Why I Quit Streaming on Twitch: A Candid Look Back
Unless you’ve been living under a rock lately, chances are high that you’ve at least heard about Twitch. If you have been living under a rock, or just somehow missed it, Twitch is a live-streaming platform where you can game, draw, or sit in a hot tub while interacting with your audience in real-time.
While it was a lot of fun to try if you’re already into gaming, it wasn’t for me in the long run.
Whether you want to share your face – or more – is entirely up to you. Now, I’m sure there are a hundred or more reasons why people would start streaming on Twitch, ranging from fun, profit, and boredom during a global pandemic.
Count me under “boredom during a global pandemic.” While we’re at it, put me under the reasons “procrastinating” and “boosting my confidence” too.
Yeah, you read that right. Here’s why I started streaming on Twitch, and what I got from that whole experience, from start to finish:
- I started because, like most, I was bored during 2020, and wanted to try something new.
- I stayed because I was, to be honest, procrastinating instead of going after my actual goals.
- Finally, I left because I realized I got what I needed from the experience, which was a confidence boost.
If that sounds weird, that’s probably because it was. It’s a roller-coaster of a story, so I assure you it’s worth reading until the end.
Table of Contents
Beginning
Initially, my plans for 2020 were to go on my honeymoon around April and try to figure out what my next educational or career step would be after I got back. For obvious reasons, my plans for 2020 didn’t pan out the way I hoped.
I figured if I didn’t choose to transfer for my bachelor’s, my other option was to do freelance work using my Associate’s degree in Illustration and Graphic design. Specifically, I was thinking of doing custom invitations. For weddings, birthdays, baby showers…basically any large gathering. Which the government specifically banned during the lockdown.
Essentially, It was a bad idea to travel in and out of the country, higher education was looking spotty, and my top idea for freelance work did NOT look promising.
What I thought was going to be a productive 2020 turned into, well… anything but.
Luckily, I did have the time and resources to take a step back and figure out how to pivot, once things go back to normal. Except that things didn’t go back to normal.
You may not know this, but as an introvert, missing social interaction was a weird experience for me. Long story short, cabin fever stepped in. In between those bouts of cabin fever and uncertainty, a YouTuber my husband and I followed started streaming on Twitch.
It just clicked: I was already playing more video games at night than I probably should, so it might be fun and productive to meet my need for social interaction at the same time. Outside of my husband, of course, but eh, I see him every day.
So, I joined Twitch and started streaming myself gaming with friends or strangers around November 2020. Makes perfect sense, right?
Live Streaming on Twitch
EXCEPT, it didn’t. At least, it didn’t make sense in the long run.
You see, the whole social interaction and curbing my boredom were both short-term goals. I wasn’t making any progress towards my long-term goals, so I was essentially just procrastinating.
I also ended up investing more money and time than I initially intended…
Now don’t get me wrong, it was awesome being able to reach affiliate status and building the start of an online community. But I didn’t really think that Twitch was going to be my end goal. Though it was at least a nice idea to think that I could maybe earn enough to at least support my hobby, while I was…doing my hobby.
That sounded better in my head, I promise!
Anyway, what were my long-term goals, you might ask?
Well, here’s the punchline: My ultimate end goal since around 2016 was to be my own boss… Working from home…
The irony.
Anyway, I’ve been toying with the idea of making a YouTube channel on and off since then, but school always took priority before I could really do anything about it. Then my wedding. Then lockdown(s) happened.
So here I was, with absolutely no excuses left and all the time and opportunity in the world to get started on my YouTube channel but instead, what was I doing? Streaming on Twitch aka procrastinating.
Well, I did get a chance to reconnect with my childhood best friends as we killed each other and framed other friends for the murder in Among Us. All of which I was streaming.
But in other words, I was (again) procrastinating.
Why? Because I was afraid.
The End (of streaming)
Until I wasn’t. Afraid, that is. I’m still a little uncertain as to what sort of YouTuber I want to be.
But as bumpy and heckin’ WEIRD Twitch was at times, it gave me the confidence boost I needed. I mostly got over being camera-shy, and I lost count of how many times I felt awkward making social and grammatical errors. The entire time I was live.
The experience wasn’t as bad as I feared it would be.
I didn’t spontaneously combust or instantly die of shame every time I created an awkward moment while streaming, or whatever else I was afraid of. So I count that as a win.
If I can keep playing and killing my friends digitally while there are some trolls ACTIVELY typing in chat, I could probably handle trolls in my comments with barely an eye-roll. Right?
Right?
Anyway,
That’s pretty much the roller-coaster of a story on why I started (& stopped) streaming on Twitch.
Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun while it lasted. I just knew even before I started that it wasn’t for me in the long run, but it still ended up helping me in ways I didn’t expect. So overall, I’m glad I did it and that I stopped before I encountered streaming fatigue.
Now, if you want to become a part of my YouTube story, head over to my channel and hit that subscribe button for me! Otherwise, you’re welcome to explore my blog as well.
If you’ve ever tried Twitch or started your own YouTube channel, let me know in the comments!
