I'm Not Quitting Twitch
I spent weeks thinking (agonizing) about, drafting, and re-drafting a post on why I was going to quit Twitch. I almost posted it this week, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. And then I decided to stream last night and was reminded of the tremendous potential of the streaming experience to be a good and positive influence in the lives of others.
A viewer and fellow streamer I've known since almost the beginning of my time on Twitch tuned in for a while last night. They said they had been going through a hard time in their life and I tried to let them know they are loved and welcome and that I hoped the music and messages helped.
Later on they said they really appreciated the renewed focus of the show and the thoughts I had been sharing here on my blog. That feedback couldn't have come at a better time. It made me feel grateful that I chose to stream last night and was able to help someone who needed it. And it reminded me and reinforced why I need to keep doing this.
All the changes I have been making to my Twitch channel – disabling and de-emphasizing all of the monetization features as much as possible, making every stream a charity stream, disabling the ad schedule, etc. – have been for the intent of making the show less about me and more about the music and messages. My goal is to help people feel good about themselves and know that there are still beacons of light in a world that seems to be filling with darkness.
Twitch is far from ideal. There are a lot of things I don't like about it – some of which I will be writing about in future blog posts. And it tends to be a magnet for drama, controversy, and contention – things that I try to avoid as much as possible.
But despite all the negatives, there is still tremendous potential to use Twitch and platforms like it in an intentional way to help and encourage one another, to share goodness, to make world a little brighter if we want to. I feel that if Positive Notes is able to make a difference for good in the life of just one person, it will have been worth it.