So I’ve spent another day with Periscope being at the center of my ‘lazy’ attention span(s) throughout the day. A few observations:

1) I can tell that the fever will die down very quickly with its current feature set. The Periscope devs will really need to dig deep into what it means to livestream your life, otherwise the current fire around this (admittedly very, very awesome) phenomenon will very quickly dwindle down and fizzle out. There needs to be search. There needs to be categories. There needs to be more interaction. You’ve got the curiosity of the masses, you must be magicians and amaze even more to amplify its affect on the status quo, or you will be forgotten when the next shiny idea comes along.

2) Periscope reminds me of what Google Glass tried to be, but miserably failed at (perception…of the product itself). Glass is obscure, foreign – but everyone has a cellphone so it’s more socially acceptable to hold *that* up instead of having free hands while your evil cyborg Terminator-esque camera eye records all.

3) Periscope is the ultimate A.D.D. inhibitor. If you’ve spent more than a few minutes on Periscope you’ve noticed that people will usually stop what they’re talking about to answer comments that are flowing by. This is distracting for me (the viewer) when I’m really interested in the subject themselves. Broadcast mode has the ability to turn off comments, right? I know it’s very gratifying for broadcasters to see everything their viewers want to tell them as they’re broadcasting. Most will even read each comment aloud before responding, which is kind of a funny running trait of the Periscope crowd so far.

4) Periscope, right now, is the *definition* of a young, fertile online community. It reminds me of what YouTube was before it went commercial – curious individuals poking their heads out there, experiencing a new kind of way to experience reality. If aliens are watching us to learn about what humans are really like, they’re now watching Periscope…Teleportation, yes. You did it. Congratulations, Periscope team =}

Tagged with: periscope

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