Eat. Pray. Periscope.
8 deep thoughts about the newest livestreaming app
by Jonathan Jue and Sean Krimmel
“I don’t do Periscope a lot, but more now because I’m getting addicted. I really really really like it. This is the new social media” Korine, a Jersey guy in basketball shorts, told us right before his girlfriend yelled at him to get off the app.
If you’re new to all this, Periscope is “a way to share and watch live video broadcasts” from your computer or mobile device; in the last few month the platform hit a new milestone surpassing 10MM users. So is it worth all the hype? Not everyone was sold, some digital strategist thought otherwise, “Live streaming? Really? Maybe for 1% of the post-post-dotcom-boom crowd.”
Livestreaming is nothing new (remember chatroulette?) but with Periscope’s mobile advantage it suddenly became the siren song for brands, politicians, celebrities, and a whole lot of other people — it was worth investigating.
Down the rabbit hole we went. We poured ourselves a few beers and got into a comfortable slump in the couch. Our methodology consisted of 100 ethnographic “interviews” using Periscope itself as a lens for interrogation — having conversations with a diverse range of people in age, gender, ethnicity, sexuality and geography (global, but skewing towards English speaking countries).
Being researchers, we always enter with a skeptical eye but as we dug deeper (and eventually turned the camera on ourselves), we weren’t just surprised, but a little humbled at what we found.
Let’s start with the obvious…
#1) Periscope is a virtual peep show
Voyeurism has never been more popular, and Periscope is people watching on steroids. This isn’t your parent’s Facebook feed. It’s exciting because, to quote Forrest Gump, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you gonna get.”
Opening the app for the first time, we were giddy. This new frontier begged to be explored and we eagerly clicked onto the first available show. Adam, an older gay Virgo in San Francisco who met his husband on Match.com, mused about current SF culture, “people are dicks — but people are dicks everywhere.” Dude, we can relate, we live in LA.
We wondered if this was how the peep show Johns felt, so close and part of the rush yet so far away. While the initial buzz of excitement with the app might numb with continued use, the voyeuristic companionship kept us coming back.
#2) Periscope is #Unfiltered
Technology has exposed us to more of each other’s everyday moments than ever before — think: Snapchat, Twitter, Facebook, and all the other social media where people post the shiniest most produced bits of their lives… wedding proposals, new jobs, and trips around the world.
These social media tools are like that amazing room in the Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory (you know, the one with the Chocolate River), they don’t show the gritty underbelly or reality of people (you know, the fact that all those kids lives were cut short or ruined by a deranged candyman). It’s not always as magical inside the factory as you expect it to be…but we digress.
Periscope is different because it’s not curated. It’s not produced (although some people may be acting) this is what the Real World felt like in the first few seasons. Real unfiltered people. It’s like the overpriced green juice you get at Whole Foods — real, no preservatives.
One of Periscope’s greatest strengths is that it offers the viewer an “authentic” experience. Marketers are obsessed with millennial’s obsession with “authenticity”. But trust us, this is the real deal.
You won’t find any daydreamy or hyper-saturated hues here; Periscope at its essence is unfiltered.
#3) Periscope gives us permission (finally) to be intimate.
Despite us being a generation that now uses apps to find our mate(s), there seems to be a lack of intimacy on the web. We took this as an opportunity to engage on a human level and it was refreshing.
Part of our experiment included pushing for self-disclosure, would people share intimate details about their lives with us? Their dirty little secrets?
We probed complete strangers about sensitive subjects: their first kiss, how they lost their virginity, and all those questions you’re not asked about in a job interview. For the most part, it was surprisingly easy to get complete strangers to disclose this very personal information. Even when we turned the camera on ourselves, we realized the digital barrier helped bolster our courage, in our Q&A sessions we talked about our coming out stories, our experiences with microaggression. Our self disclosure barrier was at all time low — we didn’t have to worry about losing these friends when more would pop in a second later.
People seek out ways to talk about their lives — on his drive home from work somewhere in Alaska, Joe wanted to bitch about his job. Hell, who doesn’t want to bitch about their job! (and we were there to listen). It was a really human experience, connecting over complaining.
This is the social platform where people can share the things about themselves that they might not be able to on other platforms. This is exactly the place for that overly emotional Facebook post.
#4) Periscope breaks away barriers for creators
Being a YouTube “celebrity” is a full time job, you need to edit films and shoot footage — it’s work. Michelle Phan? Yeah she has a whole production team behind the scenes working to make her videos.
Periscope, like Snapchat, lowers the barrier for creators. You don’t even need a computer, let alone fancy editing skills (sorry Final Cut). This was real time talent.
One of our floppy haired Dallas broadcasters, an aspiring musician — still in high school — gave a late night jam-sesh in his basement. In between sets he spoke about the girl he liked. “Generally speaking, I don’t try to be a douche bag about playing guitar, I hate the guys who self promote, that’s not my goal. I like putting out music so people can enjoy it.” When we asked him about Periscope he shifted his guitar around and responded, “It’s a platform for me to get my emotions out, I’m not here to get famous,” he said and strummed a few chords.
He didn’t have to cut himself into a music video, he could just be with his guitar and sing.
Unlike YouTube, (which btw does have live-streaming capabilities) you don’t need to spend months building an audience to guarantee that people will see your videos.
The less obvious
#5) Periscope is for Every-f**king-person
In marketing, the generational buckets (boomers, millennials, and now Gen Z) get thrown around a lot. Some offices even have “millennial jars” to collect on every use of the word (a la the curse jar). It’s like a code word for old folks to analyze groups of very different people under common traits (like dissecting Lizards). This isn’t that. This isn’t some new tech that can only be used by Gen Z or millennials — Snapchat is confusing for older folks.
Everyone is on Periscope. In fact, half of the people that we tuned into were older than 30 (we asked people how old they were).
In a way, this is a broadcast medium for the computer illiterate. One button and you’re filming (see #4).
It was kind of refreshing to get out of our hyper curated bubble of likes and friends. Periscope let us meet and step into other people’s shoes. Part of the excitement of Periscope is the diversity, new activities, locations, explorations, and people.
#6) Periscope’s Lifeforce is Reactionary
“You better work b**ch” was never truer than with this app. The platform forces interactivity. Broadcasters are always on the spot, but that pressure to perform is contingent on viewers. If there is no one watching, boredom sets in really quickly. (We found this out when no one wanted to watch us.) But participation doesn’t just end with the person on camera.
Over the years, comment sections have been the only way for viewers to engage in a conversation about what they were seeing on the web. However, comments in most platforms are reactionary e.g. “love this!”, “OMG”, or “first comment!”
Comments are an afterthought not just for the creator but for the viewer. At best the comment section is a way for fans to connect, at worst it is a forum for trolls and spammers.
With the exception of Hillary Clinton’s recent words of support on a gay teen’s photo, rarely does a comment really improve upon the experience. But Periscopes allows you, the viewer, to actually shape the content that you’re watching. Ask a question to a complete stranger and there’s a good chance that they’ll respond. Comments suddenly take on a bigger weight, making the viewer partly more responsible for their entertainment.
When Sebastian, a German man from Frankfurt gave us a tour of his apartment, we could request to pet his Russian Blue cat — and he did. It was a really cute cat. By co-working to design the experience, everyone was able to get something from it. We got more cat screentime and he got some hearts.
In a way this is a form of hybrid comment-messaging. This new form of reactionary control from both ends makes for really interesting and real content. Similar to a good stand up, when the audience and performer finds their groove everyone wins.
What completely surprised us…
#7) Humanity is still part of the digital lexicon
Sure, narcissism is part of it, that camera doesn’t turn on by itself, but the idea of celebrity seemed far off for most people. Although, Adweek is quick to jump on the newfound ‘celebrities of Periscope’ there didn’t seem to be a lack of good content. Maybe it is still so new, but the concept of celebrity feels different here, but we’re sure it will catch up to how YouTube is trying to monetize.
In the few times that we were the ones broadcasting, not only did we garner a small but loyal fanbase, we garnered an honorable one. We streamed under the title “Two Gay Boys — Ask Us Anything!” and while this title probably opened us up for criticism, when the comments got mean people defended us. When someone started asking inappropriate questions (okay so we didn’t really mean ask us anything) the other viewers were quick to jump to our defense.
People don’t treat the internet like real life, it brings out bad behavior / they don’t follow the same social norms. There is a lot of bad out there on the web, but Periscope gave us that glimmer of hope for humanity.
#8) ‘Digital obsolescence’ and the road to new behavior
Like we said in the beginning, livestreaming has been around for a while now, but the popularity of Periscope is hella noteworthy.
Rather than being the “hot new app” it is a symbol of big changes to come in this gimmicky digital landscape. Even if the app itself were to disappear, the behaviors it is creating would evolve.
Periscope is a symbol for an emerging trend in media, zero barrier entertainment (ZBE). New mediums like Snapchat, Vine, etc. have slowly been building towards ZBE and Periscope offers another look at the future of apps. We expect to see apps reducing the communication barrier even more.
Let’s use the great Myspace to Facebook migration of the mid-2000’s as an example of this digital obsolescence (remember that it will be on the test!), what started out as a social address book eventually developed into digital scrapbooking. When Instagram started to show signs of growth Facebook bought them out (just like Twitter bought Periscope). The new game isn’t so much about building audiences as it is about retaining them.
Facebook is constantly adapting now, morphing as new relevant apps take hold (Venmo vs. Facebook pay vs. Snapchat pay, etc.). Periscope isn’t the new Big Brother, Facetime, Chatroulette (wink) etc.
These new digital behaviors, and craving for these behaviors are what’s going to be interesting to track.
Conclusion: Periscope breaks down walls
When Napster came out it turned the music industry on its head. Tech has been breaking walls for a while now — we expect it to. But sometimes the walls it breaks down, or creates (phones at the dinner table), aren’t so obvious.
We believe the popularity of this app is not merely a reflection of how much society is changing but also why we are changing.
Wall 1: creation — the barriers to create have been reduced. Remember when being a photographer was a hobby and now everyone is. This is that — YouTube celebs, watch out.
Wall 2: consumption — we now can have an active role in how we consume, expect more demand for reactionary content.
Wall 3: audiences — there is more demand from the audience, the way we interact with our content is changing to a more active role.
Wall 4: connection — we are all looking for something deeper, this is another milestone in people trying to connect.
Wall 5: consent / acceptance — we are opening the doors to our lives, becoming our own “big brother.” It’s human nature to share. This is social media therapy.
Final thoughts
Humanity is evolving, not in some weird X-men way (although that would be cool — we call Gambit (and Rogue)), but we are developing new digital abilities and needs. As technology infiltrates our day to day, interactions and social groups are supplemented with new ways to connect. The bar introduction is getting replaced with Tindr, bulletin boards are substituted with MeetUp, and Periscope is introducing us to strangers.
Everyday behaviors are getting over ruled by new digital ones that translate (not always well) to the real world.
If you haven’t downloaded the app, check it out, have a blast, and maybe we will see you there.
**** Information from this post was pulled from the Periscope Participate Project 2015, a research project created the quirky queer duo Sean and JJ.
Originally published at medium.com.
