I love doing Live Streams. It was one of my latest projects that I got obsessed with, and I have been live streaming for more than a year consistently now. One of the feedback that I have received about my Live Streams - from people who watched it after the stream has ended - they are too long. They questioned if a topic of discussion needed 2 hours or more, and they even said these can be done in 5 minutes. I find it strange how in the world where free speech is encouraged, and everyone has an opinion, people can say all kinds of strange things.
There is no right and wrong of course, you don't have to watch a 2-hour video if you don't want to, no one asks you to. The problem is - that was NOT a pre-recorded video, it was a live stream, which was meant to be watched when it was on-air, much like a radio station that plays for hours and hours long non-stop. You don't go and call a radio station and ask them to cut their program short because you think their airing time is too long. If you don't want to watch the video when it was live, then why comment when the video has ended?
The main purpose of Live Stream is audience engagement. It is an effective tool to connect directly with viewers, allowing them to participate in real time, chiming in their ideas or opinion in the chat section. I spend time reading and replying to each and every one of the live comments. I appreciate every single person who tunes in, and I want to respond to every chat possible. That eats up a huge chunk of time during the Live Stream, just me responding on all the incoming comments, and boy oh boy, when the topic is hot, everyone has something to say.
I am thankful to get an average of about 150 concurrent viewers for my Live Streams. At the lowest count, I get above 100, and at the peak, the numbers almost reached 300. After 2 hours, I usually get about 2000 views, that is quite a big number for a small creator like me. I do not take this for granted, and I appreciate the support and the subscribers/viewers for being there. Even at the end of the 2 hours stream, I normally still have more than 100 concurrent viewers watching, and continue chatting on. Here is the deal - I kept the stream going because people were still watching and actively chatting! Also, some people arrived late and participated in the stream, so I would be nice to just let them have a bit of time with the stream before I hit the end button. Let's face it, if there was no one watching, I would have ended the stream much, much sooner.
The Live Stream is not just about me. Yes, I pick a topic, I share my thoughts and start the ball rolling, but very quickly, the audience would come in and pour their own ideas and opinion. That is the magic of Live Stream, it allows anyone to come in and have a say. I do my best to make sure that each voice is heard. If you do not want to participate in the stream when it was live, that is fine, but it does not give you the right to complain about how long the stream is, when it was basically everyone else who went on the stream and chatting away, having a healthy, fun discussion which you obviously have missed out on.
I totally understand if Live Stream is not for you. Just because you dislike something, it does not negate its validity or importance. Maybe we should all learn to be slower to judge and criticize something that falls outside of our "like" categories. You can simply choose to click away and move on to the billions of other contents available online. I am sure there is no lack of cute cat videos to fill your ample free time. Complaining about how a video is too long won't make your life better.
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