Negativity and You

So I wanted to address something that I had noticed within the Twitch streamer community that occurred that made me very disappointed in both my fellow streamers, and very confused by the necessity of it. As you MIGHT HAVE HEARD Ninja has blown the FUCK UP lately. And good for Tyler. I mean, after 7 years of the grind, he’s the biggest thing on Twitch and in streaming history.

I personally think he deserves it. He was the first streamer I ever subbed to, myself, and to see him getting 100,000+ viewers a stream now is just incredible.

But yeah, I wanted to address something regarding the Ninja and Drake/Travis/JuJu stream from last night and the response I saw and am still seeing in Twitch groups and streamer discords from a number of streamers in the community in general.

What in the hell is with all the negativity?

What happened last night was astonishing. What Ninja has managed to do in the past 8 months or so has been incredible, going from a popular but not exactly top level streamer, to the #1 Twitch Streamer in the world, setting viewer, follower and subscriber records with each passing day. It has been a sight to behold, if like me, you enjoy seeing other people succeed in the things they love.

So why are people, namely streamers, hating on him so badly?

“Who cares?” “No.” “He sucks.” “No one gives a shit.” “He’s sooooooo egotistical.”

These are all comments I’ve seen from people in Facebook groups and in discords. And guess what? They’re all bullshit. None of them are true. Clearly people care. He’s one of the best players in the world, and Ninja’s a truly nice guy who has earned every bit of the success he is currently enjoying.

So again I need to ask… why so much anger and negativity? Is it because it isn’t happening for you? Is it jealousy? You need to address that and then when you realize that the answer is probably yes, you need to ask yourself another question..

Does that Jealousy get you any further towards being where you want to be? Does the negativity help you in any way?

Of course it doesn’t. Negativity doesn’t help anyone. It causes stress, anxiety, depression and nothing good ever comes from it. Being negative never got anyone anywhere. All it’s ever done has been a source of worsening pressure that exists in the back of your head as you compare yourself to something you consider positive.

Negativity isn’t just the enemy of Positivity. It’s the enemy of Productivity.

The Myth of Competition

Twitch isn’t a battle. It’s not a fight. It’s not a competition. It’s a community. It’s something you become a part of, and join in on. You are never in competition with other streamers about your streams. You may compete inside of games you play with other streamers, but you aren’t competing head to head with your streams. You’re all part of a community TOGETHER.

What happened in Ninja’s stream last night was literally an EPIC experience for many people. It exposed people to twitch who had never heard of it, expanding all of our potential audiences. It was good for the entire community. Not just Ninja. Not just other top level streamers. It was good for every streamer who decides to go out there and share themselves as an entertainer with an audience on their channel.

If you don’t like Ninja or Drake, or any other top level streamer really, no one is saying you have to… but to be outwardly negative like that does nothing for anyone except point out to others that they should probably avoid you. So if you want to stream in solitude… go for it. Be negative. And watch as no one supports you in your effort to grow, since you can’t be happy and support others when they do.

But whether or not you like Ninja or DrDisrespect or Summit1G or JoshOG or any other streamer, big or small, you need to remember that as a member of the Twitch community, we are all part of the same team. We all seek to expand Twitch’s audience for the good of us all. To that end, taking shots at other streamers, starting problems, harassing them and causing drama does nothing to serve this community.

Twitchm, as an entity, wants to avoid this so much they added a rule to their TOS to make sure they can actually punish streamers who harass other streamers AWAY from their platform. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a good rule! It makes you accountable the same way as if you were accountable at a normal 9 to 5 job.

This isn’t YouTube. That kind of stuff is common on YouTube and you can go look in YouTube comments if you want to see the kind of audience that drama builds. Or go look at LoganPaul/JakePaul’s stream on Twitch to see the kind of people he’s bringing with him that we’re trying to avoid spreading.

So to that end, keep up the positivity. Eliminate the negative bullshit because… no one needs it. Everyone out there, everyone you will ever meet, is already fighting their own battles. Why would you want to make it harder on them?

Have a great day everyone! I believe in you! You rock. You’re awesome.