I'll start with an anecdote... I grew up in the generation that was NOT born with the internet. We were the last ones, the nexus between the transition from the analogue world and the extremely digitalised world that we all have and have normalised right now... And looking back to compare what we have done during this; not so long but certainly amazing world of being interconnected, is something that has made me reflect enough to be able to mark a clear era; that of Streaming. Which is not a new concept (it was born in 1999) but had to wait a few decades to reach each and every one of us?
Think about it. When you were a kid (yes, I'm talking to you, millenian man and woman), what did you used to do on a Saturday morning when you woke up, before even having breakfast? I can ‘bet’ you absolutely anything that you sat in front of the TV at home, in the armchair or sofa, and tuned in to the cartoon channel that made you the happiest... That world, dear reader friend, simply died with us... And that's not bad, or necessarily negative, or cause for controversy or debate.
Personally, I find it hard to admit that the Internet, as the revolutionary invention that it certainly is, is so fast and so dizzying, that it sometimes overtakes us in a way that makes it hard to understand its true scope. At the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards, (on cable TV) the biggest music video and music format network tried to broadcast its event on the Internet to the whole world, at no extra cost and with only a slight delay of a few seconds.... The result? A total disaster... The website crashed... It simply could not sustain the volume of users and traffic online...
But that one unfortunate event changed the Internet forever. Some nerdy, genius kids from California also tried to watch the event that day but couldn't.... That idea haunted them for years until in 2005 they developed a website to host videos made or uploaded by users: thus YouTube was born; a platform that I don't think we have ever thanked enough for its contribution to Humanity (both for the ‘good’ and the not so ‘good’). At the time, the potential of streaming, although theoretically plausible, was virtually inapplicable. It would take a few more years, together with the improvement of computer components and the speed of the Internet to develop the biggest social network in history: Welcome to Streaming.
With this background, (among many others, which I have left behind for reasons of space and fluidity) the community itself, that is to say all of us, led the Internet itself to become part of a giant beehive, where we all inhabit, immerse ourselves and make life. Just look at the success of the model. From entertainment, to live gaming and even film education, streaming is the preferred action of the vast majority of users. The video games industry was among the first to understand this in the middle of this new century.
It is no coincidence that all the consoles and all the technical apparatus where the Internet and video games converge are so widespread and in such good health everywhere. In fact, the Steam platform itself has publicly shown a graph with its users worldwide, and we see countries in serious conflicts or isolated countries worldwide using this service... In other words, it is a reality that is not only here to stay but that has also come to supplant absolutely all other models that do not adapt...
Let me give you another example... My daughter, who knows how to read and write, has learnt such profound concepts as being and existence through playing Roblox online or watching gameplays of other games such as Fortnite or Minecraft on Kick..... In addition, a user she follows on YouTube, who in addition to being a youtuber also has lives on that platform, and is therefore a streamer, sometimes recreates literary passages in the games she plays. In other words, he recreates scenes from Romeo and Juliet or Lady and the Tramp, but within the digital parameters of games as diverse as Roblox or Minecraft. My daughter, who knew and read ‘The Little Prince’ thanks to knowing and having grown up with the normalisation of the stream and the social use of the Internet.
We had a small taste of what it could feel like to have the freedom and creativity to do what we wanted in games, which went down in history as icons: San Andreas, Vicente City or Grand Theft Auto are examples of where things were heading... We owe a lot to the gaming and video game industry. Would you know. Ibai or Mr. Beast without the influence of gaming? I doubt it immensely... Besides, this incontrovertible fact only proves that the world, as Silicon Valley has known for years, is heading towards a ‘Metaverse’. I don't know, I'm not sure if it will be like the one Meta (Facebook) has been trying to sell us all, but what I do know is that the social and community use of the best invention of the Hunanidsd after electricity, antibiotics and medicine, undoubtedly has a social component that cannot (and should not) be left aside...
