Video chat and live-streaming, technologies that allow for synchronous human interaction with people around the World, are an antidote to war and foreign conflict. While we’ve regarded our World as “globalized” for several decades, with pervasive international trade and the advent of the internet, we are just now gaining the ability to truly connect with people in foreign places and cultures. We can now form global tribes, and this trend will only accelerate with the introduction of 5G networks (for reduced latency and improved streaming resolution).
International travel has only ever been available to the wealthy. Now the vast majority of humanity can afford a smartphone and internet connection for immediate broadcasting of their daily lives to others around the World. These live-streams pull at our voyeuristic curiosity – there’s something provocative about being a fly on the wall of someone else’s daily life.
After first joining, it’s only a one-way interaction as we sit behind a curtain of anonymity with our mic muted and our video off. We sit and watch the performance, and perhaps witness the performer struggle to multi-task or overcome a language barrier for the sake of our benefit and entertainment. Quickly, something tugs at us, and we realize the opportunity for community and connection.
Once you remove the veil of digital anonymity and begin asking questions, chatting about current events or something more personal, and receive instantaneous responses, you cannot help but be charmed. It’s the same kind warmth you feel when someone invites you into their home. Quickly, this stranger becomes a friend – and you just want the best for him. And this all happened in the span of 30-minutes while sitting on a live-streaming platform. This is the kind of global community that Trally hopes to foster – a P2P marketplace for live-stream virtual tours.
There will always be conflict between Nations – political and economic mandates will inevitably clash. But it’s becoming more difficult to think as nationalistic tribes and rely solely on governmental diplomacy as our only point of connection with humans living remote from us. Now we have the ability to connect with a foreigner and chat side-by-side with them, as if you were both walking through the local bazaar together. It’s much different than the anonymous posting done on forums and in comments sections. Turn your webcam on and now you’ve joined a global citizenry. Now you bear the responsibility of a global citizen with commitments to those in foreign places.
Nationality, ethnicity and religion are still noted by the audience. But, in these virtual communities, this is point of connection, not contention. There’s nothing else to do expect smile with each other about these differences and tacitly acknowledge the absurdity in arguing beliefs and practices, which now seem, more than ever, matters of circumstance than good versus evil.
“ I am a man before I am a Frenchman, that is I am by necessity a man and only by chance a Frenchman.” -Montesquieu
Amazing, a step towards a more closer world