Let us talk Generation Gap. Have you heard young people talking about Twitch? If you are under the age of 20 or a keen computer gamer then this will mean something totally unrelated to birdwatching!
Twitch (www.twitch.tv) is a popular website founded in 2011, which allows you to watch or stream video broadcasts. It is a bit like YouTube, but it covers all types of artwork, music, and talk shows. It started out as the place to watch other people playing computer video games but since then it has grown and is now owned by Amazon.
Some popular streamers (people that put videos onto Twitch) are making a full time living on Twitch through a mixture of paid subscriptions, donations, adverts and sponsorship.
Twitch didn’t start out as social network but has grown into one as people can create accounts, post comments, and update their status etc. For this reason parents of younger children should be careful as some of the comments are not child friendly and the usual stranger danger beware applies. The videos themselves often have commentary. This can be quite vulgar, with swearing.
Whilst there are milder games like Minecraft, many are more mature like Call of Duty. There are also a lot of adverts and you need to 13 years old to create an account.
For those of you who do like birds, of the feathered variety of course. The BBC Springwatch team have put together a cheats guide. Another great resource is the RSPB website https://www.rspb.org.uk. If you haven’t visited Middleton Lakes, our local bird reserve, I can recommend it as a lovely quiet walk ideal for getting kids off their screens for an hour.
Happy ‘Putering
Caroline The ‘PuterTutor
