Stepping Into Live Videos

Miss the chance to watch a live video and you miss the moment! It’s a chance to see reality unfolding before your eyes. Videos that do not go live have to originate from somewhere and live streaming shows what is occurring behind the scenes.

Live videos or in other words, live streaming is a popular social media trend. Whether it’s news, sports, music, tutorials, Q&A or anything that comes to mind, live streaming has played a major role in broadcasting those subjects in real-time. Websites or applications could either be live streaming platforms or they could incorporate free live streaming services as an additional feature. Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are popular social media applications that provide this built-in service.

Back in the days when live videos was not a trend, news at a point in time was broadcast later than the actual occurrence. It was unlike how live streaming operates now. Technology development has allowed us to obtain access to live videos on technological devices such as mobile phones and laptops. The advantage of watching live videos on a mobile phone is that you can be updated by pop-up notifications when there’s a live video. You can watch on-the-go instead of heading back home to watch the news on the television. This saves time and even if you have missed it, the live stream will still be saved after the live session is over.

Live streaming offers interactive features like Reaction Polls on Facebook that allows users to express their reactions to the live video. Reactions are in the form of emojis, cartoon representations of facial expressions that denote how you feel. Once you have selected one emoji, the emoji floats across the live video to indicate your take on the live video. This can act as a quality assessment on the broadcaster’s performance. Likewise, users are able to communicate with the broadcaster by leaving comments. The broadcaster would be able to read the comments and respond to them, but not all comments would be answered or acknowledged because the stream of comments are face-paced and the broadcaster needs to utilise the live session to talk about the subject of the video.

We may feel that we are in the same room as the broadcaster when there’s live streaming because it has allowed us to defy physical boundaries in terms of technology. But to what extent are we involved? There may be too much emphasis on the term “live” and this gives us the illusion that we’ve been there, done that. However, there’s not much difference from learning from non-live videos because the information may be the same if they cover the same topic. An exception is that you will be required to make an effort to catch the live session on time. This would make you a committed participant.

If you compare Skype and live streaming, the distinction between the two is the audience base and presentation. Skype is a communication tool that is usually shared between two people or a group, whereas live videos are open to the public. The public comments instead of showing their physical appearances during live streaming. This secures their privacy to a certain extent since only their usernames appear along with their comments. Live streaming has made it possible for people around the world to watch the same video concurrently. We are able to connect with like-minded people who share common interests.

Even though live videos cover various subjects, that does not mean they are equally important. A live video about the latest news is more important than a topic which does not weigh as heavily. Youtube Live has a portfolio of videos categorised accordingly so you would be able to choose any live stream to watch based on your own personal priority.

I think creating live videos would require a fair amount of confidence and knowledge about the topic to be presented, good lighting and background music, if you like. Live videos are spontaneous and may need some rehearsal prior to that unless it's real news. You would not have a chance to edit the video and I think we would be able to notice how human we all are, with our mistakes.