Emily's endless stream

Full story: Inside the life of a 24/7 streamer: ‘What more do you want?’

I spent time with Emily, a Twitch streamer who's broadcast her life 24/7 for three years and counting, for a story about the isolation and burnout that comes with living our lives online:

The chaotic free marketplace of the internet has forced streamers like Emily to push themselves to stand out. They obsess over optimizing their lives for engagement, while viewers — who can vanish in an instant — expect them to constantly perform.

“They’re judged all the time. They don’t get a break from the constant surveillance. They have a pressure in their job to not be boring … but also to be authentic, even though our authentic lives are often boring,” said Sarah Banet-Weiser, a media professor at the universities of Pennsylvania and Southern California who researches creators. “Is it any wonder these people burn out?”

Sometimes Emily dreads waking up and clocking into the reality show that is her life. She knows staring at screens all night is unhealthy, and when she feels too depressed to stream, she’ll stay in bed for hours while her viewers watch.

But she worries that taking a break would be “career suicide,” as she called it. Some viewers already complain that she showers too long, sleeps in too late, doesn’t have enough fun. So many “are expecting more all the time,” she said. “I’m like: What more do you want?”

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