EmilyCC and the Real Life Truman Show
EmilyCC has been streaming for one thousand one hundred and 32 days straight. Playing games, walking the dog, sleeping on camera. When I heard about that I thought, that sounds boring- who would want to watch that? And it turns out the answer is thousands of people-
A lot of people have drawn the through line between her and the Truman show; and I think that’s an interesting comparison; not just because she’s on camera all the time but because for all shower thoughts about the Truman Show; and trust me there’s a lot of them; the legality of it, the logistics, how they handled his hormonal teenage years; for all that discussion, nobody ever asks why would people tune in to watch him sleep? Because we get it-
This essay is called: How Digital Media is changing to adapt to our increasing isolation
Or: We Truman Show’d Ourselves
If you were a kid in the 2010s you probably watched a lot of Minecraft YouTube, you probably even made some Minecraft YouTube, or like me you said you were going to make some Minecraft YouTube and then didn’t do it even once.
The world was different back then. YouTubers made “let’s plays” which were clearly influenced by the format of television. They were 20 minutes, often lightly scripted, or at least involved improv, and they kind of fit in seasons, they were edited.
And then streaming came and changed everything.
In 2018 my favorite YouTuber stopped making YouTube videos foreverv and started streaming full time. And I didn’t get it; I was mad. How could people go from high quality, edited, curated media to this ___ and be happy?
So much of what we see now online has trended in the exact opposite direction. Videos that used to be 20 minutes long are curated down to two. Mr. Beast has a graphic every 15 seconds. Short form video has impacted so much of what we watch online. Have you noticed so many videos start with somebody saying something like they’re out of breath?
The millennial pause is dead.
And in that market place of density and overstimulation, where everything you watch is trying to convince you not to scroll or look at your phone; like I’m doing right now, don’t do it; look at me; streaming exists as almost the antithesis of that. It’s slower paced, it’s less focused.
And then I caught one of the streams and I realized it wasn’t about entertainment. This was about hanging out.;
I know this may sound like a reach; I think that streaming fits into a larger trend we’ve seen in media over the last couple years. While a lot of media is pushing into the heavily produced, the immediate — there’s another side that’s gotten slower. Podcasts, Youtube video essays ranking every episode of iCarly, streamers filming themselves walking around town.
There’s an entirely different world of content that exists for you to listen to or watch while you drive or look at your phone or clean your bedroom..
You know like when you’re in the kitchen and you’re about to start making something and you take your laptop out and you want to pick something that’s interesting but not so interesting its distracting; last week I watched an entire track mania tournament in a language I didn’t understand.
Like, a comedy podcast exists for you in two senses. The highly edited clips you see scrolling through TikTok — but also for the two hours of just chatting you listen to while on your drive to work.
There’s a whole new genre that caters to the listener or half-watcher who’s busy doing something else.
If this sounds crazy to you, and it might; It’s the same reason when you get home from a long day of work you don’t decide to watch the A+ Avant Garde French film, but instead you turn on the Office or New Girl for the thousandth time.
And I don’t mean to say that dismissively; I’m not saying there aren’t great, exciting moments in streaming or in the Office. New Girl is one of my favorite shows ever, and there are great exciting moments in it. But what percentage of my time watching it have I been directly engaged, and what percentage of it have I been cooking something while it’s on in the background?
Streaming brings the low level, casual watch to the extreme: when you’re watching a streamer like Emily you can go into the other room to grab a charger, you’re probably not going to miss anything too important, and when you get back you get to “hang out” with a personality you like:
A lot of people have compared these 24/7/365 streamers to the Truman show, and I think it’s a pretty apt comparison. But not for the reasons you think. Yes, to be on camera all day, every day is wild:
As I was working on this video, I’d tune in to Emily’s stream and a lot of the time she’s doing pretty normal stuff. She sleeps a lot. She walks her dog. And it made the think of the Truman show, because in the show Truman is an insurance agent; most of his day to day actives aren’t about escaping, they’re about him going to work, and doing the lawn. Living, a normal, boring life.
Drew Gooden had a really interesting essay about how everyone’s trying to waste your time, and I think it had a lot of great points, but I think one of the elements he missed was the “why?” Or more accurately “why are we okay with it?”
Parasocial Relationships, Loneliness, and how streaming is a bandaid for a deep wound
In May 2023, the US Surgeon General called loneliness a public health epidemic. And it impacts young people the most, 18-22 (probably the group most likely to be watching somebody on twitch.) More Americans live alone than ever before. More Americans stay home than ever before. We order in more often, we go out less, we date less, we see our friends less, we talk to strangers less.
Do you want to guess when this spike on Twitch’s viewers was? March of 2020. And it hasn’t dropped off. Even when restrictions were lifted or as Twitch’s competitors grew in scale.
By almost every social metric we’re worst off than we’ve ever been before. and whether it makes sense to you or not there are a lot of people find themselves watching people walk down the street, or go to restaurants, or play games.
When I say streaming is the best of “hanging out media” I mean it is the one closest to “hanging out.”
We like having somebody else around. You can comment on the streams and feel some level of engagement or connection with the community, but you don’t have to and a lot of people don’t. It makes me think of those two old women with stitched pillows with Truman on it, they can’t talk to him, but they clearly feel strongly about him. Streaming today functions as almost a digital third place.
And in both the Truman show and in the streaming world, the way these personalities foster that connection is very deliberate.
As somebody very minority in the Internet personality sphere, I can promise you a lot of your favorite creators are deliberately trying to develop a “relationship” with you, that deliberately or nefariously or not, can feel parasocial.
All of the guides for becoming a creator involve building a community. It’s why personalities open up their videos with lines like, what’s up “Bro nation,” “Team Platt how we doing,” uh oh it’s “Dawg City up in here.” You name your group. You develop a venacular that’s specific to your niche group. Smash that like button, bro fist. Youtube suggests you respond to every single comment to make your audience feel “listened to.”
I mean just this last month in the Youtube Studio they switched the “comments” tab to the “community” tab.
In a world with increasingly diminishing third places (spots outside of the home or work) I think personalities and streaming specifically has positioned itself as an alternative; on my day off I’ll go all day without speaking to anyone, but at lunch I’ll watch my favorite streamer chat for a bit.
It’s the markets response to a genuine need for connection.
And I’m not saying there isn’t some value to this; on the flip side, I went out with a girl who streamed for a while and the part she was most proud of was the fact that her moderators were still friends to this day. You can actually chat, meet people, engage.
But as a response to loneliness it’s usually not that effective. In the aforementioned study, Americans were asked to rank the top three areas where they felt the highest sense of community and belonging. Only 3% said online communities and discussion forums filled that need for them.
Even on the Truman show, most of these people are watching him with other people. It’s on in the background at a bar, or watching it with a buddy, or those two ladies. I’m always astounded by how much time I spend on the internet, and how little time I spend talking about it in real life.
And by the way on the parasocial relationship angle; I don’t do that with you guys. As a YouTuber I care about you specifically. You are my best friend and I love you.
I don’t want to pretend like I’m not guilty of engaging in any of this; I watch streamers; I profess to want great art, but I’ve still never seen Citizen Kane, yet I’ve watched every episode of the Simpsons ranked. I think developing parasocial relationships is dumb but I think if I saw Drew Gooden in public we’d be friends.
Everyone I’ve talked to about this essay has said that this uptick in entertainment that’s designed to be on rather than watched isn’t a response to loneliness, but instead a need for distraction. Kids these days and their darn phones. They just need to be entertained 24/7/365. They can’t suffer through a thought.
And I think that is true, attention spans are shrink 1ing. Have you guys ever forgotten your headphones at home and been walking somewhere and thought, damn, now I have to be alone with my thoughts?]
But I think those things are innately tied together.
Have you ever caught yourself instinctively reaching for your phone at a red light? That’s a technological addiction. And the opposite of addiction is connection. I never feel the need to reach for my phone when a friends in the passenger seat. I don’t need to fall asleep to every episode of the fairly odd parents ranked when I’m in the arms of a lover. I don’t watch a streamer on my phone when I’m at dinner with my parents. Or in a third place or a concert, or engaging with real life.
But most of the time I stay inside and I have something on in the background, instead of having real people there with me. I think that phones have made it easier than ever for us to disconnect from each other, stay in and tell ourselves we’re still engaging with the world. I’m lonely but I put on only a bandaid for a deep wound.
We’re a culture that’s desperately hungry for connection; yet we spend all day nibbling on chips to avoid the pain of making a meal.
I don’t want to paint streaming in a negative light. Economically it makes sense for creators; it’s one of the best ways for creators and creatives to actually make money to fund the cool stuff that they do; Making high quality content takes a lot of time — this video is probably going to end up taking about 30 hours for me to make — and the economic incentives are to really make lots of stuff quickly.
Also a lot of people stream and then edit the videos into denser videos for YouTube that are engaging and very exciting. I don’t watch the streams but I love the highlights of smallant or Hitman horse.
Great stuff happens all the time online.
But how can you not view somebody sitting for eight hours in front of a computer and not think of Platos cave. Let me watch the shadows flicker while behind me is a room I don’t want to see. An empty one.
And after this faux moment of connection between us, I’m about to go back to sitting alone in my room.
And if you disagree with me, and you think I’m totally missing the point, and this is an unfair analysis; here is a sped up Timelapse of me sleeping last night so you too can get what you want.
