Twitch is an online video streaming platform, known mostly for its live video-game streaming. Over the past years, Twitch has risen to fame as it cultivates and provides a unique environment of audience interaction and participation not only with each other but with the video creators themselves. Founded by Justin Kan in 2011 as a spin-off of then platform Justin.tv, where Kan would broadcast his day-to-day life, Twitch soon gained more interest as others wanted to broadcast their lives as well (Iqbal, 2021). The platform soon became one of the largest sources of peak Internet traffic in the U.S. as its content also broadened from gaming and esports to people sharing their music, art, hobbies and so much more (Deng et al., 2016; Taylor, 2018). With 9.6 million distinct creators streaming each month (TwitchTracker, 2021), the new and unique features of Twitch create an opportunity for millions of people to find their “space”, a community of others with similar interests and a live audience where everyone can interact with each other and be a part of something bigger as it unfolds in real-time.
Twitch unlike other live media, creates an experience that other platforms such as YouTube or television do not. The ability to be able to interact with the streamers while they’re playing a game or talking about a topic of interest or even drawing was not present in other public entertainment where you can only watch or comment after the event has taken place. In the 1970s and 1980s, early evidence of Twitch could be found in arcades or home consoles, where people and friends would gather around to watch someone play in that very moment and create the atmosphere that went along with the game (Taylor, 2018, p.4). Twitch “offer[s] players of all kinds an opportunity to build audiences interested in observing, commenting, and playing alongside them” while also allowing them to be “integrated into the show” therefore creating a sense of community that can be a safe space for many (Taylor, 2018, p. 6).
The reason that social-media enhanced real-live streaming video platforms such as Twitch are so successful, is because of their ability to reduce psychological distance and in turn, enhance co-experience within the domain. An experience that is psychologically distant is one in which the experience is not one’s own or belongs to the past or the future, i.e. a YouTube video of someone else’s experience (Lim, Cha, Park, Lee & Kim, 2012, p.1367). Co-experience is the combination of a user’s experience of the product or platform and the social interactions had through the product or platform. In this case, co-experience on Twitch would be the interaction of the technical features of the platform and how/how well they are used to facilitate social interactions.
There are a couple of ways that platforms such as Twitch reduce psychological distancing, such as: creating an inhabited space and utilizing isomorphic effects. Inhabited spaces define the spaces where an interaction takes place, for example, a Twitch streamer’s channel/profile/landing page functions as an inhabited space. The branded visual content, overlays, and streamed footage simulate a meeting area aka a “3rd place” for content consumers interested in that streamer’s content/experience. The isomorphic effects refer to the degree with which users can perform activities that produce similar results to what they do in the real world in that inhabited space (Lim, Cha, Park, Lee & Kim, 2012, p.1368), i.e. users being able to cheer on their favorite streamers by utilizing the emotes and bots to project cheering sounds and clapping hands emotes across the screen in real-time. The consequent reduction in psychological distancing afforded by the technical features of the platform causes enhanced co-experience among members of these inclusive communities.
As demonstrated, Twitch, as a platform, houses a multitude of technical components that work together in order to create the best possible user experience. Because of the combination of broadcast video, open IRC chat channels, and ai bot technology, viewer participation, and community building have become a main draw of the platform. Content creators, also known as streamers, will use the technologies afforded to them by the platform in order to not only share their experiences but also to interact with their followers and build communities that socialize and participate in the experience (Hamilton, Garretson & Kerne, 2014, p.1315). These subsequent communities tend to reflect the streamer’s attitudes and values. This is due to the streamer’s ability to project their values and condition their communities through the use of bots as punishments or rewards.
According to a study by Carnegie Mellon University, there are various ways in which the Twitch platform allows streamers to shape their communities. Through the use of bots and moderators, streamers are able to punish poor behavior or language that they don’t want to see in their communities. According to that same study, banning users for poor behavior or using chat moderators had a positive effect on deterring bad behavior (Seering, Kraut & Dabbish, 2017, p. 111). Bots in conjunction with emotes and other visual components can be used to reinforce good behaviors as well, i.e. a bot flashes a thank you across the screen whenever someone subscribes or donates, further prompting the streamer to thank them as well. This is essential in the growth of a community seeing as having meaningful interactions and feeling included are what viewers most look for in these communities (Hamilton, Garretson & Kerne, 2014, p. 1315). The viewers find a support system within the communities and are able to, in turn, support their favorite creators through subscriptions and donations. On the flipside, content consumers can also use these tools to direct the flow of the stream as well, such as using Twitch alerts at key moments to influence the streamer and identity of the stream (Jackson, 2021). Content creators and content consumers are able to create an inclusive community of mutual support through the Twitch platform.
As technology evolves, so do the cultural and social forces that influence it and vice versa. The different features and the environment that Twitch creates enhance inclusivity and community building on the platform that many cannot find offline. For the past decades streaming, video-gaming and online in-real-time events (which were mainly esports) have been a white male-dominated phenomenon where other groups have been marginalized in a field that has had “significantly and historically documented diversity issues” (Richard, 2017, p. 1). Because of the vast variety of channels and creators that can be found on Twitch’s platform, everyone can find a space in which they fit in, in which they see themselves in, enhancing the inclusive nature of Twitch. Not only can minority and marginalized groups find a digital space in which they can belong and be a part of, that may not be as easy to find in the “real world”, they also ultimately shape and develop the nature of digital presence. Many aspects of cultural and social dynamics reinforce dynamics that exist online, defining “from who is supported to play to who comes to produce online content for leisure or employment” (Richard, 2017, p.2). Twitch also gives the opportunity for streamers to directly profit from their videos and productions, “up to and including a full time living ‘wage’” (Johnson, 2018). In particular, Twitch supports and reinforces the “economic and inclusion opportunities for people with disabilities, physical health issues or mental health issues” (Johnson, 2018). It even opens up a larger audience attraction for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, women, ethnic minorities creators/streamers, who are otherwise excluded from ‘having the stage’ in the real world. For example, many successful streamers who have been battling with chronic health issues have said to gain tremendous personal and professional benefits from streaming on Twitch paving the way for “digital inclusion to lead to social inclusion for people with disabilities for people with disabilities” and highlighting “opportunities of empowerment” for many (Johnson, 2018).
