Sunday 26 November 2017

FINDING MY (ONLINE) FAM


Well, I lost my faith in YouTube. The people I ran into seemed to border apathy and cynicism. No one seemed to care about anyone else and I felt like I was adrift in the middle of the ocean. I tried hard to fit in, to develop the same strong outer shell that others seemed to display. If I was to survive, I had to be just like them. I had to not care either. Problem is, that wasn't me.


My only experience with livestreams came in the form of the South Park livestreams on YouTube, where people who were at the mental and/or physical age of 10 tried to out-troll each other. This was not my crowd. I have a special dislike of trolls. I don't think they are funny. I don't think they are clever. And I don't think I have any desire to be around them ever again in this life. So when my friend Dale told me about some livestreams he had joined recently, I didn't exactly listen with rapt attention.


Meet The Mitchell Family Reality TV Show. They are a channel on YouTube that regularly does live streams, and they are such a great bunch. They accept everyone around them as family, not just listeners or subscribers. Coming into their live stream that first time, I was a little nervous. Okay - I was a lot nervous. But soon I felt right at home there. And it wasn't just the host that helped me to feel welcome - it was all of the people in there. They were all so warm and polite. Where had these people been for the past 7 1/2 years?? Well, it didn't matter. I was here now.


And it wasn't just the Mitchells' stream. It was the people - people I had never met before - who welcomed me with open arms. And I cannot even begin to express what a wonderful feeling that is around holiday time with no family to speak of. Like the "bee girl" in the Blind Melon video who felt ostracized by everyone and then finds people like her to celebrate life with, I am just coming into my own on YouTube. And it's about time, too.


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