What is very popular among teens right now in the online video streaming world? Well, among many LVSP, one is revolutionizing the gaming landscape. However, what are the advantages and disadvantages of this new mobile culture? A survey and study were conducted by Ramirez, Fernandez and Roldan (2021), to explore the benefits and harms, motivations, consequences, dangers, addictions, and parental concerns, in order to create greater public awareness. In this survey, 580 young individuals, male and female, between 14 and 24, were asked questions regarding the amount of gaming and viewing hours, their self-perception of their skills, the genre of video games played or watched, the device or console used, their motivations, and their views on LVSP.
The study identified that older users and female users use LVSP in a more casual and social way, whereas young male teenagers fell under the category of hobby and problematic. According to the authors:
“Moreover, as a result of the containment measures against COVID-19, the number of viewers and of professionals or amateurs currently streaming content continues to rise. The big companies are battling it out over this new form of entertainment. Alongside Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, there are other platforms such as YouTube Gaming (Google) (Google LLC., Mountain View, CA, USA), Mixer (Microsoft) (Microsoft Corporation Albuquerque, NM, USA), Facebook Gaming (Facebook) (Facebook, Inc., Menlo Park, CA, USA), and Caffeine (ex-executives of Apple TV). On such platforms, users are not limited to being mere spectators, they interact with other participants, comment on games or strategies, make donations, and subscribe. They may also take on the role of content developers or streamers, in order to stream events, test games, disseminate and comment on games, as well as other activities directly or indirectly related to video games.” (Ramirez, Fernandez and Roldan, 2021, p. 2)
Clearly, this is a new mobile culture that we should be aware and conscious of, especially the need for more research studies for early intervention: “we believe that this research can help parents, caregivers, and guardians identify certain profiles, offering a better understanding of a phenomenon that is here to stay, and helping to strike the difficult balance between advantages and disadvantages” (Ramirez, Fernandez and Roldan, 2021, p. 13). This is a very prominent topic currently among teachers and parents, me being both, I continue to educate myself in this new technological concern in order to provide my own children and students with the best advice and suggestions I can give for a positive lifestyle.
Cabeza-Ramírez, L. J., Muñoz-Fernández, G. A., & Santos-Roldán, L. (2021). Video game streaming in young people and teenagers: Uptake, user groups, dangers, and opportunities. Healthcare, 9(2)https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9020192
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