I’m going to sound like a bitter old man here, which I am, but back in my day, when we wanted to the whole world to see us, to be famous, we had to get famous by getting on TV or making it big on the radio. To get famous enough to be on TV, you needed to be talented, lucky, or connected, and usually all three.

You would hear stories about Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen or Jim Carrey, that worked the comedy clubs for years, just for the chance to get a 5-minute gig on a late-night show like Johnny Carson, or David Letterman. Then they would leverage that 5-minute gig to get a TV show, and then hope to succeed long enough on the show to get more work.

Then there was a transitional period in the early 2000’s when TV started doing reality shows. They found non-famous, normal people and put them on islands, or worldwide races, or they would film bachelors that would date 20 women. Then they started following around housewives, and then young people from the Jersey Shore. All of a sudden, normal people were trying to be just quirky enough to get a show on TV about their lives. Then, they would become famous after being known for being regular people.

Then came the modern era of famous. All of sudden, you can be a stupid kid doing toy reviews on YouTube, or a stupid couple that does stupid pranks on Tik Tok, or a girl that does their makeup on Instagram, or a stupid kid playing video games all day on Twitch and the kids of today mention their favorite famous Youtubers, Tik Toker, or Twitcher.

The getting famous part has always been the same in a way in that you have to find a way to gain attention, and you have to grind hard enough to maintain the fame. The only real difference now is the different number of platforms to gain the attention.

Speaking of attention, the modern platforms make the big money by getting people to find and stay on their platforms. The longer they have you on the platform, the more chances they have to barrage you with advertising. Recently, they figured out that they could replicate what TV did with reality shows. For some reason, people loved watching other regular people doing their everyday lives.

They discovered that if they allowed people to “live stream” other people would watch them, for hours and hours. Every once in a while, I’ve found a good reason to watch someone “live stream”. But most of the time, I don’t. But kids have the time, and they love watching other people do normal things. Or nothing at all.

There are literally people that live stream themselves sleeping, and people will watch them. We live in a wild world. I imagine it would be quite a shock if our great grandparents were plopped into this world and saw what we did everyday.

They wouldn’t know what to make of us. Speaking of my great grandparents, two years ago, I went to my visit the land of my ancestors, Scotland, and that was a trip I will never forget. I got to visit the home where they lived, and the mill they worked in across the street.

Now that is a life I would watch a live stream of. He was famous in his day, because he owned a tavern. He hosted meetings at his tavern about how to rebel against the oppressive English people. When they found out he was hosting rebel meetings, he was arrested and spent 9 weeks in the Sterling Castle (one of the places in the Braveheart movie). I got to visit that very castle and saw where he would have spent nine weeks. I would have gone crazy. It was cold and dark and miserable. I could not be more proud of a guy that spent time in prison for rebelling against the English. He was so mad after he got out, that he fled to America. Thankfully he did, so I could grow up in America.

When I visited the home he lived in, there was a nice little stream next the house. While my sisters and my dad were busy doing unimportant things like taking pictures of his house and mill, I was busy down the street recording the fast-moving stream next to their house.

I was LIVE STREAMING. Get it?

I’m sure that the man who spent 9 weeks in prison, and risked his life fighting the English, would of course find that funny. I’m sure he would have done the same thing if he knew what live streaming was. I’m sure he would have appreciated one of his ancestors coming back to his home 200 years later, only to record the stream next to his house, and say that he was live streaming.

and fleeing Scotland because of the oppression of the English fought for a life of freedom by moving to America, would be so proud that a guy baring his last name many generations later would return to his ancestral home years later…just so he could live stream the stream next to his house.

I’m almost positive that I could see his face laughing heartily at the dad joke I did right next to his house. You can tell by the photos they had of him. His face was pretty dour, but I just imagine in the 12 hours it took to take a picture back then, in between takes, he was cracking jokes about the English and their muffins.

I bet he would be excited to see how all the sacrifices he made to get to America, weren’t in vain. I bet he would love to watch the live stream of me taking advantage of my freedom like all the time I spend playing video games, posting funny memes on Instagram, and making hilarious posts on my blog.

He would be so proud.

He would be even more proud of the Bitter Friday Giftures that I post each week that are almost like live streaming, except they just keep repeating the best parts…

When I was a Bitter Young Man…

Tim Allen…

And Jim Carrey…

Just to get a five minute gig…

Or David Letterman…

Then came reality shows…

Or normal people from…

Or crazy housewives from wherever…

Now people get famous from…

Dancing…

And streaming…

But I would find it much more fascinating…

For instance…

But I’m sure he would have loved…

ARRRRRGGGHHHHHH

Bitter Live Stream Ben