A stream of talent

• Published date: 29 January 2022

Rudeism’s breakthrough moment came when he live-streamed himself playing the first-person shooter video game Overwatch using bananas as video controllers

‘‘I got a bunch of bananas from the supermarket and stuck a bunch of wires in them,’’ 31-year-old Rudeism, AKA Dylan Beck, says.

‘‘Just by touching the bananas it would let me move around and aim and shoot.

‘‘It got posted to the very top of [social media news discussion site] Reddit. That was when things really started to take off.’’

That was late-2016. Now, the former-Dunedin video game developer has a niche market in the global $100 billion-a-year video streaming industry. He also has more than 54,000 online followers from around the globe and a decent income from his regular streaming activities.

‘‘I’m having fun and I’m passionate about what I’m doing,’’ the Christchurch daytime game developer and weekend video streamer says.

Mention streamers and a certain demographic will think wistfully of rainbow-coloured crepe paper party decorations. From their sixth birthday. Sometime back in the plasticine era.

For others, however — those born clutching smart phones and dreams of climate catastrophe survival — streamers are people. People who live-stream video of themselves doing all manner of things, which others watch, chat about online in real time and pay real money to support. People, the most popular of whom have followings two and three times larger than the population of New Zealand, earning them millions of dollars a year. Achieved by videoing themselves doing stuff for eager audiences. That probably include your offspring.

All of which is presented to soften the blow of the next sentence.

A new survey has revealed that 75% of young Kiwis see streaming as a viable job.

Broken down, so shocked minds can digest each lump: the survey ... commissioned by technology firm Logitech New Zealand ... shows that three out of every four New Zealanders aged 10 to 18 ... think that when they finish their education ... they might like to pursue a career ... as a one-person television channel.

You thought kids wanted to become police officers, brain surgeons or, heaven forbid, pop stars. No, they want to be streamers.

It is no wonder you are so badly mistaken. You thought laptops and smart phones were for on-the-go consumption of the six o’clock news, past episodes of The Chase and, if you’re feeling self-indulgent, a half hour, lunchtime slurp of an online movie. Tweens’ and teens’ top three online watches are, however, in reverse order, comedy (50%), music videos (54%) and, drumroll, streamers (62%). And many of these young things spend multiple hours devouring their content, every day.

So, what...