5 Things I Learned from My First Periscope

In case you missed it, last Monday I did my first broadcast over on Periscope. Periscope is a live streaming app--you can catch a broadcast (or "scope") live or watch a replay for 24 hours. After that, it's gone. 

It's an interesting platform. If you have something to share that's not as easily done through plain text and photos, but don't have the time or energy to commit to a full time video podcast, it offers the opportunity to share quick videos without a lot of setup or commitment. It also includes some live interaction elements--people can ask questions and you can provide an immediate answer, or they can give your scope hearts, which is just nice to see.

That said, it has its challenges. So, here are 5 things I learned from doing my first scope:

1. TROLLS! Apparently there are a lot of weirdos out there with nothing better to do than make rude comments on scopes with content they clearly have no interest in. What a life. When (and if) I do another one, I'll change the settings so only people I'm following can comment--many thanks to Andrea Sanchez from Knittin' Little for that tip!
2. It's hard not to look at yourself. You need to have the feed showing on your phone so you can make sure whatever you're trying to show off is in the frame, but it makes it difficult to not to watch yourself as you ramble. Hopefully this gets better with practice. Which leads to ...
3. I have a lot of weird facial expressions. And hand gestures. Why are people friends with me? 
4. Comments can be hard to follow. That is, if you have a lot of trolls cluttering up the comment feed with death threats or unsolicited comments about your appearance, you might miss real questions and comments. Also, the text is small, and I'm 87 years old, I guess. 
5. It's both terrifying and liberating. If you're a person like me, who vastly prefers writing to speaking, broadcasting live and off the cuff is a very different, potentially nerve-wracking experience. But it's also very freeing to have an informal space in which to offer up unpolished, unedited material. It has the potential to be something akin to a chat with your knitting friends--and since I don't have many of those in real life (when am I going to find a knit night already??), it's an opportunity I hope to explore more.

Are you on Periscope? What's been your experience? 

You can find me on Periscope (Twitter, Instagram and basically everywhere) as MediaPeruana. 

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