience of working towards our goals together. And I felt motivated by being with them.
There’s nothing weak-willed about benefiting from accountability devices. But I do wonder if the unidirectional nature of it (his followers know him and not vice versa) actually fulfills a social need for his followers rather than just feeling like it does.
Yes, but this isn't new. Half of the job of a teacher is precisely this. They're there to make you do the work. After all everything the teacher teaches you is already there in the textbook. All you have to do to learn it is pick up the book and read it. But very few will actually do it without being prompted.
When I was in college (early internet, pre social media) I found it MUCH easier to study in the library. I went from getting Cs in non-CS classes to getting As and Bs and my confidence shot up. Why? Because the library is for studying and I'm surrounded by other people doing the same. Absolutely nothing wrong with a virtual version of that.
If I had to choose between the two, I'd much rather my kid waste his time playing games than watching someone else play games. At least do something.
I managed to even make Twitch a daily habit for a year in my 20s, so I understand the allure of it just like I understand the allure of passively consuming anything else. I was never proud of it.
It's not much different from old-fashioned celebrity worship, though. At least it's more productive.
I’m more focused with work at Starbucks surrounded by other people than on my couch alone.
Too my shock, the guy asked if I could stream my work. No one even wants to watch me play games. I tried to explain that it was probably going to be slow and boring, but he insisted.
That said, watching something for the sake of it, without purpose or end goal feels odd4
A part of me wants to view it without any judgement but another part, the old man part, feels there’s something deeply wrong with this. The problem is that I cannot think of a substantive reason it’s wrong other than “half a million people don’t have something better to do than watch someone study?” Or “do kids have such a weak will that they cannot study by themselves?” Or, “are we so lonely/needy that we have to broadcast ourselves/watch others doing mundane things rather than something more important?”
Neither of these are really true and in fact it’s a positive that others are accomplishing they study goals by watching him.
I’m just in my 40’s but it feels like the old Simpsons joke “old man yells at cloud”. This is a bit unsettling.