For a long time, I’ve always been interested in the travel vlogger and often watch video’s on YouTube. But about two weeks ago after seeing an account on Twitter for one vlogger I noticed a Discord chat room. I’ve used Discord before for gaming chat, but I really had no idea what to expect.

So, I wanted to support this one girl streamer who was kind of cute and did some travel vlogging. She really isn’t very big in this scene, but there was something natural about her. So, I ended up in this chat room. At first, I thought this is okay, but there seemed to be this somewhat toxic immature community there.

After a few days I got hooked trying to communicate with this new chat room community. However, I descended into what can only be described as mental darkness. Their ignorance of the world, not knowing how one should treat a fellow human. There are somethings I like to avoid, as having lost family, friends to suicide. I don’t think these people understood it’s not a subject to joke around about. The immaturity where some users took some of your picture posts and re-edit them to their own needs to annoy you…

I was truly lost here, so at first, I blocked two users because I didn’t want to hear it, but by the third time, I had a feeling the first user I blocked had come back with a duplicate account to agitate me again. The fourth and final time I was driven, this time a user takes my picture of horses and decides to zoom right in on the animal’s rectum to repost it.

I really couldn’t stand that so I departed the chatroom after two weeks. The girl who built this community who was the main streamer seems nice, but I tried to chat to her. Only for the cute bubbly girl to cold shoulder me.

The other aspect is, I really didn’t know anything about twitch.tv as I have never used it. But now, I started to try it out some evenings. I am not really into watching the gamers, but those users who are travelling, I find really interesting. There was one Korean girl who following my football club of Tottenham was also streaming. It was interesting watching her break emotionally as Spurs lost yet another game. I can reflect on that because I am also emotionally scarred by the terrible football that Tottenham have played.

I feel I need to watch these in limited amounts, but I got an idea of how some people get addicted to these things. I also found out that one travel blogger, working out her numbers, she must be earning over £140,000 a year before taxes. But all that travelling must have serious overheads. And I don’t think she is a top streamer; the top people must be making a fortune.In the end, where I thought I might be able to find some new digital friends just felt like a nightmare. In order to keep my sanity, I really need to be careful in this digital world. I could also see how it can drain one’s income or make someone a millionaire. A new world is out there for those that know how to navigate, but I kind of have failed to navigate it properly.