Around The World In 60 Minutes

 

 

On May 2, 2015 I downloaded the Periscope app and did my first broadcast. At first I had mixed emotions about a live feed from my phone to the world. The mom in me was terrified of the possible risks and exposure that my daughters could encounter when they reach the age of social media maturity. Oxymoron, I know. Are any of us really ready? But the influencer in me was excited. I now had the ability to connect with an audience, immediately and in real time. No editing, no retakes. More exciting was the idea of having a portal to see the world at the press of my screen and clearly, I’m not alone. I heard a statistic that said that of the over 10 million users who have downloaded the Periscope app, only about 10% are actually broadcasting. No shock there, we live in an age of reality tv and celebrities made famous simply because of their day to day life being put under someone else’s microscope.

We are all voyeurs.

Periscope is one of those apps that changes the landscape of not only social media but of how we absorb content in general from news to weather to entertainment. On a sleepless night, I laid in bed and decided to check out Periscope to pass the time. I gave myself 1 hour of screen time to see what I could find and in that hour I went around the world in 60 minutes and got a glimpse of what other people were doing while I would normally have been asleep.

First stop was, South Africa where I saw a leopard napping in a tree. The hot sun beating down on the tree where he was laying was barely giving any coverage with its sparse foliage. The broadcaster was showing us an up close view using binoculars pressed up against his phone’s camera.

 

 

Second stop was California for an intimate musical interlude provided by a broadcaster who does nightly scopes of his record player spinning 45’s of classic music like Steve Miller and Hall and Oates. Listening with my headphones to keep from waking up my sleeping husband meant that I could hear the crackling sound of the vinyl and the drop of the needle. Nikko’s scopes are quickly turning into a cool spot to chill for some music and conversation in the comments. Always some friendly peeps hanging out there.

 

 

Next stop was Lesbos, Greece. A dedicated and brave broadcaster who was standing on the shores of the island showing us zodiac boat after zodiac boat come to the beach filled with refugees trying to escape their homeland with only the clothes on their backs and their children in their arms. Sure, I’ve seen all these same images on CNN before but watching it live, untouched by mainstream media, struck a nerve, deep. Mothers climbing off the small inflated boats, crying for joy that they arrived safely and together and perhaps also for the home they’re likely to never see again. Seeing the thousands of discarded life jackets in piles on the beaches gave scale to the amount of people wanting to survive and start a new life. That is what I want in my news coverage. Let life be the narrative not the media.

 

 

Quick stop number four was back to Los Angeles where I watched a young, talented artist work on a painting in her apartment. Her talent is only out shined by her kindness as she answers questions and makes every effort to connect with her viewers as if they’re all sitting in her living room at a party.

 

 

Next on the world map, I found myself in the passenger seat flying thru the streets of Rome, Italy. My driver was friendly and animated and spoke in both Italian and English to point out landmarks, history and interesting facts all while weaving in and out of fast moving traffic on very narrow streets listening to a CD of the Rat Pack. At a stop light he would occasionally turn the camera around and say hello with the biggest most inviting smile. I might have only understood half of what he was saying but I could have driven around with him all night.

 

 

And just like that an hour had passed. I wasn’t any more tired or ready for sleep but I was comforted in knowing that if I ever needed to feel both connected to the world and insignificant at the same time, I just had to turn on my app and cruise around.
My hope is that someone far away catches one of my mountain view scopes and has the same feeling of being connected to a place they would never be able to see otherwise.
Never has it been so cool to know that I can carry the whole world in my pocket.

 

What are you watching on Periscope?