The Real Reason Pokimane Is Leaving The Offline TV House
"Content houses" are a phenomenon particularly unique to the YouTube-slash-streaming lifestyle. Can you imagine sharing a home with the people you work with every day? That's essentially what happens in a content house. Everyone who lives there makes videos together. They bounce ideas off of one another. It's kind of like a frat house for internet celebrities. And for a long while, popular Twitch streamer Pokimane has lived in one.
Pretty soon, that'll no longer be the case.
Last Friday, Pokimane published a video letting the world know she'll eventually be moving out of the Offline TV house, which she's lived in for the past three years. Your mind might immediately jump to the worst place, assuming there's possibly some drama between Pokimane and other Offline TV stars. You can rest assured — at least from Pokimane's perspective, anyway — that isn't the case at all.
Instead, Pokimane is after some much-needed balance.
"[...] I'm having some trouble balancing work and life," she told viewers, "and also how I fit in with the culture in Los Angeles. And because of that, I've made the very difficult decision to move to Canada."
Canada? Before you go marching against our neighbor to the north, you should know that last part was a joke. Pokimane is not actually moving to Canada, but is instead moving in with some of her female friends in a nearby place. She'll still be around the Offline TV house for work-related activities. But it seems Poki wants to keep her non-work hours in a place that's a little less related to, well, work.
Pokimane did go out of her way to acknowledge all the fun she had at the Offline TV home, however.
"As amazing of an experience as that was — and I wouldn't trade it for anything — I do feel like it is kind of time for me to try something new," she said.
We can't really blame her for the move, to be honest. After all, as convenient as the content houses are for the YouTubers and streamers who call them home, they probably do interfere with work-life balance. If Pokimane streams from her room and sleeps in that same room, it's likely tough to draw the line between work time and leisure time.
That could lead to a feeling that work never really ends, which is a sentiment anyone who is temporarily telecommuting right now can probably relate to.
Not only that, but it probably goes without saying that those content houses have a negative stigma attached to them, whether that's fair or not. There haven't been any stories about Offline TV parties going off the rails, but if you tell everyone you live in a big house with all your friends and make content all day, they might immediately assume you're like Jake Paul. That is — they'll probably assume you're a "public nuisance" and all your neighbors hate you.
Pokimane's news does really make you wonder how sustainable the whole "content house" concept is in the grand scheme. There's the whole work-life balance situation, which Poki identifies as her reason for wanting to move to a different place. It's the same reason Valkyrae gave for moving out of the 100 Thieves content house, too.
You have to imagine, though, that living in such a house makes having a normal life almost impossible. Dating is likely tough, unless your significant other is ready to become a YouTube or Twitch celebrity at any moment's notice. If you want to get married or have kids, you have to think about how that life will instantly become intertwined with your job.
And what if you decide to leave that job? You have to move, right? It's not automatically a given for most people that they have to uproot themselves upon leaving a gig. But moving into a content house means you're all-in on whatever organization you're working with. If you decide to move on, you'll literally be doing just that.
So what's next for Pokimane? It's not entirely clear when the streamer will be moving in with her girlfriends, or if she's already started the process and will be in her new home sooner rather than later. It does seem she's intent on following through with the move, though, so the Offline TV house will be down one member. Perhaps Pokimane will create a Facebook post to find her replacement. It wouldn't be the first time.
In any case, the streamer will be otherwise be keeping things the same for the time being. If we rustle up some more news on Pokimane, we'll be sure to let you know.