Examining Twitch.tv’s “Real-Life” Live Streaming As a Possible Therapeutic Space

Meena Shams
October 2018

Abstract
Ideas about therapeutic spaces have been widely discussed, with scholars such as Fiona Smyth, William Morse and Edna Small, each making contributions to the literature. The notion of “therapeutic space”, however, is not often intertwined with online spaces. This preliminary paper addresses Twitch.tv, an online streaming platform and social space that is ripe for anthropological investigation. With a focus on the “In Real Life” (hence, IRL) / streaming of everyday life category of Twitch.tv, I conduct observations of the online space and an interview. Twitch.tv is argued to be a type of therapeutic space. That is, the comments on live streams and the interactions between the live streamer and the audience allow for the promotion of another dimension of the virtual space – the virtual space as therapeutic space. The literature examined provides insight into two core ideas, which add to the realization of Twitch.tv life-streaming as a therapeutic virtual space: 1) unevenness in the online interactions of the virtual space is the backbone of the virtual therapeutic space 2) a presupposed health-substance (although not necessarily promoted) must also exist within the virtual space to bring therapeutic quality. Through these ideas, a refined definition of “therapeutic space” in the context of the virtual world will be used in the conclusion of this paper.

Introduction

How does the interaction with the online space define our lives?

When I first entered the world of live streaming on Twitch.tv, I wondered –why do I feel apprehensive asking questions during particular points of the live stream? People were chatting away, sending their questions and comments, but at times, the ambience within this online world felt strange to interact with. There was something missing: an etiquette that I was not understanding. Nonetheless, a further anthropological investigation was required.

The Twitch.tv platform remains an expressive online streaming service that is utilized for video game streaming. It is not only a platform for gamers, but has expanded extensively to include many other categories for its streaming services. The “IRL” – “In Real Life” category allowed Twitch.tv users to share portions of their daily lives with a real-time audience. It should be noted: the IRL category included overlap from various other categories currently available on the service, before it was removed. Due to the removal of the label ‘IRL’ and ‘Creative’ and the breakdown of these previous categories into various others, as well as the nature of live streaming one’s daily activities, and for the sake of simplicity and continuity within my paper, I will continue to refer to all such streamers who stream part of their everyday lives and hobbies as "IRL" – including streamers that were previously part of other communities such as ‘Creative’ (as my informant was). As such, it would be apt to conclude that my research, rather than focusing on IRL, focuses on the live streaming of everyday life that is specific to Twitch.tv (i.e. all non-gaming). The usage of “IRL” in this preliminary paper is a catch-all term for the live streaming of everyday life that Twitch.tv offers.

Although not the first of its kind, Twitch.tv has managed to gain a sizeable following rapidly, and we continue to see it rise in popularity everyday. Audiences may tune in on a daily basis to watch their favourite streamers, a dedicated ritual for many whose day it would be incomplete without. Through my observations, I suspect that this online space provides something other than simple live streaming fun – rather, it provides something therapeutic.

Throughout this work, I argue that Twitch.tv provides a therapeutic space for which members express themselves to live streamers and vice versa. The notion of a therapeutic space as applied to online streaming platform such as the Twitch.tv is one that has been conceptualized after observations– it is not referred to as such by the streamers or the audience on the site to my knowledge. Additionally, my proto-conceptualization of a therapeutic space for the sake of this preliminary research is that of the usage of social spaces as a means through which feelings are released in a healthy, social atmosphere and provide personal healing that may not easily be found in an individual’s daily life. Ideas in this preliminary paper are based on preliminary observations and an interview conducted with a live streamer who uses the Twitch.tv platform.

Contributing to my observations and results will be Morse and Small (1959) and Smyth (2005). Each will provide suggestions on how a therapeutic online space in the community of the Twitch.tv IRL category may be defined, along with the possible reasoning for these definitions (see abstract). The outline of the paper begins with a brief overview of the methodology used to conduct the interview and observations, followed by the results of the preliminary research. This is continued with a discussion that includes references to literature. Finally, there is a conclusion that rounds up the ideas presented in the discussion and reasserts the main points of the paper.

Methodology
The entire research process formally took place during the span of a semester (roughly 12 weeks). Unfortunately, due to my initial indecision with regards to topic selection (originally planned to revolve around artificial intelligence) as well as the challenge of finding exactly what should be thoroughly investigated with regards to Twitch.tv, my main research collection took place throughout the duration of the second half of the semester. Thus, this paper contains research that is currently at a very preliminary stage, and rather than containing finality, provides steps for further research collection and theoretical expansion.

The beginning of the research process grew around observations of the entire Twitch.tv website. During this phase, I focused mainly on the site’s interface as well as visual aesthetic, noting it down and then later returning to these observations to decipher possible meanings. After this, I practiced asking questions in the chat box available for audiences alongside a veteran Twitch.tv user, learning how to interact with streamers alongside others before creating my own personal account on Twitch.tv. Conducting an interview during a streamer’s live stream was done last. It is important to note that although my observations and initial interactions with streamers took place within the original “IRL” category available to non-gaming streamers, my actual interview was conducted with a streamer that was more focused on creative streaming. In light of this, it became apt that I needed to rephrase and change the scope of my original research to be more inclusive to various kinds of live streaming.

The methodology of the observations revolved around the development of a theoretical research question (or possible viable questions in the direction of a particular topic that wished to be addressed), followed by the construction of a question instrument to help guide any interview that would take place afterwards. The question instrument served as a rough guide and by no means dictated completely how the interview(s) progressed.

Before any actual interviews were held, a class meeting was discussed to decide how an interview should be conducted– that is, in what forms questions needed to be asked and in what ways we should go about asking them, alongside other details (regarding the ethics of interviews, assignments etc.,). It was discovered that a question closer in style to vernacular speech would suit an interviewee better and be easier to answer. In addition, producing questions this way creates an atmosphere of comfort and removes or downplays any inkling that the entire process is formal. During this course lecture, each student was asked to give two sample interview questions. These two interview questions were then adjusted to better suit the qualitative interview environment.

Below is the original question instrument created for the preliminary research activities. Upon my key observation from the interview conducted, it would be best going forward to change the questions to those shown in 2). As well, 3) provides a sample of some questions that were taken from the interview.

1)

1. Why did you decide to become a live streamer/ what got you into live streaming?

2. What's the best part about live streaming? And why?

3. What are some of the best memories/experiences you've had live streaming?

4. What kind of people would you recommend live streaming to?

5. In what ways has live streaming changed your life? Have you had to adapt to it in any sort of way?

6. When you look at comments, which ones catch your eye first?

7. It's easy to see that people are very open on the Twitch chat. How do you deal with the comments that might come off a little strongly?

8. What is the strangest part about live streaming, or perhaps, the most uncomfortable part?

9. Do you find it strange to think that you're interacting with people you can't see?

10. Because live streaming is highly interactive, what do you think this might mean for the future of platforms that currently aren't as interactive?

11. What do you think about your fellow live streamers? How does the community view each other?

12. Do you collaborate with others?

13. What do you see for the future of live streaming?

2)
1. What makes a live streamer such as yourself become willing to help others overcome any personal problems they may be having, even though you cannot visually see them on the streams the way they see you?
2. Do you think that this unevenness of interaction (i.e. that the streamer may be visually represented by not the viewer) affects the interactions between streamer and viewer?
2. Why do you think so many people feel so open to talk about their daily lives on Twitch.tv or many live streaming platforms?
3. What makes these live streaming spaces such a great place for people to turn to when they feel that they have no one else to whom they can speak?
4. How do you see Twitch.tv changing as it becomes more popular?

3)
1. Is it hard to figure out what to tell people and what to keep out of the streams? 2. How do you deal with people who are being rude?

3. If you could do a collaboration with another streamer, who would it be and why?
4. What advice can you give brand new streamers who might feel discouraged in the beginning?

Initially, my plans for these preliminary observations entailed questions regarding how live streamers interacted with their audiences, and how this in turn shaped the way they interacted with the world. After I began to interact with my interviewee, however, I quickly made note of the situations in which I felt particularly unaware of the online etiquette.

For the selection of the interviewee themselves, the process was rather simple – my primary goal was to look for a relatively new streamer that had few followers in order to ensure that the questions I asked would be noticed in the live stream chat. In addition to this, I paid attention to how the streamer interacted with their audience, and to whether or not they were actively engaged with their viewers. If the streamer engaged with their audience, this would ensure a greater chance at interacting and having questions answered. My decision to make use of the live stream capabilities of the Twitch.tv in order to conduct my interview (alongside observations of the site in general) was done in order to gain a better understanding of the platform. Also, the interaction between viewers and the live streamer is more salient in this way.

Observations and Discussion
Due to the preliminary nature of my research, there are still many aspects of the Twitch.tv IRL category left to be investigated in the context of a therapeutic space. Here, through the observations, I will make my case for the Twitch.tv IRL category as some sort of therapeutic space, and then continue to refer to previous literature to further conceptualize how Twitch.tv can be seen in this light.

Referring back to the introduction, I recount my initial experience with the lack of knowledge of etiquette: I refrained from asking further questions after one viewer from the live stream began to mention that they had been having a bad day. As others came to this user’s side, I was left unsure of what to do. Yet, at the same time, I was surprised with what I was seeing: people were gathering together in a display of affection and kindness. Did this online space really provide a type of emotional sustenance that was difficult to find elsewhere? Did it, in essence, become therapeutic for those using it?

The following are excerpts taken from the interview. The interviewee’s pseudonym is ‘Robbie’, and my questions are designated with an ‘M’. Please note that the responses have been altered grammatically for clarity in writing.
1.
[M]: Firstly, what got you into live streaming?

Robbie: (excerpt)... I wanted to make art for my etsy shop and I discovered Twitch because my friend had shown me the Bob Ross stream –the channel– and I fell in love with everything that he was doing there. I just thought it was so cool that many years after he passed people were actually all reuniting in that stream. And I just thought it was so inspiring. That's what got me on Twitch...

Here, we see the sense of togetherness that is brought with the stream. This is again displayed in 2.

2.

[M]: What is the most surprising thing about interacting with people around the world via Twitch? Was there anything that you found out about that you didn’t initially expect?

Robbie: Good question... Well I think the most surprising thing is literally the fact that there are people from all over the world. Like literally everywhere. Some people are here and it's like two in the morning and they're still in this stream, which is so cool, and I have a lot of respect for them. But I just think the fact that all of those people are reunited here is really cool and I'm actually surprised of the fact that there's people– from everywhere.

3.

[M]: Why is Twitch such a good platform (why do you choose to stream on Twitch) over other sites?

Robbie: Why I chose Twitch? Well, to be honest, Twitch is basically the one...I don't know that many other platforms – that had everything I wanted? I don't know if you explored the creative section? The creative section, it's so...what's the word I'm looking for? Everyone is so nice to each other and everyone's helping out everyone and that's kind of what got me into being part of that community. I wouldn't say I'm part of the community but I mean I'm streaming in that category and I think every time I end up rating people that are from the creative section, they're always super interesting. That's what kind of got me– it's the creative factor on Twitch.

Here, we see a strong sense of community and potential for a possible new kind of social space. My conceptualization of this space as “therapeutic” comes from seeing the audience of streamers consistently begin mentioning many aspects of their personal lives. To an outsider, this seemed to be something of a very casual, friendly setup, and it was easy to see that people were letting go of their frustrations that occurred throughout the day or week within this one small space.

Perhaps in order to more deeply understand this community, one must pay close attention to the way in which the platform is presenting itself, aesthetically. The aesthetic, particularly the colours purple and white that are prominent on Twitch’s interface, evoke an image of the fantastic. These presuppositions imply that those who are already interested in a particular idea or field will naturally gravitate to the online social space that is Twitch. When conducting future research, it would be interesting to include questions regarding the feelings channelled through the aesthetic and interface display of the site.

Morse and Small (1959) –although an older work– addresses the issue of unevenness (see abstract), also previously shown in section 2) through the ideal questions posited. Morse and Small (1959) allows for insights into the therapeutic social spaces and the differing levels of interaction that can be utilized to achieve this. The Life Space Interview provides a glimpse into how social spaces can provide therapy for youth within camp therapy sessions. These sessions, taking place at the University of Michigan Fresh Air Camp have 90 boys aged 8-15 as participants to determine the outcome of various group interview styles. Living units are divided into cabins filled with 6-8 participants, and three adult counsellors (also acting as therapists) who are undergraduate or graduate students taking part in fieldwork training. Numerous clinical personnel of varying backgrounds designed the experiment, as well as conducted the group interviews. These interviews often focus on an incident that has just taken place between cabin members, and, on average, are one-hour long (27). Ultimately, 27 interviews were recorded over a seven-week period (28).

Prior to an analysis of the 27 recorded interviews, there are three major interview conditions which are listed as characteristics of typical group-interaction, summarized as follows: 1. Behaviour within the group sessions should not be taken at face value. Rather, the underlying tone of the interactions should be considered. 2. Each group has a different normative behaviour. 3. There exists a principle of absorption, (which will be expanded upon later). Most importantly, five different interview styles/patterns are noted during the experiment, with Morse and Small (1959) relating that the differences in style of each group provides “cues” to the type of therapy that may be needed to address participants (32).

During the experiment, there is a clear, opaque, division between therapist and youth – the therapist being tasked with leadership. However, the atmosphere of division present in these group life interviews between therapist and participant differ greatly from the interaction between audience and streamer, as it is less rigid and control-based. One may even wonder, can the streamer, at some point, take on the role of the main therapist– the person that the viewers turn to for help as an authority in a time of distress? Additionally, does the general existence of uneven interaction of streamer-audience aid in bringing more people together than if there is an even interaction? Some answers may be seen in Morse and Small (1959), where not all of the group interviews had a positive therapeutic effect (41-44). During my own interview, the streamer ‘Robbie’ seemed to have an encouraging effect upon the audience, and allowed for a moderation of the online environment. This may be linked to both the atmosphere formed by Robbie, alongside the personalities of those watching the streams. It is likely that without this type of mediation, that the therapeutic quality of the live streams will shift.

Morse and Small (1959) also mentioned the ideas that behaviours in group settings should be understood in terms of tone, rather than the outward meaning of the behaviour, as well as the differences in each group’s normative behaviours in the group therapy sessions (see above). This ties in with the differing “cues” one must look for in order to adapt to the needs of the participants (32). Transcribing this for the context of the live streaming world, one may refer to the differences between the audiences for each live-streamer, as each category within Twitch.tv attracts a wide variety of audiences with different intent. These audiences can arguably be thought to create differing styles of normative behaviour within each stream, when one notes the difference in interaction styles between the streams of various live streamers. Perhaps, going forward, it would be interesting to examine the cues that different live streamers use to reign in audiences and either lessen or increase audience interaction with the stream?

Returning to another point stated prior, Morse and Small (1959) summarized a pattern of absorption that occurred during group interviews– that the “dominant pattern tends to absorb individual divergences” (32). This may account for how these therapeutic spaces work – that the number of people interacting during the live stream, and their moods, may play a key role in determining how therapeutic/effective the social space of one particular stream is.

Bringing the notions above together, Smyth (2005) explains the interface between medical geography and therapeutic spaces of the physical world. The work examines the beginnings of research on therapeutic places and continues on to examine recent changes in fields that focus on therapeutic places. Concluding remarks note the ability of therapeutic environments to take act as behavioural regulators (493-494).

Interestingly, the ideas brought about conclusively in Smyth (2005) link to notions presented previously in this paper, where it is mentioned that there may be a link between audience behaviour and the particular environment of the stream that the audience is viewing. Examining this link further, then, would be optimal for further research.

The first ideas in Smyth (2005) bring up a notion that therapeutic spaces may be “reinvented” over time (489). Using the example of water, Smyth (2005) explains that understandings of water have changed and therefore, the therapies revolving around water have done the same (489). Smyth (2005) uses the example of water (from research summarized in a literature review), its relation to purity, and how holy places in India are often located near water. This, ultimately, resulted in a change in secular thinking which favoured the notions of cleanliness linked to water (489). This showcases the changing nature of what may be considered therapeutic, and that the notion of “therapeutic” can be intrinsically linked to substance. Thus, for a space to be therapeutic, there must be linked to it some intrinsic health substance that can be fluid and change over time, but must continually exist in order for the space to be considered therapeutic (such as water).

Additionally, Smyth (2005) recounts the mass marketing of these therapeutic religious sanctuaries (489). Extrapolating to virtual spaces, this begs the question: how do notions of therapy and therapeutic spaces retain an intrinsic marketable quality? Smyth gives an opinion on the questions that should be formed within that field. The central question that formed from Smyth (2005) in regards to this paper is: what intrinsic substance is it that renders Twitch.tv as arguably therapeutic? Smyth (2005) posits that mentions how specific substances can be linked to space (then, through the medical lens the work utilizes) links therapeutic spaces directly to health, and begins to question that link: that research into therapeutic spaces has provided does not identify and generate “understandings of particular places and their relationships to health” but rather shows the “complexity” of that relationship and therefore changes the way in which disease, health and places are conceptualized (490). I should also look to answer another vitally important question: What substances are often marketed as the core of that therapeutic place?

It is interesting to review the previously examined qualities of Twitch.tv in light of this additional note, as the visual aesthetic of the website, along with the uneven interaction between live streamer and audience may arguably be the intrinsic health substance that places Twitch.tv into the category of a therapeutic space, however, without further research on the issue, it is too premature to know for certain. Going forward, I believe that this is the central issue to be addressed.

In Figure 2, the home page can be seen as an example of the kind of audience the platform wishes to draw.

Further Research and Applications
The notion of online therapeutic spaces give anthropologists interesting avenue for further study, and provide a wide range of applicability. If such spaces are something that can continue to be viewed as grounded in our reality (i.e. the notions of particular online spaces as “therapeutic”) then there is room for the qualities of the “therapeutic” to be attributed further to other modes of technology and new media. Perhaps, these new social spaces can prove advantageous in providing newer forms of cathartic online therapies, centered on a particular aspect that may be considered therapeutic, while catering to a niche group.

References

Morse, W.C., Small, E.R. (1959). “The life space interview workshop: 3. group life space interviewing in a therapeutic camp.” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-0025.1959.tb00165.x

Smyth, F. (2005). “Medical geography: Therapeutic spaces, places and networks.” Progress in Human Geography, (29)4: 488-495. doi: 10.1191/0309132505ph562pr

Twitch.tv. n.d. “Browse.” Twitch.tv directory. https://www.twitch.tv/directory

“twitch–IRL” Twitch.tv ‘In Real Life’ banner and cover photo, accessed April 18, 2018. [Screenshot taken by Meena Shams] https://www.twitch.tv/directory/game/IRL

“twitch” Twitch.tv homepage with DreamHack live stream, accessed April 18 2018. [Screenshot taken by Meena Shams] https://www.twitch.tv/