Consumo digital como performance sociotécnica: Análise dos usos da plataforma de streaming de games Twitch

Abstract

This article discusses the interrelations between performance, digital consumption and interface features on the game streaming platform Twitch. Theoretical considerations on the three subjects are compared to the responses of 177 Brazilian Twitch users to an online questionnaire. Results indicate that, despite their importance for Twitch as social media, interfaces do not facilitate social interactions. The implied hierarchical relations between streamers and viewers is not only based on the expertise of the former group. Digital consumption demands that they demonstrate other abilities, such as the “entertain” performance. Twitch itself places additional technical and cognitive challenges on streamers and viewers, but its user base appears to be self-motivated enough to overcome those system obstacles.