If one is wondering what club hoppers and mall hoppers are doing during the lockdown, they have been busier than ever. They have shifted focus to ‘live hopping’. The current lockdown owing to the novel Coronavirus has given birth to this new trend of hanging out. The live hoppers are mostly seen checking out one live session after the other. It’s similar to club hopping, only, here you are doing it virtually. Often, they end up ‘bumping’ into their friends as well. “With nowhere to go, seeing friends in the virtual space at the same time brings some excitement,” admits Naren Pal Singh, a Hyderabad-based club owner.
A member of the Chef at Large food community was heard saying, “I am busier than ever,” to her friends and followers of the group during her cooking session. When they ask how, she says, “Too many live sessions to follow”.
If you are wondering how this is possible, then hang out on Instagram after 8 pm. The live session notifications will have you spoilt for choice. If you are lucky, you might even get a chance to say hello to your favourite Hollywood/Bollywood actors who drop by for a short live session during their workout. For instance, on Thursday night, Ranveer Singh said hello to his fans during a surprise live session, while taking a break from his evening workout.
“With nothing much to do, live sessions are keeping me busy; I just need to see live notifications in the afternoon and post dinner and I am right there,” says Umesh Kumar, a hairstylist who follows beauty and hair styling pages.
How interesting are these sessions? “It depends on who we are following. I jumped onto the live session by @doodleodrama and loved the way the host Mounica Tata, illustrator and cartoonist, made it interactive. She sang ‘Dooba Dooba Rehta Hoon’ by Silk Route with her ukulele and even invited her followers to go live with her and sing along,” says Manasa Pratap, a creative assistant with a Hyderabad-based architecture house. The same day, she did a live sketch session on Instagram.
Why attend live sessions when you can video call and chat with your friends? “It is not always about chatting. I love these live sessions as I am learning a lot more than usual. Arts and crafts are my go-to pages when I feel bored and creative at the same time. Whether or not I put that learning to use is a topic for another day,” laughs Rashmi Rekha, a software consultant.
Though live sessions are a thing for now, keeping the audience engaged depends a lot on who is going live and the viewer’s choice of content.